Generation War: Near Dead

The first movie created entirely on a desktop computer...at least, that's what its creator claims

• Generation War: Near Dead
• Not rated
• Starring Carolyn Humphrey, Richard Kirkwood
• PC CD-ROM
• $14.95 Internet offer

y the year 2025, the United States has gone bust. The world has shifted to an information-based economy, and an aging U.S. populace can't keep up. World powers now consist of offshore data havens and small, data-rich countries. The states are left with a social security system gone awry, where young people are forced to serve seven years of mandatory national service to support the near dead -- the aged and infirm.

But there are some free zones where renegade delinquents, or Delinks, rule their own fate. The Delinks travel in gangs and dodge Youth Control patrols to stay free, but they are not always successful. When a young Delink named Scrounger gets picked up by a roving YouCon patrol, she is sentenced to serve time at a medical research facility that specializes in life extension. But the center is a notorious black hole for Delinks, swallowing up the young and returning only rejuvenated near deads who are politically connected. Now Scrounger's friends, led by the scrappy Zone, must save her from mysterious doctors who appear to be trading young lives for old...

Writer/director/producer Phil Flora claims Generation War is the first feature-length movie created entirely on desktop computers. The movie comes on a CD-ROM and runs under the Windows environment in the standard Video for Windows format. All of the live action scenes were filmed against screens and directly digitized to the desktop, where the scenery and special effects were added. The process, done entirely on conventional PCs, gives the movie a unique look and feel that's, well, different from other movies.

But while Generation War may be a wonderful technical achievement, it unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired as a movie. The back plot and the history of Earth in 2025 are well thought out and intriguing, but the movie itself deals very little with these aspects. In fact, the bulk of the movie consists of the same three actors roaming up and down 3-D rendered hallways, searching for their missing friends. To add insult to injury, it's the same hallway every time. Sure, viewers are told it's a different hallway on a different level of the building, but most will be savvy enough to know different.

Considering this is a low-budget special, the actors do a remarkable job working with homemade props and no sets. But there is only so much that can be done with so little, and ultimately the plot isn't enough to support an hour and 15 minutes of viewing at 640 x 480 pixels. If this were a half-hour movie shot on state-of-the-art machinery, it would still be bad. But Flora has nonetheless achieved something noteworthy here, and it will be interesting to see what he produces in the future.

Phil has good ideas and an interesting technique, but he needs to find a better way to bring them together. -- Craig E.

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