Take a trip Beyond The Black Rainbow

Beyond The Black Rainbow

This movie was assigned to me by my friend James Mitchell, I ended up watching it three times and I just have one question. What dafuq did I just watch? Here take a look

Here is the plot as I can figure. Dr. Arboria founded the Arboria Institute,wonder how he came up with that name, which specializes  a mixture of New Agey psychobabble and pharmacology to help people find happiness. Dr. Barry Nyle, Dr. Arboria's protege, has taken over as head of the institute. He keeps a young woman named Elena prisoner in a hospital cell beneath the institute where she displays telepathic abilities which Dr. Nyle experiments with in torturous methods.

My over all thoughts:

The first thing I need to say about this movie is that it is extremely well shot. It is a joy to look at. The first thought I had when watching this is that it felt like what they thought the future would look like in the 70's the fact that they set the film in 1983 was brillant. It had the same architectual tones and lighting that you get in sci-fi films from the mid 70's to early 80's movies like 2001, Logan's Run and Soylent Green. The effects were good as well and the acting is stellar. The story however left much to be desired. Now it is possible that this film is simply smarter than I am. It took 200 viewings, give or take a hundred, and a reading of the novel for me to fully understand 2001 a Space Odyssey but this is no 2001. The plot seems strung together of non linking pieces. I have no idea what the hell was going on with any of the characters, what their motivations were or why I should care. I cannot recommend this movie but to a select few and even them I would only recommend it to just out of curiousity if they can get a handle on it or just to see if I can break them. Okay so that's my over all thoughts I'll get more exact after the break because there will be spoilers and anyone reading with an interest in seeing this movie should have the ability to leave.

Okay so Doc Barry is pushing Elena to use her powers by teasing her about her dead parents. He tries to get her to react by giving her a picture of her dead mother then tries for a bigger reaction by telling a nurse that she has contraband. When the nurse tries to take the picture away she goes all scanners on her and blows the nurses head up. The effect on the head explosion was pretty damn good but it made little sense and it is never referenced again. We find out that Doc Barry is visiting Dr. Arboria who seems to be in the end stages of dementia, they reminisce for a while watching really bad nature documentaries before Dr. Barry kills him with a drug overdose which I believe was a mercy killing not because of the dementia but because it saves his ass from watching the rest of this mess. 

We learn these things, Barry went through some really screwed up therapy at the institute when he was younger immersed in some black goo and instead of becoming a ninja turtle he became a hairless vampire type creature without any eye color. I say vampire type of creature because the first thing he does once he gets free of the tar is attack Arboria's wife by ripping into her neck, it is here we learn that Elena is Arboria's daughter. This has no bearing on anything else far as I can tell. 

Back at the institute Elena is making her escape when an astronaut injects her with a syringe. She escapes and Barry gives chase he kills a couple of guys that he thinks had sex with Elena and as he chases after her he trips and busts his head open. This should have been an epic final battle telepathic vs vampire but nope he trips and hits his head. Anticlimactic. We are then treated to a view of a house and whats that lying on the floor why it's a toy version of the astronaut we saw earlier...Dah Dah DAh! Is it all just a dream, did they pick up and drop the dark phoenix storyline for no reason? Was the fight a big disappointment? Does anything in this movie make me give a shit? The answer to most of these is yes the final is no. Avoid this film you're life will be better for it.

Am I on target or way off? Do you have an idea about this flick? Comment below.