Soundwave is an ideal example of a film that brings to mind Tron Legacy (2010) as the movie starts within the first half of the ten minutes. While it never actually had any notable similarities, it always does well for movies with a low budget and no big names to pick interesting themes, and this film definitely does pick an interesting angle for the sci-fi theme and feels which helps set the tone from the start.Â
Ben Boyles (Hunter Doohan) is also a competitive player, but in the novels, he is pictured as an owner of a Redux, a vintage radio and television repair shop for old people. He is under the care of Antonio (Mike Beaver) who was the childhood friend of Ben’s deceased father. In his futile attempts to understand what really happened to his absent parent, he builds an innovative audio gadget which enables a person to eavesdrop into the time and events after the device is activated.
Additionally, he is also a rental consultant for detective Macy (Vince Napo), where he uses his genius to charge$1000 per crime ben has aided him in solving. However, Ben is not the only one with plans. Macy’s intention is to exploit Ben’s invention and become rich. He exposes Ben to John intern Paul Tassone, who is literally offering bags full of cash for the gadget. Not only did Ben refuse, it got escalated into murders and a chase for him with the sound listening device.
In the latest twist of events the narrative still manages to weave a not-so-shabby youthful love story in the mix. She is Katie (Katie Owsley), a young lady who works at a convenience store that Ben is already enamored with before he sets eyes on her thanks to a device he was listening to. There is a 911 call that he eavesdrops on and it compels him to come to her aid. In the process of him having to reveal this creation of his she helps him more than he anticipated. She helps him escape his relentless followers as their relationship gets more complicated.
He, admittedly, does great with his acting in the film and this is certainly a guy and one to keep tabs on as they develop theirs. Although he is not able to articulate too much in this film, the entire aura about him speaks a lot for itself. He works as a passable nerdy teen that suffers from deeply rooted emotional problems that need some form of closure. And we have the privilege to witness him portray many different sides of himself throughout the duration of this film.
One can only hope that in the after mix of Soundwave and all the promises that came with it his performance should earn him something more important that places him front and center.
Also, I should note that the film does a good job at detailing the science of what is going on in the film, which makes it a little more believable. You do not need to be a scholar of sound waves and the any associated physics to be able to accept that this is a feasible idea which might be possible to implement. Let us pray that this is one of those technical concepts that is just left in the drawing board.
I’m not really a fan of how the device was used in conjunction with the use of voice over narration and freeze framing. Some of this seemed abnormal and even hard to comprehend at the start. But after some time, when you warm to the concept and how it beautifully fits into the narrative, it is more manageable and in essence clouds your mind less… or at least for parts of the movie. Maybe the director could have been a bit more imaginative on how he or she decided to show this in the film, but it works as it is.
The writer and director of the film, Dylan K. Narang, offers a balanced presentation of the positive and negative consequences of Ben’s invention. He argues that while it is disturbing, to say the least, that Ben was keeping tabs on Katie during her most private moments in her life, it is equally alarming that people with an evil intention can make it into a terrible weapon. While Ben has developed good justifications for the device, at the end of the day he is left with an issue of conscience. It does not matter how much of a savior the technology makes him; the man is still left with his ethical dilemmas.
For this movie, my rating is 6.8/10. The fact that Soundwave is a low budget film does not take away from the fact that it was skillfully filmed and edited to the standards of most mid-budget sci-fi productions.
I cannot quite figure out the climax as you can never be sure whether Ben’s hearing are actually damaged or he was simply pretending. But, I suppose the choice to end the film the way they did was to invoke a debate amongst viewers and maybe even set the stage for a sequel.
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