Time to continue with the old end of the world story, and Roman Emmerich's at it again. Well, to be fair, he's only a producer on this film, the film is directed by Tim Fehlbaum on his directorial debut. Can he bring about a new take on the end of the world? Or will Emmerich give Fehlbaum some tips? Well let's step into 'Hell' and find out. By the way, yes, 'Hell' means 'bright' in German.
We find ourselves in 2015 and the atmosphere has broken down from solar flares. This has resulted in the planet heating up by ten degrees Celsius, and resources are scarce. Okay, already I'm calling bullshit. If Earth's atmosphere was destroyed by solar flares, well, the planet would heat up, but I'm pretty sure to the point of "Oh my God my skin is melting". Anyway, we follow Marie (Hannah Herzsprung), her lover Phillip (Lars Eidinger), her sister Leonie (Lisa Vicari), and a new follower Tom (Stipe Erceg). They're struggling to survive in a world where civilisation has collapsed.
The problem with the story is it doesn't fully explore the concept. It says resources are scarce and yet the main characters are never seen struggling; they seem to have loads of water and food, and when they run out of fuel they conveniently find a fuel station which has LOADS. Which is quite bizarre seeing as how the world ended, you'd have thought that the fuel would've been used up or rare. Hell, (No pun intended), the hostile people don't seem that threatening. We find they have a hunting ground, and yet when our heroes give chase they seem to walk miles. Then again, even the film forgets every so often that the world is in peril, such as why does one person need protective headgear when outside, yet another runs out perfectly fine?
Heck we see a bird flying perfectly in a scene where Phillip burns his hand on the car. If the planet's temperature gone up by ten degrees Celsius, then surely ALL plant life, you know, trees and grass, would be dead, and yet we see grass and the trees just look like they've lost their leaves. Not only that, but there are chunks which feel they don't seem to go anywhere. Most of the time the scene feels like filler with no destination in sight. I'm not saying there isn't a resolution, but it just drags on and on. That being said the story has some moments which are pretty well thought out, just not given much depth.
With that in mind the camera shots and music are well done. The camera shots convey the brightness superbly, showing just how dangerous the world is, and the music manages to convey the tension and desperation of the scenes.
The acting is pretty good, the problem is, again, they're not really fleshed out. The lead, Hannah Herzsprung, certainly grows on you as the film goes. The others manage to adequately portray their roles, but in hindsight there's nothing spectacular. In all honesty, it's the characters that are the problems.
The characters just plod along until hostile forces come along, until then there's really nothing of note. The two male characters hardly emote which actually makes it hard to differentiate the two, so later in the film it's actually confusing which one's which. I tend to forget that Leonie exists, the only reminder being Marie mentioning her name every so often. Marie herself, I must admit, there's nothing really to say, she seems to more or less remind us of other characters who look for loved ones during the end of days.
Thinking about it, it's not a bad film, but it's not exactly that good either. The characters aren't that memorable and the plot needs fleshing out, but the film does have its moments, in particular showing how far humanity will go to survive, the acting is pretty good, while the cinematography and music are great. As a directorial debut, Tim Fehlbaum does a pretty good job, he certainly has the potential to help bring together some great films. It's just a shame this one wasn't fully explored.
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