The live rhythm action bonanza
A silly scene in which a ball is thrown and becomes a killing machine makes us question what’s happening for real and what’s virtual.
It tries to do everything, as much as possible, in all ways, covering most genres. What results is movement too restrained when it comes to the occasional gymnastic tumble and too flowery for modern dance; precise actions that don’t quite line up (as in the wickedly clever half projections that form a full person) and morsel jokes that almost land (words instead of images of favourite movie scenes; “stupid” muttered at the perfect moment).
So much of this is innovative: Phantomine uses different scales and varying perspective to narrate its own dungeon-crawling 3D adventure. A silly scene in which a ball is thrown and becomes a killing machine makes us question what’s happening for real and what’s virtual. But the former is too scary for younger children and the second overly long.
Siro-A does at least speak a language children understand: frantic Fruit Ninja / Mario mayhem (although references to The Matrix and ET would be indecipherable to some). One feels that most teens are too tech savvy to be amazed by this stuff, and could almost piece a similar routine together on an iPad if they happened to have some serious lighting equipment to hand.
Amuse Inc. is a talented, multi-skilled set of performers, but they can’t bring anything riveting to the table without large-scale troupe acrobatics and more thought about what their spectacle aims to do. Otherwise they might appear more like court jesters than the talented dancers/DJs/techno wizards they can be.
