Traditionally the 1st part of this type of movie is devoted to laying out the groundwork to the story, setting the plot and such: like who the good guys are, who are the bad guys, what's their history, and what brings them together. ATT1 goes through this reasonably well, but it just seemed to be going through the motions, leaving a lot of major questions unanswered.

For instance, how the hell did Timothy survive his fall from the moving train in the prequel? We're told that he somehow unbelievably survived, but that just ain't good enough. The director should of provided the audience with some kind of flashback, showing how Timothy had such a lucky fall. It would have taken extra time to animate, but this kind of attention to detail makes viewing all that better, knowing that the director hasn't missed a thing.

This kind of "rushed" directing is outlined right at the start. The movie starts in some house, with a police inspection already underway (I thought you said ALL 3d scenes Eric?). Who it belongs to, where left to guess. And why all this investigation? What are the police looking for? Tell us Eric? Obviously the house is Timothy's', but again the director leaves the audience with a lot of guesswork to do.

Especially in why the train is being bombed. What is the significance? And why this particular train? Although this is just the 1st part, and it might be made clear in another episode, but I would have appreciated some kind of hint, which would have proved useful. I mean, is Timothy blowing the train for the sake of it? Is he a depraved mad man, who likes to blow things up for no apparent reason. Or is the train being used to transport the bomb to a major train station, where it will explode causing untold horror? Again the director just doesn't take the time to tell us this, the motivation of the villain in such films is crucial. As how are we to understand what is going on?

Although I had problems with the way the story unfolded, and why all the voices of the cops sounded very similar, there were a few notable features which made watching this movie worthwhile. The special effects, were quite impressive, and showed that the director was making the effort to make his movie look convincing. The intro credits were imaginative and fitted the theme of the film. There was good use of sound effects and scenery, and at one point this gave the impression we were in a train station, and that was a train we were looking at, not a bunch of 3D props.

A nice touch in the movie, was when Timothy activated the bomb at the end (why did he activate it at this point, and not some time later?). Using a rather funny looking bracelet he enabled the bomb, and we were shown it's location in what I assume was the luggage compartment (I dunno if it WAS the luggage compartment, again I have to guess). Zooming onto one particular case which opened, displaying it's explosive contents.

A decent starting episode for an action film, good uses of sound effects and hand made scenery were a nice touch. This movie was let down by the fact that the director left a lot of major questions unanswered, producing in my opinion a poorly developed plot.

OZ's VERDICT...

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