Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Max Cloud Blu-ray Movie Review

Tronette?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 27, 2020

Films about people getting sucked into various games (or, alternatively, games exploding out into the real world) have provided some fun and maybe even notable efforts like Tron and Jumanji, but one thing both of those films (and, to an extent at least, their follow ups) had that Max Cloud doesn’t was a budget. Now, the fact that Max Cloud deals with a 1990s era 16 bit video game might provide a bit of cinematic “cover” for a film that resembles one aspect of the old Star Trek: The Complete Original Series in that what look to be the same spaceship corridors are slightly redressed and utilized repeatedly for different shots. There’s also another probably tangential and subliminal connection to the original Star Trek, in that this film’s captain, Max Cloud (Scott Adkins), “overacts” in a positively William Shatner-ian (I’m insisting that’s an adjective, sorry) way. Max Cloud doesn’t establish that the “adventures” that begin the film are actually taking place in an old style video game, and in fact one of the film’s detriments may be the disconnect between what is ultimately shown to be pixellated, old style video game graphics from the relatively early days of consoles like Atari and/or Nintendo and the supposedly “high tech” version of the game the film presents with live action and lots of green screen.

There are certain illogicalities at play (pun intended) in Max Cloud from virtually the first moment, when a spaceship is seen out of control and hurtling toward Planet Heinous. Once it has crash landed, the first character we meet is a hapless schlub named Jake (Elliot James Langridge), who turns out to be the ship's cook, a kind of low level worker whom Max doesn't recognize, despite the fact that Jake reminds him that Jake has been serving him meals three times a day. But is this kind of "witty" repartee really supposed to be part of a video game? It's this kind of element that keeps the film from ever really building an organic connection between what's supposedly happening in the game and the "outsider" ostensibly objective viewpoint we get once it's revealed that the sequence is a video game.

The "big reveal" (which is arguably not that well handled to begin with) finally introduces a young girl gamer named Sarah (Isabelle Allen) who, like any good kid worth his or her salt, has been spending way too much time playing the "Max Cloud" game, much to the dismay of her addled father, Tony (Sam Hazeldine). Good ol' Dad keeps bursting into Sarah's bedroom insisting that she stop, and of course she never does, leading to a showdown just as Sarah has stumbled on an "easter egg" involving a Space Witch (Jason Maza) whom Max disparages in a very un-PC way for not being able to be a witch since he's male. The bottom line is that, in another kind of oddly underdeveloped and potentially not all that clear moment, the Space Witch grants Sarah's defiant wish (made in the wake of her big brouhaha with her father) that she could play video games nonstop every day. The film kind of allusively offers the conceit that Sarah is then sucked into the Max Cloud game, assuming the role of befuddled quasi-assistant to Max, chef Jake.

Even this potentially "awkward" possession isn't really mined for much comedy, other than Jake giving into fangirl emotions at times. Instead, the film tends to ping pong between the "in game" scenario and the panicked efforts of a friend of Sarah's named Cowboy (Franz Drameh) who shows up at her bedroom and despite being completely incapable of playing the game quite quickly figures out what's going on and attempts to get Sarah back into the real world. Again, there's some patent illogicality going on in all of this, since the "in game" moments offer characters at least seemingly with the ability to make decisions and react with ostensible "free will", and yet the "external" scenes show Cowboy attempting to "control" Jake in various ways. It's all very odd and probably keeps the film from ever completely registering, since there's at least the perception of things not really making a lot of sense. A number of supporting characters show up in the game world, including both heroes and villains, but that may simply end up making things all the more confusing, or at least more prone to needless detours.

The best thing about Max Cloud is probably Scott Adkins, who reveals a nice comedic side while also handling the action elements as well as will be expected by his fans. Some of the CGI is passable, but again there's a disconnect between the relatively luxe renderings of the various environments and the "actual" 16 bit moments that are seen (typically in very brief segues).

Max Cloud Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Max Cloud is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to dredge up any authoritative technical data for what seems to be more or less a straight to video release. I'm assuming this was finished at a 2K DI from a digital capture source. It's often rather nicely detailed, especially in things like the kind of corduroy ribbed looking wall that's behind Max in some main deck scenes, or even some of the "natural" things like facial pores on close-ups, particularly in the outside "real" world. A lot of the "in game" activity is almost drowning in effulgent blues, and a lot of this material can look fairly soft, especially in midrange shots. The villains are mostly shot in sepia like tones and those sections probably have at least marginally better fine detail levels. Some of the CGI is pretty soft looking, though I'm assuming part of that may be an intentional decision to try to make the "game" seem a bit more, well, game like.

Max Cloud Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Max Cloud features an intermittently immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. I'm assuming some of what appear to be pretty curtailed budgeting affected the sound design as much as the special effects and overall presentational aspects, because this is certainly not the kind of over the top (no Atmos or DTS:X withstanding) sound design that many associate with sci-fi adjacent tales. There are good effects, including in the opening crash scene, and some of the later action elements, but this is a pretty front and center mix quite a bit of the time. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout, and optional English subtitles are available.

Max Cloud Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 2:09)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, this sole supplement has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Max Cloud Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's actually a fairly decent, if obviously derivative, premise at play in Max Cloud, but the film could have used better clarification and a more artful way to segue between the "real world" and the game environment. There are some passing laughs here, but nothing very substantial. Adkins acquits himself more than reasonably in both the (fitful) comedy and action elements. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.