Higher Power Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Higher Power Blu-ray Movie Review

High and Not Mighty

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 23, 2018

Higher Power is the feature directing debut of Matthew Santoro, who also co-wrote and co-edited the film. Santoro's background is in visual effects, with gold-plated credits that include several X-Men films and the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk. He made Higher Power for a cost reportedly under $1 million, and he's obviously used every tool in his kit to make the results look more expensive. Unfortunately, the end product is a headache-inducing mess. Even more unfortunately, Magnolia Home Entertainment has chosen Santoro's effort as its second release on 4K UHD disc, which favors neither the film nor the format. (The 4K disc will be addressed in a separate review.)

There are two main characters in Higher Power. The first is a stereotypical mad scientist identified in the credits as "Unknown" and at IMDb as "Control". He is played by the distinguished Canadian actor Colm Feore, who brings all the intensity of a Shakespearean villain (of which he's portrayed more than a few) to a role that would otherwise be a tiresome cliche. Unknown has conceived a project to transform an ordinary human into a super-being (a "god", in his notion) who can be either the ultimate weapon or the ultimate defense. Unknown's theories are so nutty (and so dangerous) that he was bounced out of the government defense giant run by Charles Margrey (Richard Portnow). Now Unknown has a plan to reclaim his research and complete the project—or rather, he has joined up with a mysterious benefactor, who appears to him in the form of a computerized voice and the pixellated simulation of a face on a computer monitor. (If you haven't figured out who it is early in the film, you're not paying attention.)

What Unknown needs to complete his project is a test subject with a specific genetic profile. The unfortunate victim is Joe Steadman (Ron Eldard, a fine actor who deserves better), who has already suffered more than his share of tragedy and loss. His wife (Jade Tailor) died of cancer, after which Joe spiraled into drug and alcohol abuse, abandoning their two daughters to fend for themselves. One, Rhea (Marielle Jaffe), followed Joe into drug addiction, while the other, Zoe (Jordan Hinson), is putting herself through nursing school and wants nothing more to do with either her father or her sister. All of this tragedy makes Joe an ideal candidate for Unknown's experimental procedure, since he needs to provoke Joe's anger, fear and aggression to complete his transformation into a superhuman (Unknown calls the process "transfiguration").

Looming over Unknown's efforts is a massive gamma ray burst headed toward the Earth from a dying star that will extinguish all life on the planet. A lone physicist (Austin Stowell) has identified the threat, but his theories are treated as popular fiction meant to sell books.

There are some interesting ideas circulating in the background of Higher Power, with its notion of creating a superhero involuntarily and without regard to the numerous associated deaths that Unknown dismisses as "collateral damage". The film also flirts with an exploration of the law of unintended consequences in Unknown's monologue about how the defense contractor's arming of Afghan rebels against the Soviets ultimately led to the fall of the Twin Towers (a controversial assertion, but leave that aside). Colm Feore delivers the speech with theatrical panache, but it's a poor substitute for exploring the moral implications of what his character is doing to Joe Steadman.

Indeed, Santoro seems barely interested in character, motivation or plot mechanics. His focus is on visual trickery, and there's hardly a shot in Higher Power that hasn't been heavily manipulated in post-production. Some effects are obvious, such as the destructive manifestations of Joe's growing powers. Others are more subtle, or perhaps they might be if they weren't so overused. Much of Higher Power is presented in the style of "found footage", with Steadman and others observed through surveillance cams, spy drones and other unidentifiable video feeds, all of which Unknown intercepts and collates on a massive bank of monitors. Even Joe's flashes of memory appear as video recordings he made of his family in happier times. On the rare occasion when an event isn't one that Unknown is tracking, the camera usually occupies the position of a stealthy news photographer (or perhaps a a stalker).

We appear to have reached a point in the development of digital processing where you don't need to spend a fortune to drown a story in visual effects. Computers have become so powerful, and off-the-shelf software so advanced, that you can do it on the cheap. Santoro's creation may be impressive for its sheer CGI moxie, but that doesn't make it a good movie.

Higher Power Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The credited cinematographer on Higher Power is Dallas Sterling (How to Make Love to a Woman), who, if IMDb is to be believed, used several models of Canon SLR cameras in one of the film's many cost-saving devices. However, as noted in the "Feature" discussion, the post-production manipulation was so thorough that the original shooting format hardly matters. Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray appears to be a faithful rendition of director Matthew Santoro's visual design, but the usual criteria applied in Blu-ray reviews—detail, sharpness, clarity, lack of interference—don't apply to Higher Power. Too much of the film is down-rezzed to simulate a grainy video feed, and even the live-action shots have been distorted in one way or another, e.g., the routine cutbacks to the character called "Unknown" sitting at his bank of computer monitors, who is seen mostly in shadow and silhouette, illuminated only by the artificial light of digital displays. Joe Steadman's memories of his family have a ghostly clarity (everyone is wearing white), and the occasional shots recorded "live" look better than the surveillance and drone cam footage, but even the live shots have a rough "found footage" quality that appears to be intentional. The bright lights of the film's grand finale are appropriately colorful, but today's audiences are far too familiar with VFX to be wowed by such garden-variety tricks.

Although Magnolia has included no real extras on the BD-25, it has given Higher Power an encode with a relatively low average bitrate of 21.99 Mbps. There may or may not be compression artifacts in the image, but with all the distortion that's been deliberately introduced, it's nearly impossible to tell.

Higher Power Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Magnolia seems to be firmly committed to Dolby Atmos, which, in the abstract, is a laudable development. But Higher Power is hardly an apt choice to showcase the format's sophisticated abilities. Yes, there are some interesting directional effects, e.g., when Unknown's voice in Joe Steadman's head (delivered through an ear implant) cycles around the room, or when Joe's expanding powers bring down an airplane that just happens to be flying overhead at the wrong moment. For the most part, though, Higher Power achieves its audio impact by being loud, with plenty of throbbing bass that will prompt many viewers to turn down the volume from their normal listening level. Loudness is a familiar technique to compensate for shortcomings in both sound design and a film's construction, and here it's employed to the maximum. The electronic score by Kevin Riepl (a veteran of the animated DC Universe) merely adds to the din.

Higher Power Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.39:1; 2:18).



• Also from Magnolia Entertainment: Trailers for Marrowbone and Don't Grow Up, followed by promos for The Charity Network and AXS TV. These also play at startup.



• BD-Live: A return to business as usual: "Check back later for updates."

Higher Power Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Higher Power is loud and flashy, and I like the cast, many of whom have done excellent work elsewhere and give their all for director Santoro here. But it's not a good film, and I can't recommend it.