Critique of Escape Plan Film - Essay Example

Task: Escape Plan Fandango Movie Theater was fully packed with audience who were eager to watch the movie, Escape plan. It felt good hearing the reaction of the audience and getting a sense of what it was like being in the movie theater at the time when watching one of the best action movies ever made. It was fun watching the movie in a theater full of people, with whom we had similar interests. In the theatre, I noticed a number of friends and classmates who had also come to watch the movie. Some of them noticed me too, and the feeling was great. I attended the movie with a friend who never stopped talking about the happenings in the movie. His talking added fun to the movie watching experience. I watched the movie in the middle of the week when I had no homework. It was on the opening night of the movie and the mood of the audience was jovial. I fitted in the crowd since most of the audiences were young and fell under my age group. It felt comfortable watching the movie from the theatre due to the luxurious state of the theatre: it was loaded with comfortable reclining leather seats and it provided an enjoyable atmosphere, suitable for movie watching. An important part of the film’s critique is how the director holds the attention of the audience. In the film, Escape Plan, the director succeeds in manipulating the pace of the film. He shows expertise in switching between scenes where the camera is still as characters have long conversations and fast camera works where there is a lot of action. When the film slows down, the audiences become aware of how long even a minute of their time in the theatre can seem. When the pace of the actors in the film picks up, time is compressed and the audiences do not notice the minute passing. With these changes, the director holds the attention of the audience, making them forget where they are. The huge screen and the sound system support the attempts of the director to take the audience into the world of the film. The movie, Escape plan, is directed by Mikael Hafstrom and written by Jason Keller. It is about Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallion) who is the world’s leading artist of prison escape and is hired to show correctional facilities and security weaknesses of prisons by breaking out of them. He is a man who has dedicated his life to ensuring that prisons are inescapable places by moving into a prison as an inmate and trying to break out. The final assignment assigned to him is to escape from an uncharted facility for holding criminals. A woman, Jessica Miller, who claims to be working in the CIA, approaches Stallion to tell him that a newly constructed maximum security prison, for incarcerating the worst criminals, was about to be launched. She requests him to go and ensure that the prison is well secured and that no one could escape from the prison. Ray agrees to the request. They make necessary preparations in which Ray is briefed on who the warden of the prison is and he is given a code that will identify him as not being a convict. He is also planted with a tracer which was to show the warden that he is indeed not a convict. However, when Ray is picked up, the tracer is removed by the ones who pick him up. On arriving at the prison, he realizes that the warden in charge is different from the one he was told. Ray mentions the code to him but he claims not to recognize it. Ray realizes that this was not a job, but a set up by someone with intentions of having him locked up forever. He tries to find a way out of the prison. To achieve his mission, he needs help. He makes friendship with, Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), his fellow prisoner, with whom they plan to work together to find a way out of the prison. However, Ray finds out how hard their mission is since they are on a ship, sailing in the Atlantic Ocean. The setting of the movie is in a modern prison environment with ruthless wardens and high-tech cabins for holding prisoners inside. The themes of the movie are betrayal and violence. Ray is betrayed by Jessica and the shooting, fighting, torture of inmates by wardens and bloodshed portray the violence theme. Escape Plan is an action-based movie and the performance of the actors, Ray and Rottmeyer, keeps the brains of the audience busy and gives them the urge to continue watching the movie. The grey prison costumes dressed by the main actors in the movie contribute to the setting of the movie. All camera angles and positions are employed in shooting the movie: low camera angle, high camera angle, close up, extreme close-up, tilted camera. The different camera positions and angles assist the audience in obtaining a clear understanding of the setting of the movie. The movie makes use of high sound and visual effects which plays a role in stimulating reality in the movie (Ndalianis 38). Even though the reality created by the sound effects in the movie contradicts what is known to the audience, it compels them to believe it. For instance, the audiences are aware that gun shots do not sound as satisfyingly long or loud in reality as they do in the movie, Escape Plan. The sound effects also help the editor to create the different moods experienced in the movie. The movie is presented in an authorial voice with the purpose of entertaining the audience. The story line of the movie is experienced by the viewers of the movie and it is purposed to catch their attention as they watch the video. The movie is made up of high technologies and the actors in the film use hard words in their language. The movie glorifies stereotype and the setting and some of its characters are exaggerated. Work Cited Ndalianis, Angela. Science Fiction Experiences. Washington, D.C: New Academia Pub, 2011. Print. Read More