ADVANCED WARRIORS - INTERACTIVE DVD MOVIE

By Lightworx and First Cut Written & Directed by Andrew Dymond
Priced £14.99

Buy now at Legendgames

More info available from www.advancedwarriors.com

Those of you of a certain age will remember the Fighting Fantasy game books. Basically, Advanced Warriors is one of those dice and pencil games made 'real'.

The story is a basic one. The people of Argonia are having a hard time with a bunch of bad guys called the Sirrom. An entity called Guardian grabs some people from Earth to beat down the Sirrom. Enter Marshall, a geeky Trek fan, and Rachel, a wimpy teacher, the Guardian's latest unwilling recruits. The Guardian needs to study up on motivational technique, as he tells his latest victims that they must fight for Argonia, following his orders to the letter, or they won't make it home. Lovely chap, really.

Of course, the two nerds are no more. Guardian has brought out the latent talents inherent in Marshall and Rachel. Now Marshall is a martial artist, complete with the tools of the trade ('chucks and shuriken), and Rachel is tooled up with pistols and a neat little pop-up metal stick. Into the forest they go, and the game begins.

The principal is simple and familiar. Watch a bit of footage, make a choice with your remote, watch more footage. The choices are simple and death, while possible, is usually the result of a stubborn desire on the part of the player to see the leads suffer. Unlike the only other attempt to do this kind of thing, the woeful Seven Swords of. something or other, death does not mean you have to go way back to the start. Instead, you have the choice of going back one choice, one chapter, or back to the beginning. It's the equivalent of what we all used to do when playing a Fighting Fantasy book - keeping your thumb in the pages when you make any choice.

There are loads of story paths (according to the cover, there are 'over 7 storylines and around 80 different options') and all are engaging enough. It all ends on a cliffhanger, complete with the genuine offer for viewers to go on-line and vote for how the next film should begin.

It is immediately apparent that this production was done on a shoestring budget. Having had the pleasure of visiting the shoot for Advanced Warriors over a couple of days, I am pleased to say that the lack of budget did not stop everyone involved having fun. In turn, that has translated to the finished result. The DVD, packed with extras over two disks, has a charm that can easily be compared to Doctor Who, Blake's 7 or any of the best cult sci-fi produced in the UK.

Advanced Warriors is a little rough in parts - well, the beginning, middle and end to be exact. Somehow, though, it doesn't seem to matter. The quality of acting isn't great, with the main characters Marshall (John Carrigan) and Rachel (Rebecca Nichols) not really warming up until Imogen (Chase Masterson) and Max (Jeremy Bulloch) show up in the last quarter of the story. The worst thing about every part of the whole DVD is the quality of sound. At times it is genuinely next to impossible to hear what is being said. As a general rule, I am disappointed when there is no subtitling on a DVD. For Advanced Warriors, subtitles would have really helped even those of us with good hearing. Again, this all comes back to the lack of budget. Hopefully, this will all be addressed in the next instalment.

The CGI effects are generally top notch, with only a couple of exceptions (a well-dodgy dragon). This is because Lightworx are an effects company, with some impressive past work experience on their CV. Budget and time have again had an influence, but it all looks as good as you would see on kids television, and even better in places. With John Carrigan and his students handling the martial arts side of things, it's easy to see why the production has won plaudits from the UK and international martial arts community. John's students are better at the action stuff than they are as actors, but they don't over act and you'll see worse performances in mainstream film and TV. With more time and money available to the director for retakes, things would have been a lot better.

The action is where Advanced Warriors really gets going although, as mentioned earlier, the whole thing warms up nicely when Jeremy Bulloch and Chase Masterson make their appearances. The obvious love every participant has for the show carries it on well, and it's difficult to not like it. Misdirected enthusiasm can be seen as people trying too hard. That is not the case here - the enthusiasm is infectious.

One thing that helps this first outing is that you get a lot for your money with Advanced Warriors. The second disk has interviews with the cast and the director, rehearsal footage, a 'Making of.' feature, and a pretty decent documentary called Need To Know Self Defence that John Carrigan shot a while back with fellow Brittas Empire cast member Jill Greenacre. Oh, and the blooper reel is pretty damn good too, just be sure to watch the main feature first.

All in all, Advanced Warriors does deserve to succeed. As everyone involved frequently says, it has huge potential and should realise that potential next time around with a better script, more money and, above all, more time to get the best from cast and crew. As it is, this first instalment is pretty damn good, all things considered.

I'm not one for insisting that folks rush out and buy something just because it's home-grown sci-fi/fantasy. I am one for saying that folks should get stuff that's good, and Advanced Warriors is just good enough.

Score: 7/10

Review by Iain Lowson