A Major Disappointment

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I have made no secret of disliking most of(if not all of) SyFy's output. Three Inches is one of their better efforts, and had potential to grow into a show. Certainly it does have its foibles, some of the sound effects did seem out of place, almost as if they had been thrown in at last minute, and had no real reason to be there, and the beginning(first 15-20 minutes or so) was rather lengthy. But the biggest problem was that despite having a great premise, with some great ideas and rarely feeling dull, the tone of the story was uneven, it alternates from wacky, gloomy, sweet and harsh, and it makes one wish that they had stuck to just one or two of these. However, Three Inches does look good, the scenery is atmospheric and striking and the photography is much better than the haphazard quality I was expecting. The effects are better than average as well, Three Inches doesn't rely heavily on this area and that is a good thing as it does focus on what matters more, the script and characters. The writing is clever and often very funny, while the characters are more than the stereotypical ones you often find, Walter is a character you do identify with and Macklin is an amusing character who I would've loved to have seen more of. Despite the uneven tone, I did like some of the ideas that Three Inches presented, such as Carlos' comic-book-like narration, Ethan's heartfelt reveal about Walter treating him like normal and being the only one and Watts' sweeter personality underneath her seemingly hard one. The acting is good, Noah Reid's lead performance is very likable, while James Marsters gives one of those cool and mysterious performances that he excels so well at. Overall, one of SyFy's better efforts though still not perfect. If it had evolved into a show, I'm sure what was wrong here- which is not a lot in comparison to the usual standard- would have been done better as time progressed. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Just want to be brief. This is one of the best Syfy has come up with in a while. The actors are great at delivering their lines, there's a lot of humor that just comes naturally to the characters. Everyone seems at ease with their respective roles.Saw a few mistakes (I'm hyper-analytical), such as sound effects being added that weren't even there in the beginning of the story! I think sound effects pollute the use of superpowers in most films and shows--it's like using 555 for a phone number to announce, "Hey, we're in a movie!" Sometimes they're appropriate (laser beam eyes would make a crackling sound as the heat burns the surrounding atmosphere, for instance). Saw a couple issues with timing, such as ducking someone coming out of a doorway BEFORE being able to even see into said doorway let alone the person coming out of it. But as a whole the entire show out-shined those very minor flaws.The characters are quite interesting, especially since some of their powers are quite underwhelming on their own (they're meant to be). Didn't notice any cheesy effects or typical green screen giveaways (I spot them most of the time, even in uber high budget films where the directors are gods in Movieland). Very little in this show requires the use of such special effects and the parts that do are executed quite well.I lost interest in Alphas because it is too heavy-handed and doesn't bring anything new and, in fact, is over-the-top with a lot of stuff. While Three Inches has a very similar premise, the delivery is exceedingly better than Alphas as well as other shows.If this isn't green-lighted for more episodes then I'm almost out of shows to watch on Syfy, save for Warehouse 13 (gets funnier every episode, which more than makes up for some ridiculous plots in some episodes, most of which include Fargo from Eureka--not his timeline, not his universe!) :)

I liked it and would like it to be a show. I would watch it and I know my son would watch it with me. I watch a lot of shows and movies because I am home on SSI/SSD so I need them to be fun, freaky and entertaining if they are on Syfy. I think a lot of Syfy fans would enjoy watching this every week. There are 7 days that could have new programs and still keep the ones that are still on. To get more people watching a station you need to put on new and exciting movies and programs. The same thing over and over looses viewers. I am always searching the guide for new shows and that is how I found this movie. Please make it a weekly show.

I just finished watching the pilot for Three Inches. It would have made a good Disney film if they had made it 45 years ago (except for the violence, of course). It actually reminds me a lot of The Absent Minded Professor with Fred MacMurray—the scene where they attached flubber to the bottoms of their feet and won the basketball game. What has become of the Sci-Fi (oh sorry…Syfy) Channel? Whatever happened to the notion that science fiction is about the exploration of ideas? Everything they have to offer is either abominably cute or a reworked cliché. It is either a magical place where anything can happen as long as it is mixed with unbearably light humor or a vampire living together with a werewolf and a ghost (all cliché). Three Inches seems to be a combination of both kinds of show offered by the Syfy Channel: cliché and adorable. I realize it was being considered as an alternate for Alphas, but that is even more to the point. Why were they considering two such similar (and ultimately cliché) shows? Couldn't they also have been considering a show about inter-dimensional travel? Now that I think of it, whatever happened to space opera? When Battlestar Galactica ended, couldn't they have looked into something along those lines? Instead, we have vampires, werewolves, ghosts, campy towns with magical properties, and super heroes with limited powers. Oh yea, there are the reality shows. As Bender would say, "Gag unto me with a spoon." When the Sci-Fi Channel was invented, especially in an environment where it seemed possible to create any illusion one could imagine, I thought it was the return of the golden age of science fiction. Oh, the agony. It's like someone stuck me with a three inch knife—not enough to kill; just enough to maim.