2023 Movie Challenge Week 7 Recap

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Like last week, this week’s film is one that I wasn’t sure about immediately after watching, but unfortunately I couldn’t find as many bright spots.

I had tremendous hopes for this film. I have long been a fan of the stop motion work of director Phil Tippett. He has worked on some of the biggest films of the last 45 years, starting with groundbreaking work at then fledgling Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) on Star Wars. He contributed to many productions for ILM over the ensuing years including three more Star Wars films, Jurassic Park, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Starship Troopers, and The Twilight Saga. His creatures have become a bit of legend with as many of these huge franchises.

​What wasn’t readily apparent was the work that Tippett was putting in on his own passion project, Mad God. In progress since 1987, it’s hard to believe that it took 35 years to put this film together, but when you understand that the film makes much more sense. That’s not to say that the “story” makes sense, but it makes sense how occasionally disjointed the film feels. You can tell it was put together from various pieces over the course of decades using an array of visual techniques that evolved over the course of production.

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​The story of Mad God, if you can call it that, is that of a man known only as The Assassin who slowly descends through and increasingly hellish landscape of an underworld. The Assassin encounters monsters and creatures throughout the world and eventually finds his destination, where he places a timed bomb. Before the bomb can go off, he is attacked by a creature and hauled off for a strange surgery which reveals a screaming child creature that is pulled from his chest. The surgeon drills a hole in the Assassin’s head to delve into his memories and eventually the bomb is restarted, completing his mission. This is a gross oversimplification, and the actual course of the film has so many little twists and turns, but again, the story feels so disjointed that it’s hard to really understand what’s going on in any one scene, let alone across the entire film.

Tippett's creations truly are the things nightmares are made of.

Where this film shines is in the production design. Tippett’s hand is evident in every detail on the screen and there are some absolutely stunning shots in the film. The opening feels like it got the most attention with close-up shots of the Assassin reacting and looking around the world. We don’t get any facial expressions because his face is entirely masked, but you can get the emotion from the subtle ways he moves his head and body and the motion looks entirely lifelike. The creature designs throughout the film are stunning in their creepiness and I wouldn’t dare take a trip through Tippett’s actual dreams if these are what he pulls out for a film.
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On the other hand, some of the stop motion, which is what Tippett is most known for, is quite lacking. I’m sure many of these scenes are done in a jerky manner intentionally, but it feels so out of sort from the beautifully smooth and subtle movements to open the film. There is also plenty of blood and gore in some of these scenes, specifically the surgery on the Assassin, and while I get that this is a horror film, it feels gratuitous and doesn’t advance the already spare plot in any way. For me, it only made things more confusing.

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The Assassin surveys the depths.

Now, I understand that this is labeled as an experimental film, and that often means there isn’t really a strong plot, but this film feels like it wants to have a story, but doesn’t know what that story is. It’s interesting that I watched this following 8 ½ last week, another film that felt cobbled together while it was being made. The difference here is that Fellini had strong experience making narrative features throughout his career, while Tippitt doesn’t display that same sort of prowess. I think Mad God should have either gone even further into the experimental direction and completely discarded any pretense of a plot, or focused a bit more on a true story instead of dedicating most of its effort to creature and set design.

I’m so sad to slam this movie as I have and I appreciate the dedication of Tippett and his studio to bringing this film into existence. Stop motion is one of the most difficult ways to make a movie, especially something feature length, ultimately this should have been left as a series of short films or some other method of release that would allow the artistry that is there to really shine.

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