Black Crab

[Mr._Clark]

I hate to give movies really negative reviews, but Black Crab made me Crabby (but not enough to keep me awake).

The following review of Black Crab does have some spoilers (but I didn't watch it to the end, so I don't know what happens).

First, some quick background on the completely subjective Clark rating scale. On the Clark scale, Bladerunner is a 10, Edge of Tomorrow is close (9?), Total Recall (2nd movie) and most Terminator movies are roughly in the 7-8 range. Most of the Bond movies with Daniel Craig are probably around 8, with Skyfall around 9. The Rush Hour movies are around 8. Batman Begins is probably around a 7, as are most of the Underworld movies. Wheel of Time was roughly a 7. Lawrence of Arabia is probably around 6 (yeah, it's an amazing movie, but on the completely subjective Clark scale it's just too long and slow-moving).

Okay, back to Black Crab. It s*cks. Based on the trailer it looked like a movie I'd like. Action, somewhat futuristic, etc. But, the movie has a very contrived plot that results in most of it being at night. It's hard to see what is going on, and it is also very difficult to understand a lot of the dialog (it was filmed in Sweden and apparently dubbed in English). The acting wasn't terrible, but that that's about the only okay aspect of the movie I can think of offhand.

I got bored and quit watching it somewhere in the middle. Perhaps it got better, but I have no desire to watch any more of it.

Who knows, it might be a great movie for someone else, but it was not for me.

 

[lovinthehd]

It was a bit strange but I liked it, but seems I needed two sessions, think I also turned it off first time part-way thru, sometimes just not what I want at a particular time. I wouldn't rank it particularly high in the genre, but there are definitely worse. I often listen to foreign language stuff in native and just use subtitles, dubs often suck. Then again am a big fan of Noomi Rapace, which is what attracted me in the first place.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I would think that a dubbed audio would at least be more intelligible as it would be recorded in a studio, I would think.
Isn't she the dragon tattoo lady? I liked her.

 

[Mr._Clark]

I would think that a dubbed audio would at least be more intelligible as it would be recorded in a studio, I would think.
Isn't she the dragon tattoo lady? I liked her.

That's an interesting question. A google search revealed the following article about recent movies having unintelligible dialog. It suggests that there are many contributing factors (I'm not sure if any of these apply to Black Crab, however).

Here's Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) - SlashFilm

/Film spoke with several Oscar-winning sound designers, editors, and mixers to learn why it has become tougher to understand what characters are saying.

www.slashfilm.com

I've noticed that many movies have at least some dialog that's very difficult to understand. I think I'll start a thread on this topic to see what other people think.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Thanks.
This said a lot to me from your link, among others:

One person refused to talk to me, saying it would be "professional suicide" to address this topic on the record.

Of course, there were others that also stood out.
While the link talked mostly about movies, same applies for series production by different services as well. I guess time is an enemy.
Studio recording of dialogue is minimal as it is time consuming and more $$$.
Dubs are not recorded live but in studios I would posit.

 

[lovinthehd]

I would think that a dubbed audio would at least be more intelligible as it would be recorded in a studio, I would think.
Isn't she the dragon tattoo lady? I liked her.

Yes she was the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish original trilogy). Dubbing sometimes just doesn't get it right....and I've seen english subtitles many times differ from the dubbed english, too. The emotion and inflection in speech can get weird with dubs. I've heard really good dubs and really poor dubs, probably depends on budgeting.

 

[Trell]

Yes she was the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish original trilogy). Dubbing sometimes just doesn't get it right....and I've seen english subtitles many times differ from the dubbed english, too. The emotion and inflection in speech can get weird with dubs. I've heard really good dubs and really poor dubs, probably depends on budgeting.

In Scandinavia dubbing of movies or TV is very unusual, even to this day, so subtitling is the norm. When "watching" some streaming stuff while browsing on my phone as I slouch in my sofa, I've on occasion had both dubbing to English on as well as subtitling in English.

That can be a funny experience as the subtitling is done for the original language while listening to English dubbing.