Written by: Phil Tippett
Rating: [3/5]
The ability for an artist to complete a vision they have long strived to accomplish deserves encouragement, especially something so painstaking and requiring blood, sweat, and tears. That sums up what Mad God represents as an artistic achievement, as it delivers something no other film will come close to fulfilling. In some ways that’s a good thing considering what we witness throughout the film.
A man called the Assassin descends down into a world with a map and a briefcase. As he arrives, he sees that this world is filled with monsters continually trying to consume each other, and now he has stepped into their line of sight.
Like taking a trip down to hell, Mad God paints quite the harrowing picture of a world no one would like to inhabit. A world full of filth, danger, and terror that makes for quite the playground for a director to play in. Light on the story, as the minimal synopsis indicates, this film has a character who does not speak and wears a mask, therefore making them emotionally inaccessible for the most part. This experience does not rely on its plot but rather the visual journey it seeks to take the audience on, and it surely leaves an impression.
Everything on a visual level with this film mightily impresses as the Assassin walks through this hellscape and sees some horrific monsters traversing. These designs make me wish Phil Tippett was given a psychological exam to investigate whatever the heck compelled him to craft creatures with these shapes. I mean all of that as a compliment if that’s not explicitly clear, seeing as it’s all incredibly admirable how he crafts a place I would never want to enter and makes it so compelling as the Assassin walks through it and tries his very best to avoid getting eaten in the process.
The best way to describe this film is a labor of love. As with any stop-motion animated film, the sheer number of hours necessary to piece something like this together takes some real dedication. In fact, Phil Tippett has been working on this film for the better part of twenty years on and off again until it finally saw its actual release. He had moments where he gave up and needed to be convinced to finish this project, and thankfully so, given what he put together here deserves a release for all to see what he crafted.
While I can provide plenty of praise for the film on artistic grounds, it does not make for the most compelling narrative. It operates essentially as a silent film but does not have the title cards to provide some context to the story. We can barely even see any emoting by the lead character because of him wearing a mask. This leaves the film at a bit of a disadvantage, with me given how much a strong story holds weight for me. It further defines why I sit in the camp of more so admiring what this film represents rather than actually enjoying the viewing experience. With all of the intricate and disgusting creations displayed throughout the film, it does not have the narrative strength to hold it all together, especially in the third act when things simply get too strange where some context would be helpful. Even with an under-90-minute runtime, the film just does not have enough in there to pad it out to a feature-length film.
The existence of a film like Mad God deserves plenty of praise. Seeing how a labor of love like this film sees the light of day after decades of work and delivers on the monstrosity of a world we see play out is a great day for cinema. It’s easy to get engrossed in this terrifying world and remain in awe of the vast world Phil Tippett crafts for all to see. I only wish it had a stronger narrative at the center of it all to completely win me over, but that was not in the cards on this occasion. Instead, we receive an admirable and incredibly impressive technical feat in the world of stop-motion animation that does not quite deliver on the front of making it a great film but still one that’s worth appreciating.
