Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

After reading the divergent opinions about this movie I realized I had to see it for myself in order to know if it's a waste of time or the opposite.My conclusion had to be: it is not.Although I can imagine people describing the plot as unlikely, I wouldn't consider it unrealistic. The movie itself is more of a case-study of a certain chain of events, showing different aspects and effects. I would definitely say it was interesting and appropriate for expressing an idea: that technology will certainly change the shape of future life.

I too was one of the unfortunate few people who had to suffer through this "movie", during a sneak preview night. Well at least the first 30-45 minutes of it, because that was when me and my mate left.I just can comment on the production value and the crafting, because until the moment I left I still had no idea what was going on in this movie. I only learned what it was actually about after skimming through the plot on the internet. Apparently some intellectuals try to make the world a better place. Watching the first 30 minutes it never occurred to me, that I was watching a bunch of intellectuals. It looked more like a bunch of students and stereotype bad guys. None of the actors left any impression what so ever on me or stood out. They all seemed pretty generic and replaceable.The production value appeared to be pretty low in general. Some scenes looked like they were shot in the actual living rooms of the "actors". Whole scenes looked like they were taken directly from youtube. At least they had the look and feel of some youtube videos. Some scenes were set in some kind of fancy chat room, that looked like an out-of-box after effects effect. In those scenes all they chat room participants were projected in a circle of screens, surrounded by some matrix-esqe code bits flying by. Compared to the broader spectrum of films those effects were pretty bad, but in this movie they actually looked neat compared to the rest.Do yourself a favor and skip this movie.

I dare say the audience at our local surprise sneak preview theater is a hardened bunch. Yes, some of us have been attending the traditional weekly sneak showing regularly for well over a decade. We have had atrocities like "House of 1000 Corpses" and "Street Fighter" forced upon us. But we still come back every Thursday. Maybe we *do* have a masochistic streak after all.And today we were served again with this cinematic dud that ranks up there with the worst of the worst. I don't know where to begin. The annoying visualization of "internet chat room", most likely an out-of-the-box Adobe Premiere effect. The fact that *everything* in this movie is conveyed by an unnerving, never ending, multilingual dialog where apparently the idea of quality was sacrificed for quantity. The cheap green screen technology. No characters to identify with. And the whole idea behind the film feels so flat and naive, it's a pain to watch. You could literally feel the audience detach from the movie in disbelief during the first fifteen minutes.For a student group assignment at a film seminar, this would be a fine work. But it's a long way from there to the movie theater.

This movie, directed by the two fairly inexperienced but obviously over-ambitious and talented French filmmakers Nicolas Alberny & Jean Mach, quite possibly has the most original and avant-garde screenplay that I've seen in many years. It's also another proof that you don't need a lot of money in order to make a film that is captivating and groundbreaking. "8th Wonderland" clearly cost next to nothing, but witty satirical ideas and superbly drawn characterizations don't require a large budget; just an intelligent and versatile crew and an enthusiast ensemble cast. The concept of "8th Wonderland" is simultaneously simple and genius. The title refers to the very first virtual nation in which people of all nationalities, religions and cultures unite in chat rooms to debate and vote on how they could improve ruling the outside world. And this time the members – citizens, if you will – of 8th Wonderland aren't loud-mouthed geeks hiding safely behind their computers, but devoted and resourceful academics that put their words into deeds as well. On a weekly basis, the citizens of 8th Wonderland democratically vote on an initiative during a referendum and subsequently appoint someone to execute the agreed actions. Whether it concerns placing condom vending machines in the Vatican, abduct world class soccer players to have them fabricate their own shoes amidst child laborers or boycotting the nuclear energy negotiations between Russia and Iran, the initiatives of "8th Wonderland" always make the world press and the virtual nation becomes immeasurably popular very fast. Parallel with the success, inevitably the first obstacles and issues arise as well. Frauds declaring themselves the mastermind behind 8th Wonderland, the safeguarding of loyal members after they risked their lives, dealing with the public opinion in case of false advertising or unpopular initiatives or feeling the burning breath of hunting FBI services in their neck. "8th Wonderland" definitely isn't an adrenalin-rushing thriller (most of the time it's just people talking straight into the camera, like they are in chat rooms) but it's nevertheless a compelling and politically engaging cinematic experiment that deserves all the praise and recommendation it can get! The characters are identifiable, the depiction of the media and public opinions are accurate and precise and the dialogs are stupendously written. Some of the discussed initiatives of the 8th Wonderland committee appear to be far-fetched and impossible to carry out, but there's always a logical clarification of what they do and a plausible breakdown of how they do it. The credibility of "8th Wonderland" largely relies on small but important and punctilious details, like for example the chatters occasionally mixing in words and swearing of their own native language, authentic news bulletin images and reports and members deciding to leave the group out of fear for retribution. The ensemble cast is marvelous and the computer engineered effects (for example, the illustration of a virtual chatting circle) are reasonably impressive; especially for computer illiterates like myself. Recommended in case you're on the lookout for something entirely new, refreshing and creative.