Divinity (2023) Poster

(2023)

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6/10
Weird
chenp-547084 February 2023
Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Divinity" is a story about two mysterious brothers, who abduct a mogul during his quest for immortality. Meanwhile, a seductive woman helps them launch a journey of self-discovery. Director Eddie Alcazar clearly takes influence on films like Lynch and strange art-house science fiction stories and with this being his first feature-length film, there are some great aspects to it.

There are some weird stuff happening. The black and white colors, sound designs, and visuals are very interesting and great. The performances from the cast is interesting as the performances feel kind of weird or dull but I think it was intentional for the setting. It has a surprising cast and for the whole cast, they do a pretty good job on playing their strange roles. I don't mind strange films like these as they are one of the types of genre of filmmaking that I enjoy seeing.

The main narrative is a bit strange and while it's very ambitious, the ambitious tone and presentation takes away from some of the writing elements as the writing elements at points felt underdeveloped or unfocused of what the intentions of the film wants to be. Some of the dialogue moments were pretty rough. The third act does start to feel a bit too silly at times which takes away some of the tension.

Overall, it's definitely ambitious and a very strange type of film to watch. It's no where near one of my favorites on weird art-house films but there are some cool ideas that felt original.

Rating: B-
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6/10
Custom-crafted for a very specific audience
ben_lincoln8 December 2023
If you wish you lived in a parallel universe where in the early 1990s, Paul Verhoeven had smoked a lot of weed, then made a low-budget black and white mashup of Eraserhead, Crimes of the Future (1970), and How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Divinity will likely be your dream made flesh. Lumpy, misshapen flesh, covered in grotesque goo.

If even one of those elements gives you mixed or negative feelings, Divinity will probably not be your cup of tea. This is not a film like Aliens or Barbie, with so many different well-made elements that just about anyone will enjoy the experience. Divinity is (metaphorically, not literally) a Masters of the Universe (1987), Tokyo Gore Police, or Revenge of the Ninja (1983). If it's not exactly on your wavelength, your experience (like mine) will probably be similar to seeing a Facebook ad for a supposed medical device that clearly has off-label purposes you're not interested in. You might (like me) appreciate that it was made with love and has a good cast (Scott Bakula in particular), but you will probably be bemused by the experience as a whole.
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5/10
too artsy for its own good
icampbell228 November 2023
Fantastic visuals, numbing story to the brain. While I do appreciate the straightforward allegories that were apparent, it seemed like this movie was relying on the visuals to save it. The story is super simple with overarching metaphors involved, yet, it seemed like certain scenes were missing it. The pacing was super off, but the visuals almost make up for it. Every shot looks like a charcoal pencil drawing that just adds to the nature of the film. Great concepts, yet not expansive to the point where I feel the lore could be elaborated on. I recommend solely for the visuals and set design, yet it's not much of a pleasing story.
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4/10
Strange but not entertaining
tin-B3 February 2024
It struggles to be an artsy presentation but fails. Bakula's performance is good. That is the only good point, and the only reason I give 4 stars. I do not give points for effort when the production directing efforts seem to be more about how to make it as cheaply as possible while pretending it is an artsy film. The black and white is extremely poor quality throughout the entire film, grainy and unwatchable, as if that is supposed to make me appreciate this more. Put it in color and teach the actors how to deliver lines, I'd give it a better score. But, they obviously wanted it presented this way, and thought people would love it. The actors (other than Bakula) each move and speak as if they were born without emotioin, live without emotion, and die without emotion. WAKE UP. If people were really like this - they wouldn't CARE about living forever.
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2/10
DISAPPOINTING EXPLORATIONAL RETRO-FUTURISTIC FLICK
buddymakesdo20 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This movie seemed a bit hard to rate, but not impossibly so.

Let's list the positives:

First of all--Scott Bakula and Stephen Dorff. Sad that they've aged, who who doesn't. They're still great actors. (This film doesn't seem to fit either one of them too well, for reasons outlined below.)

Second--It's B&W. Edgy, but it fits the cool desert, retro-futuristic, mid-century sci-fi vibe. All the scientific equipment looks 1960ish and the vehicle we get to see reinforces this. Oh, and casette tapes. There's ads on the telly for WW2 British commodities you can buy with ration cards (like powdered eggs). The rest seem to be steeped in sex and excess, including the most disgusting breakfast cereal commercial ever created.

Third--Cool, mid-century avant-garde desert palace homes. The scientist's lair sort of blends into the rock outcroppings. Not my taste, but this is unique. His brother's home is a boxy, glass affair in the middle of the desert plain, also of similar provenance.

Now for the negatives:

This film had really bad dialogue and the plot was all chopped up. Imagine a bad mortal kombat, stop-motion fight sequence, gratuitous violence, scene progression that makes no sense, bizarre and unclear moties and other movie tropes thrown in together. It doesn't seem to hold up.

Later, I discovered that aside from the basic plot outline, there was NO script (imagine that) and it doesn't feel like the actors were actually directed too closely at all.

It's avante-garde and experimental and throwback. Interesting CGI effects where leotard clad women sort of appear into the landscape (bones first) and then carry off fertile women to join their cult to 'save' humanity. That was cool, but strange.

The basic premise is that an immortality serum engineered by the scientist's father and perfected by his son has so thoroughly corrupted the world that everyone lives for pleasure. Oh, and it sterilises all the women who take it. Not a great plan.

