Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I’ve just finished watching Man From Earth: Holocene and this is less a review than a warning. The original film was a fitting demonstration of a writer at the top of his form. Jerome Bixby’s script was a skilled piece of technical work that broke the rules when it came to what we expect in the way a story is told on film. Instead of a plot driven more visually, we have one made of dialogue and character, with a single setting. It succeeds brilliantly when it really shouldn’t. In many ways, the characters are the film. They are real, three dimensional creations of flesh and blood. They act like real people because they are real people on the page and brought to life by an excellent cast. Schenkman wisely doesn’t fight the way the story is told, but embraces it, not afraid of something that resembles a stage play as much as a movie. The result is a small film imbued with the kind of magic that has so endeared it to most who have seen it. It’s a deeply felt film, filled with humanity. Sadly, Man From Earth: Holocene is none of these things. Where the first film was an intimate evening of wonders, almost a modern day telling of tales around the campfire, this sequel is an attempt at creating a more traditional and less imaginative kind of storytelling, something familiar and mundane. The script has none of the elegance of the original. It comes nowhere near the cleverness and art of Jerome Bixby’s writing. Instead, it is plot-heavy and given to laziness where necessarily to drive the events forward. Need to get into John’s house? Conveniently, the front door is unlocked and nobody’s home. Creation of the characters is lazy, too, relying on cliché and flat, unnatural dialogue. The new characters show no depth; they exist only as devices to drive the story. Instead of developing and evolving, they change fast enough to cause whiplash. Isabel, filled with intellectual curiosity at the possibility that a 14,000 year-old-man actually exists, suddenly pivots in the third act to someone who wants to follow and worship him. The other two students are even worse. Philip is a literal Christian who denies that John could be Jesus, then needs John to admit it before sliding into an almost psychotic break (the type usually seen in movies of the week) with a big knife and a final conviction that John isn’t Christ, but the antichrist. Liko is even worse – an attempt at a ‘typical’ kid whose only real function is to act as fifth business to keep John from running. The remaining characters are little more than ciphers, the only exception being a familiar face showing up later in the film (not William Katt). Sadly, tragically, the character that suffers the most is the one that was so beloved from the original film – John Oldman. David Lee Smith brings as much as he can to the role, but there’s really nothing there for him to work with. The focus of the story should be the fact that John is changing, starting to age. This should be a momentous event in his life, shining a light on a part of his soul that has lain fallow for thousands of years. There is never been an end to the path he’s walked. Until now. The mystery of his long life now transitions to the mystery of why, now, it’s all coming to an end. With that introspection would also come a new way of looking at those around him. Where before they were transitory blips on his journey, he is finally forced to walk with them. He once stood outside of time. Time has now reclaimed him. The dramatic potential is huge, but is never explored. Instead, Richard Schenkman and Emerson Bixby opt to create a third rate descendant of any number of TV shows like The Fugitive or The Incredible Hulk where the main character wanders from one locale and set of character each week. And if you doubt that this is what they have in mind, wait for the ham-fisted scene following the end credits. As I said, this is less a review than a warning. If you love Man From Earth, pass this one by as it tarnishes the original…