Search - The Besieged Fortress on DVD

Discoveriffic

Tricia M. Stacey | Virginia Beach | 11/03/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you like watching Discovery channel, this is right up your alley. Definitely too drawn out in certain parts and probably longer than it needs to be but awesome all the same. Who knew that Termites were an advanced society? Kinda joking, but it's seriously amazing. I know one of the other reviews said something about CG, but I think they just sped up some parts and played with lighting effects. After all, if you go stake out a termite nest for 2 years your going to have some crazy wild life epic-ness occur. It's not Hollywood type of drama, it's 'penguins' type of drama. Expect dramatized documentary. Ta da."

Besieged Mess

E. Thomason | Santa Clarita, CA | 10/12/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Set to the voice of a whispering John Cusack, and an overly emotional score, "Besieged Fortress" uses "macro-photography" to tell the story of ants versus termites. I'm not sure if there's a pretense that the movie is any kind of documentary, I don't think there is, but the emotion and anxiety that the film tries to produce, for me, was way too contrived.



If I'm wrong, to the filmmakers, I apologize - but watching this movie I could almost see animal trainers dropping insects, and other animals, in the frame to add to storyline (isn't that what Marlon Perkins was accused of?). It also looked like a fair amount of CGI had been used in some of the shots, but who am I to say.



I guess ultimately someone said, "Hey, we can get great shots of insects close-up, but we're not making a documentary, so who's got a story?"



With made-to-order sound effects, emotionally overbearing music and blatantly planted scenarios it would require a huge amount of intellectual dishonesty for this movie to do anything but make you regret you didn't rent or buy a real documentary.



Will most feel the same way? Maybe not, just don't expect to see a smart documentary. The footage is interesting at least."

Six-Legged Apocalypse Now

Aaron Gutsell | Clementon, NJ | 12/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yo straight-up, this is the greatest bugumentary ever made! There are all kinds of crazy camera angles inside this teeming megalopolis of seething insecticism, and at its horripilated core the heaving mass of the queen daily pumps out 30 000 drone-clones to feed the maw of evolution's fangs and claws. Weird purplish lights glint and glimmer inside the queen's body as the war drums that are the abdomens of weaver ants beat against quaking leaves and finally summon ant armageddon. A terrific battle ensues under lightning and rain, and the resultant walls of mud finally carry the dying, damned, and doomed down into the dark recesses of a dirt-and-spit labyrinth. John Cusack's narration is pitch perfect over top of the deathmatch, neither under- nor overstated as the micro is translated into the macro."

Very entertaining

Manuel Calavera | Ventura County, California | 10/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The macro photography of the termites, ants, and a few other insects is stunning. I found the action of the insects fighting to be more dramatic than most of the action films I've seen recently. If you are looking for a very entertaining movie about insects, here it is."