I Origins Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

I Origins Blu-ray Movie Review

You only live (insert number here).

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 11, 2014

Note: It's well nigh impossible to discuss I Origins without mentioning one central axis upon which much of the film hinges. Some may consider this revelation a spoiler, and so for those not wanting to have anything detailed, it's probably best to skip to the technical sections of the review below.

If only little Audrey Rose had undergone an iris scan, there might have been hope for that tragic reincarnated soul. Or maybe not, considering the philosophical and biological conundra facing an eye scientist in the interesting if flawed I Origins. While the film takes its good, sweet time in finally getting around to the reincarnation aspect, it is indeed the crux of a drama which involves graduate student Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), who is attempting to prove that eyes have evolved, thereby scuttling the claims of Creatonists, who (according to this film, anyway) point to the eye as proof positive that some Divine Being created everything in one fell swoop. One of the film’s drawbacks is that it relies on supposed scientific facts which it never really clearly elucidates for those dunderheaded laymen like yours truly. Evidently it’s relatively well known in better informed circles that Darwinians have struggled to find any existence of rudimentary eyes morphing into the more elegant orbs that we humans enjoy. That’s dealt with quickly and rather discursively in I Origins, almost as background noise (in a manner of speaking), as Ian goes about trying to genetically alter color blind mice to be able to recognize different hues. He is aided by another student named Karen (Brit Marling) and his buddy and roommate Kenny (Steven Yuen). The film, which is told partially via flashback from Ian’s point of view, reveals that Ian has long had a fascination with eyes, having spent much of his time since childhood photographing various peoples’ eyes in a kind of solo cataloging project. At a Halloween party one year, he’s intrigued by a mysterious woman decked out in a kind of S&M costume replete with a knit face mask which nonetheless does not hide her very distinctive eyes. Ian takes a picture of them, and the woman seems instantly attracted to him, initiating a sudden sexual encounter in the bathroom which is just as suddenly ended when Ian jokes about her regretting the decision in the morning. That brief, unconsummated interchange sets Ian out on a quest to find the girl, which he ultimately does in a rather odd sequence that seems to hint at supernatural incursions into Ian’s otherwise overly rational world. But that’s just the beginning of an odd and somewhat meandering story that ultimately seems to boil down to a somewhat literal take on that old James Bond title You Only Live Twice.

Writer-director Mike Cahill seems to be intent on redefining the science fiction genre in film, at least as evidenced by his previous feature film Another Earth and I Origins. These are films built not out of CGI wonderment (or at least not solely out of such elements), but instead more ruminative efforts that seek to explore various issues facing Mankind within a kind of high tech ambience. There’s a perhaps pretentious seriousness to Cahill’s efforts that is grounded in a kind of “kitchen sink” reality, even if the general tenor of his films tends to reach into more fanciful regions of alternate worlds or, in this case, the possibility of reincarnation.

The very fact that some might consider revealing reincarnation as the ultimate crux of I Origins’ plot is perhaps testament to its somewhat laconic, discursive storytelling style. The film actually takes quite a while to finally get around to that point, spending a lot of time instead on setting up Ian’s research into the evolution of the eye and his totally bizarre romance with supermodel Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisby), the girl from the party with whom Ian finally reunites in a fortuitous happenstance that seems to have some metaphysical import. In fact, everything about Sofi seems to have some metaphysical import, as evidenced by the fact that she tells Ian she feels she and he knew each other in previous lives. In what really might be termed a spoiler, things don’t end happily ever after for the pair, and the film then segues forward to detail Ian’s perhaps unexpected romance with and ultimate marriage to Karen, which is when things start getting truly weird.

By this point Ian is a well regarded scientist, and when he and Karen have a child, like any good ocular enthusiast, he has his kid’s eye entered in an iris database. Eyes are, like fingerprints, totally unique, and so when a match turns up, Ian’s interest is piqued, leading to some fascinating revelations. When he decides to look for a match for Sofi’s eyes, which of course he took a picture of all those years ago, more surprising revelations ensue.

Cahill seems to be aiming at a sort of quasi-Terrence Malick mythic grandeur with I Origins, but as fascinating as the subject matter is, things simply aren’t knitted together satisfactorily enough to ever deliver a knockout punch. If Cahill’s thesis that reincarnation is itself a sort of spiritual evolution, how does that tie into the eye elements which are slathered on this film? I Origins ends up being an often compelling piece that is nonetheless piecemeal, with its parts providing a more captivating experience than the whole. The film’s pace may be its ultimate downfall, however, as evidenced by how long it takes to get to the reincarnation angle. For a film supposedly obsessed with things that happen in the blink of any given eye, I Origins isn’t in any big rush to see plot points move along.

I Origins Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Origins is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Red Epic, I Origins appropriately for a film about eyes often looks spectacular in high definition. Cahill and his cinematographer Markus Förderer favor almost comically huge close-ups at times, something that includes a series of eyes and, finally, full faces, with some stunning levels of detail. The two also exploit the famous Vertigo dolly zoom effect in a couple of linked places that offer a suitably dizzying experience. Perhaps strangely, some of the "everyday" sequence look just a bit soft and relatively bland by comparison with some of these showier moments. That said, sharpness and clarity are always first rate, and contrast is also consistent, though there are a couple of cases where backlit interior scenes tend to bloom just slightly. There are no problems with compression artifacts.

I Origins Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I Origins's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is often quite subtle, but it provides near constant immersion courtesy of a really nicely enveloping sound design. Early scenes like the raucous Halloween party and later moments like Ian's trek overseas offer nice opportunities for quite a bit of ambient environmental effects and sprinklings of dialogue. The main (and admittedly fairly talky) sequences of the film are presented very cleanly and clearly. Fidelity is excellent and there are no issues of any kind to report.

I Origins Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Perhaps surprisingly, there are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc.

I Origins Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I Origins is one of those films that I personally kept wishing I could like more, since so much of it was so intriguing. But ultimately the pieces never gelled completely successfully for me, even if individual pieces were extremely compelling. By the time I Origins had gotten to a kind of The Boys From Brazil coda, it was obvious Cahill's channeling of Wes Anderson had perhaps gone by the wayside. One way or the other, it's also obvious Cahill has a head full of intriguing ideas. I Origins may not be totally eye opening, but it's worth a looksee. Recommended.