PLOT: Coma patients find themselves in a visually stunning world of shared memories, where life is substantially prolonged. But they're also hunted by monstrous creatures called Reapers.
REVIEW: Director Nikita Argunov's Russian sci-fi adventure film COMA (WATCH IT HERE / BUY IT HERE) drops viewers right into the action. There is no build-up, there's no way for us to prepare for what we're about to see. We meet an architect named Viktor (Rinal Mukhametov) as he wakes up in a strange world where some kind of dark substance appears to be eating away at structures and the people he crosses paths with. He runs out into the street and sees a sight reminiscent of scenes from INCEPTION and DOCTOR STRANGE; the sight of a world folding in on itself, gravity defying locations from around the globe visible in all directions. There's Big Ben hanging down from the sky, right next to a sideways Empire State Building jutting out of nowhere. And if that weren't crazy and confusing enough to Viktor, who has clearly never seen this world before, he then gets attacked by a shadowy, monstrous creature we'll find out is called a Reaper.
Viktor is saved from the Reaper by a squad of soldiers – including Lyubov Aksyonova as Fly – and a chase sequence begins, the Reaper pursuing the people through this topsy turvy world. A jump straight down off a broken stairway leads to them sliding down a street in China, they run through a doorway and they're in Venice, where they jump out over the water and find themselves falling upward onto a rooftop in some other place. It's exciting, it's visually stunning, it's really clever, and it's clear that the filmmakers had a healthy budget at their disposal.
It's not long before we find out why the movie is called COMA. Viktor and everyone else in this world are actually in a coma; everybody who is in a coma comes to this place, which has been constructed based on their memories. That's why there are locations from all over mixed together, and why there are gaps or incongruities in the surroundings. There are gaps in memories, and different people have different memories of the same thing. The soldiers Viktor has been rescued by live a post-apocalyptic lifestyle, stuck in a war with the Reapers, who can turn the people they touch into one of them. Luckily, these soldiers they don't just have guns and grenades to fight their enemies with. Reminiscent of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS, some of the characters here have their own special abilities. Phantom (Anton Pampushnyy) has superhuman strength and speed, Spirit (Polina Kuzminskaya) can conjure up "ghosts" of people to fool their enemies with, Astronomer (Milos Bikovic) is able to map out the coma world, Fly can heal wounds, etc. Now Viktor has to figure out what his special ability is. The group is led by Konstantin Lavronenko as Yan, and he is how they know they're all in a coma. He woke up from his coma at one point, then came back with the information, including the news that one day in waking reality is at least one hundred days to someone in the coma world. If Viktor is in his coma for a long time, there's a chance he could end up living a thousand years in the coma world.
COMA feels like a blend of INCEPTION, DREAM WARRIORS, and THE MATRIX, and its standout sequence comes roughly one-third of the way into it, when the soldiers raid a well-guarded building where they can stock up on explosives. This is the most fun the movie ever gets, offering the sight of the soldiers battling armed security guards in the twisted geography of the coma world; characters firing guns at people who are standing upside down on ground above their head, objects being tossed from the gravity of one level into the gravity of another. Viewers may think that this is just a precursor to a climactic action sequence that will be even bigger and better, that the explosives the soldiers gather here are going to be of great importance later on. But that's not the case. After this, COMA subverts expectations, reveals further information, and becomes something different in the second half. Something more psychological. This sort of action never comes back into play, which I found disappointing.
The first half of the film is fascinating, I was totally invested as I watched Viktor figure out the rules of this world and get caught up in big action scenes. The second half is slower and more low-key, and I wasn't quite as enthralled by it anymore. It was still interesting and enjoyable, but I was hoping for more than what it had to offer. However, I could see other viewers getting pulled in even more once that midway-or-so shift happens.
The second half may be divisive, but overall COMA is an impressive feature directorial debut for VFX artist Argunov, who also wrote the screenplay with Timofei Dekin and Aleksey Gravitskiy. This movie feels massive, almost on par with a Hollywood blockbuster, and it's packed with dazzling visuals. I would encourage fans of sci-fi action / adventure movies to check it out, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Argunov will do next.
Dark Sky Films is giving COMA a Blu-ray and DVD release on August 4th. Copies can be ordered at THIS LINK.