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People are voting emotionally.

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

CHRYSALIS is that rarest of things: a French SF film. It's about a cop in the near future who hunts for the man who killed his partner cum lover only to stumble across a medical conspiracy. It's a glossy but ultimately unrewarding thriller, which feels longer than its short 90 minute running time for the simple reason that the characters are opaque and the plot predictable (I guessed the end twist around the halfway mark). Unsurprisingly, the richest and most bourgeois white character is the villain. The shiny aesthetic, minimal dialogue, stock characters and brutal fights are effective in their own genre fashion but the absence of heart, humour and humanity leaves it feeling empty. The cast is a fabulous collection of handsome skinhead coppers, sleekly pale women and brutish ape-like Eastern European criminals but they all have too little to do. Watching the documentary features makes the failure understandable: the director was so intent on creating complex, highly technical shots that he simply paid no attention to the writing.

All connoisseurs and other snobs know that between 1960 and 1980 French cinema was miles ahead of Hollywood. Directors like Melville knew that they could not compete on special effects etcetera because of the smaller budgets. They took the only possible course: do what Hollywood doesn't dare to do. Chrysalis breaks the Hollywood conventions as well and still stands firm in the French tradition. The pale colours remind us of classics like Le Samourai; the Hoffmann character could have been played by Alain Delon in his heydays. Dialogues are minimalistic and therefor highly effective. The two story lines first are independent and gradually merge. Montage between the two is brilliant; every scene makes you longing for the next one. Only halfway the meaning of the opening scene is partly revealed; only near the end you will understand it fully. So some patience and a bigger attention span than average is demanded - and rewarded. The movie has two weak points. First of all there is the plot. Probably I am not fair, but I find it hard to accept the plots of Robocop and Terminator as well. Never will movies like that get more than 8 stars. Second I find the Hoffmann character not that convincing anymore after his "accident". Don't take my criticism too hard. Deviating from the Hollywood norm involves risks so should be praised. Chrysalis is highly entertaining and intriguing, unless you prefer the standard, brainless and predictable stuff. And never I have seen such cold scenery.

Scifi action film about a cop investigating murders tied to the death of his partner. All roads lead to a weird institute where weird experiments involving memory are taking place.Its a been there and done that sort of a film, especially if you watch any number of dystopian scifi films. What strikes me as kind of sad was that the film often feels like its standing in front of you waving at you in a pathetic attempt to make you think you haven't seen this before. The film's case cover mentions that the action sequences were from the person responsible for the action in the Bourne films, and that maybe the case but the director doesn't shoot it with any sense of Bourne's style and the result is further boredom.Not worth your time.

I knew very little from this movie before seeing it and was very pleasantly surprised. The actors and the direction are great, while the art direction is stunning. There are two disappointing cases of main characters having the stupid but apart from that the scenario is pretty solid too.I'm pretty disappointed not to be hearing about this movie a little more because it definitely deserves more recognition than it is getting now. Overall this movie is a great blend of drama and awesome action scenes while also having a fair bit of humor, and I would heartily recommend it to any movie-goer. It's also nice to see Guy Lecluyse getting some scenes for those who've heard about him, I thought he was great in that role.