Scientist decides to ratchet it up to not only grant immortality, but to dial back the clock and grant eternal youth for those who aged prior to the original serum. It has a dark side to how it's produced.

Can't figure out who the dream girls or the semi-supernatural brothers are supposed to be, either, but the brothers took on human bodies and then gave them up. They give the pleasure-girl a mental enema so she can see stars and her eyes can light up, too. She's pure, so she gets 'saved' by dream girl cult and bears a tree with living sausages all the girls in dream girl cult seem to love. The father is apparently one of the supernatural brothers who fell in love with her and with being human. There's lots of sex in this film and most of it is kinda' gross. Scientist's brother is a body-builder and has a body-builder 'companion' and a body-builder servant who fawns over him and seems to have an electric-shock fetish. Truly bizarre character development.

Old doc becomes an incredible hulk because the supernatural brothers force-feed him his new serum to punish him (or 'free' him, they can't seem to make up their minds).

Everything comes to a head on the scientist's birthday and it gets really gross and nasty.

One word: disappointing.
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3/10
Too artsy fartsy
realityinmind8 April 2024
Starts out okay while you wonder what is going on.... but once you piece the story together you can't stop looking at the horrible practical effects. By the time you are ready to see the story move to the next level, you are all of a sudden watching a claymation celebrity death match with horrible stop-motion... the only way to truly understand the crap ending this movie has, is to sit through it yourself. We are left with a horrible mess of a film that leans too heavily on 50 year old film tropes to help trod along this story's narrative. The filmmaker got lost somewhere along with way with this movie, as the very ending makes no real sense. Though I'm sure there are people who will come up with their own explanation and say "see, this us what he meant". But no no, he was actually just confused.
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1/10
Sure custom crafted for a special Ed audiance
phuckracistgop19 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
From the script writers to the director, my suggestion would be not to quit your day job.

Sure going B&W adds to the ambience, but after that the entire flick went south rather quick. With actors standing staring into the camera with that "there's nothing functioning between the ears look on their face.

I'm assuming that when danger is looking you ion the eyes, your best course of action is to stand there with that "What way did they go George" look while the bad/good guy recuperates.

I find it so annoying as well as extremely stupid for these writers to make out everyone as being devoid of good old fashion common sense.

Makes for a movie that would caused normal people to get up and demand a full refund of their theater tickets "if they were fools enough to actually pay to witness this debacle of a Sci-fi movie.

And the final fight scene was utterly ridicules with the big deformed scientist standing around waiting for the vertical challenged brother to again recuperate, climb up the rock base for the final ending of this completely unbelievable fight sequence.

Now the ending with the birth of a tree from the prostitute you did a threesome with the two brothers and give birth to a p0lant mere minutes after coitus was a genuine WTH moment and had me thinking which one was the daddy.

Plot holes galore, weak script writing coupled with a director who needs another occupation spells out, Avoid at all cost.
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8/10
A clever and unique addition to the science fiction/horror genre
kevin_robbins5 November 2023
I watched Divinity (2023) in theaters this evening. The storyline delves into a futuristic society where a new serum grants immortality, but at the cost of rendering people unable to have children. When the serum's creator is kidnapped one night, it raises questions about the secrets he holds that led to these actions.

Directed and written by Eddie Alcazar (Perfect) and starring Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap), Stephen Dorff (Blade), Bella Thorne (Blended), Karrueche Tran (Claws) and Caylee Cowan (Willy's Wonderland).

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It evoked shades of several other films such as Infinity Pool, Logan's Run Sin City, and Equilibrium. It's a clever and unique addition to the science fiction/horror genre, with an excellent villain transformation sequence that casts a shadow over the entire film. The concept is highly original, and the setup is intriguing. The film boasts some intense fight and bite scenes, with one fight sequence that I enjoyed but had to deduct points for. 😂 However, the absolute ending is pure science fiction gold.

In summary, Divinity is a movie that will likely find its passionate admirers and harsh critics, but as a fan of new science fiction concepts, I thought it was worthwhile. I would rate it a 8/10 and strongly recommend it.
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10/10
Divinity is divisive
SlashedProductions8 November 2023
Divinity is a very stylized, black and white sci-fi/horror adjacent/thriller. Destined to be divisive, but very much worth checking out if the trailer peaked your interest.

The film is very strange but I was never lost. There is a clear and defined plot that isn't convoluted. The acting is rough around the edges, the dialogue is not polished, but in many ways this contributes to the style of the film.

That's not to say this movie is "so bad it's good." The style will not work for everyone though. The one thing that is inarguable is the movie's ability to stay cemented in your brain. This is a movie that I don't believe will leave your mind so quick like a big budget Hollywood film.

Is this movie empty, vapid and all style over substance? Is it a deep and meaningful reflection about what humans value? For me, somewhere in between but nonetheless a very entertaining film.

Divinity will definitely find its audience but it still isn't the next Blade Runner. Check it out.
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8/10
Strange but Entertaining
Hiro_Protagonist_784 November 2023
While watching this movie it reminded me of Tetsuo Iron Man. The themes of body modification and technology overtaking the core of what it means to be human. Some scenes also reminded me of a bad b-movie like something from an Ed Wood 50s sci-fi or even Neil Breen. There were definitely things I hadn't seen in a while like stop motion animation techniques in place of CGI. It feels like a breath of fresh air at this point where we are just inundated with things that look the same. It is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but if you like Ray Harryhausen, Tetsuo: Iron Man, cheesy sci-fi movies, you may like this.
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