Domain

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There are a couple of problems with the trajectory of this story, but I will not be covering that because it would ruin the story. All I will say is there is a central plot point, which is highly unlikely once you get the full picture of the story. Does this make the film less enjoyable? I don't think so. The story is engaging because of the characters, and thankfully there is little painful over explanation by the characters to tell the backstory necessary for this kind of story, in fact there are some well-done expository moments in here that break up the monotony of the single setting. Keep in mind, this isn't a fast paced film and the tension while there, is not as high as some might like, so avoid if you don't like slow-paced films, but the acting is actually quite good here, and the characters, even though they are not extremely fleshed out, partially due to the nature of the story, are interesting. I would call this a largely character-based narrative. I also think especially with recent events the appeal of a story where people chose to be quarantined for an undefined amount of time due to a plague that has wiped out the worlds population, might have a little more appeal than it would have last year. I have watched many of these "single room" science fictions stories, be it "Cube", "Coherence", "Infinity Room", "Fermat's Room", "White Room", "The Exam", "Circle", and every single of those is a low-budget character-based dialogue driven film, except the awful White Room, The acting is better in "Domain" than each of the other afformentioned films(Coherence is the next best acting wise). In fact, I have seen Ryan Merriaman in several TV shows and films, and was quite surprised at the nuance and the way he handled his character, who he could have easily over-acted, but he kept it quite subdued, in the best way possible, to say more would ruin it. I actually really appreciate him as an actor now and believe he deserves much larger roles. Again, if you like science fiction, particularly of the low-budget variety, there is much to like here. It isn't gonna blow your mind, but it is a solid story with some interesting ideas, and some of the best acting I have ever seen in a low budget film, it was refreshing to see for someone who watches a lot of low budget films. Note, this movie is not for children, it has foul language, a good deal of violence, and there is some minor sexual content, if that bugs you, though you can skip ahead a minute or 2. God Bless ~Amy

This movie was clearly inspired by the Fallout video game series. In a nutshell, Vault Tech builds hundreds of gigantic nuclear fallout shelters (Vaults) to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear war. Unbeknownst to the occupants the true purpose of the Vaults is to conduct inhumane experiments on the survivors to better understand how to rebuild society. I think this was more congruent with the original intention of the Screen Play, but something prevented the movie makers from completing the story as they intended. The actual twist provided in the movie makes little sense in the context of the psychological stresses we see inflicted on the prisoners: -torture through sleep deprivation; -the psychological tension between an isolated group of 5 men and only 2 women; -the psychological stress of 6 people being ostensibly sane and one party member being an admitted serial killer. -Several suicides that are allowed to happen despite the prisoners being under constant surveillance. So many elements of the story point to the intended purpose of the experiment to inflict psychological stress on these prisoners for some nefarious purpose that was written out of the screen play. But the biggest let down of the ending was the lame hand waving away of the most egregious plot-hole: Nadine tells Phoenix and Denver that all the prisoners were hand picked because they were expected not to be honest about their past an therefore not clue the group into the fact that they were all convicted felons... what? if you put 7 people into isolation for 5 years with NOTHING to do but talk to each other - the conversation will eventually happen. We're talking about putting these people in an environment where they will forge strong emotional connections - telling secrets will eventually be a form of bonding they share. The ending we received in the end seemed bland, ad hoc and anti-climactic when put in the context of all the aforementioned clues. But either way. It was well acted. The characters were all distinct and the set was design was adequate and the twist was not completely obvious. 5 out of 10

Decent, but not great. Something to watch late at night to make you sleepy. Not the greatest acting, but not the worst. One that bugged me was when they get tased toward the end, it knocks them out. That's not how getting tased works, it stings like an s.o.b. and you become more awake REAL quick!