Drsný spasitel

If an amateur community-funded film succeeds with a screening outside the circle of its creators and their friends, then it is a success already. Drsný spasitel will withstand this baptism by fire. And it surprisingly avoids even unintentionally ridiculous moments, with the exception of a few. And some of the ridiculous moments that are present stem basically without exception from the horribly inappropriately used post-synchrons (it doesn't matter that they are amateur, but what matters is that they are sloppy; they don’t fit into the given environment in terms of sound, they don’t fit the characters, etc.) and in general from the uncertain vocal expressions of the majority of the participants. Everything looks rough, everyone looks like that and... And then they start talking. And it makes you smile unintentionally. However, the visuals, “junktown" costumes, music, animated inserts and similar features are not bad at all. Nor is the pacing. However, it holds together and enthusiasm can eliminate most of the understandable flaws. Apart from the aforementioned flaws, the only significant (but fundamental) complaint is that the creators extremely overuse elements of “we don't know how to show motivations or plot, or how to portray this or that, so we just let them read it from the script through an internal monologue or narrator". For a fan film, unlike in the case of a "real film" one would understand this here and there, but not to such an extent. And the monologues also depict things that could have been realized “inexpensively" through dialogue. (07/11/2019)

As long as the characters don't talk, it's pretty good. It's just that the characters start talking too soon. And in dead earnest (or just dead), so the result is about the same as Guns and Powder. I mean, not much, except that the filmmakers certainly had a good time. However, the animated opening was fine, and I wouldn’t have minded if the entirety of Rough Savior had been animated (and considerably shorter). (04/03/2020)