Where Does Ink Draw The Line?

INK (DVD)
4Digital Media Ltd/Metrodome 

Release date: April 25th 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 107 mins

Year of production: 2009

Director: Jamin Winans

Cast: Christopher S. Kelly, Quinn Hunchar, Jessica Duffy, Jennifer Batter, Jeremy Make, Eme Ikwuakor, Shelby Malone, Shannan Steele, Steve Sealy, Steven Brown

Its blurb reads similar to that of my beloved Night Watch series, written by Sergei Lukyanenko and adapted into film by Timur Bekmambetov. A battle rages between good and bad and the souls of humankind are up for grabs by the best fighter.

In present day North America, John (Chris Kelly) is one stressed out business man, rushing to his car before being involved in an accident. In a dream sequence, so indicated by the signature heavy saturation of bright light, he plays begrudgingly with his young daughter, Emma (Quinn Hunchar).

Later, she is kidnapped by Ink, a shadowy figure dressed in rags, despite the efforts of many Storytellers, the good guys, hanging out in her room.

Let the rescue mission commence…

The story is very broad, and very general in a roundabout kind of way. There is no central character, despite it bearing the title of a villain. The story moves from the Storytellers, to the villainous Incubi, back to John, and to Emma who now straddle both planes of space, time, or whatever it is. This is conveniently but unconvincingly explained away as ‘time doesn’t work the same here’. OK, thanks for that. The fantasy world isn’t explained well, barely at all, yet it lacks so much that it hinders the rest of the story.

The broad view of the plot means that the audience is unable to connect emotionally with any of the characters. There isn’t the time or the substance of character to understand why Liev (Jennifer Duffy) is so willing to put her life on the line to save Emma, to see why Allel (Jennifer Batter) is so desperate to prove herself, and we don’t even begin to get into the distraught head of John until more than half way through the film.

When Liev tells Emma she’s a lioness, it’s impossible to tell whether she actually is or she’s just trying to bolster the kid’s confidence. Either way, this leads to more questions which simply remain unanswered.

The twist could be spotted a mile off, but I remain baffled as to why they didn’t focus on this issue more, and instead fluff around with unimportant minor conflicts between secondary characters, such Allel and Jacob.

There isn’t a back story given to the opposing sides of light and dark which leaves the conflict a bit flat. It almost feels like they’re doing a really long set-up, an introduction to a series of sequels perhaps, though the movie rounds off nicely with no loose threads to pull for an Ink 2, other than ‘what is the deal with Ink’s giant nose?’

Visually, Ink often is over saturated with light, hugely bright with high contrasts. I understand that they’re doing it to indicate the dream sequences, but it gets to be grating because they do it so much.

The freeze frames in the fight scenes stunt the action, as thought they’re covering up for not having been choreographed that well. The wardrobe is half tribal and half space cowboy, standard fantasy fare much like that of Firefly, and this is part of the problem.

Ink is unable to find its focus, so ultimately, doesn’t stand out from the crowd.

It aims to cover a lot, too much, and the overall result is a rather empty movie, barely scratching the surfaces of numerous characters without going in depth with one, or the plot in general. I can’t help but feel like it would have made a better graphic novel.

Special features were not available to review at this time.