Paradox (2010)

Directed by: Brenton Spencer
Run time: 86 minutes

This movie should have been entertaining.  It has a noir police story,  weird alternative history,  and Kevin Sorbo.  Instead it uses famous movie lines to poor effect,  the plot staggers around like it's drunk,  and the comic book ascetic feels out of place.  Paradox was based on a comic book but I am guessing that everything of interest was left out.

The plot revolves around  Detective Sean Nault played by Kevin Sorbo. Sean is a hard nosed cop who plays by his own rules. He also believes in a new age cult that most of society has written off as superstition at best. He is a practitioner of the scientific method. The Earth that Sean lives on developed magic in stead of science. So lots of spells and crystal machinery and not a lot of metal tools and common sense.

A series of unexplained murders have occurred and the weapon that is killing people is small metal objects that can move fast enough to pierce the body. One of the people murdered is Sean's partner. giving him more motivation to bring this killer to justice and to bring respect to forensic science. This investigation brings to light another Earth where magic doesn't exist, a drug ring that imports drugs from the other Earth so narcotic spells can't detect them, a conspiracy with dire consequences, and that Sean is a Paradox. Paradoxes are people who do not have a twin on the science Earth.

Sean uses the scientific method, his intuition, and lazy writing to solve the mystery of who is bringing non-magical drugs and guns into the world.  He also goes to the non-magical Earth with Lenore, she runs a vaguely explained science store,  in order to find how the illicit items are making it back to their world. While there, the two of them fall in love with the non-magical world and each other. They also find enough evidence to pull apart the sinister conspiracy and lead to the end of the movie.

This is a movie full of great ideas that are never carried out well. Nothing is fully explained, the setting is interesting but never explored, and there is lots of lazy writing to make the protagonists look better. Also the rotoscoped comic book transitions did a lot to force me out of the movie. Cast a Deadly Spell and Witch Hunt are better films in the genre that tis movie is going for.

It's a struggle to find a positive note to end this review on. It's not that Paradox is a bad movie,  it is just too much was thrown at the screen and what stuck was a wandering mess. If it a slow week or you are looking for a comic book movie that is off the Marvel and D.C. beat and path this might be a film to watch.

MVT: I have nothing.  Normally I can find something that stands out but with this movie it's either ok or crap.

Make or Break: Two things broke this movie for me making background characters dumber so the heroes could show off how awesome their science skills are and the references to better movies. After hearing for the third time that a magnum 44 is powerful hand gun and a obligatory assault rifle "Say hello to my little friend" line makes it hard to stay invested the movie.

Score: 4.1 out of 10