Citizen Able

Able Edwards (Graham Robertson,2004)


Able Edwards is the first film to be shot entirely on green screen. It's in the Guinness books of records, the real deal. This film being executive produced by Mr. Soderbergh and directed by first time filmmaker Graham Robertson left me kind of interested. I'm always up for an interesting sounding film that is about to break ground in the cinema world so this one had my name all over it.

The plot is like Citizen Kane but instead of a newspaper mogul we get someone that is reminiscent of Walt Disney. Did i mention that it takes place in the future and they have to clone this guy? Yeah, this movie's plot is awesome. The biggest weakness is the execution of the film. The filmmakers seem to be more on the lets just make the first film entirely on green screen then making a decent film.

The character's never really get to take off except for Able but then again he is the main one to look at. Everyone else is simply telling his story just like in Citizen Kane. It's very interesting to watch Able because he's a nice guy but also an asshole at the same time. It's interesting but not rounded out.

The budget was i believe under one million dollars but i could be wrong. The look of the film is dated but a kind of cool dated unlike when you see some CGI from a long time ago. We know this film isn't going to be spectacular with the spaceships and they don't quite have that retro feel but yet it doesn't look retarded.

Able Edwards has such a great premise to it that you can't help but make up the film that you wish to see. The filmmakers just didn't know what they had going for them. They were to caught up in being the first green screen movie then actually trying to make a good film first.

Grade C