Special effects win out over all else in Nicholas Ashe Bateman's THE WANTING MARE

According to the press release about this new film, "an intimate, dramatic fantasy epic written and directed by renowned digital artist Nicholas Ashe Bateman" (the filmmaker is shown below), the movie is "a technical marvel of digital world-building and independent ambition, the sprawling vistas, fantastical sights, and otherworldly tableaus of THE WANTING MARE were lensed almost entirely inside a warehouse in Paterson, New Jersey."

Yes, I have to admit that nothing I saw on screen at all reminded me, even in the least, of Paterson, New Jersey. Nor, unfortunately of the wonders I encountered in Jim Jarmusch's lovely film set in that city. While TrustMovies supposes that, yes, it is some kind of accomplishment to create a bunch of 

too often dark, muddy, rather ugly visuals that way too desperately try to conjure an alternate world via CGI effects plus whatever you've shot of characters moving across one of those "green screens" in a New Jersey warehouse, still, the end result needs to be measured against a film whose dialog and storyline somehow pull you in and carry you along. The Wanting Mare never even began to pull me in, and by its finale left me so annoyed and frustrated that I couldn't give a shit about anything except getting this tiresome twaddle the fuck over with.

The opening information alerts us to something about horses being transported from a warm climate to a cold one (yes, we do see a horse now and again during the movie), and we get some drivel about dreams, a newborn baby, a pretty young woman and a young man on the run. Soon we're moving between past and present time, encountering older and younger versions of our characters.

After awhile it becomes apparent that the filmmaker is simply feeding us a bunch of the usual movie cliches -- from the "quest" (this time for some much-vaunted "ticket") to boy/girl love story, masked men with guns, murder, vengeance, and must I keep going? -- which are somehow supposed to be more interesting when they are plastered onto a "timeless neverland" locale. And yet everything here seems utterly generic, including that "exotic" locale.

The images are consistently dark and muddy (seems to go with the territory when one is doing all CGI effects). Worse, Bateman's insistence on having his characters near-constantly gazing soulfully into the distance lengthens his movie by -- what -- one full third? (The content level here is nowhere near the actual running time.)

Some critics have described this thing as "poetic." Really? Only for those who have little appreciation for good poetry -- which is usually distilled. This film is instead bloated. Not wanting to beat a dead mare, I'll simply say that this is not my cup of.... anything at all. Rather than belabor any longer, I'll just offer you the viewing details below.

From Gravitas Ventures and running 89 minutes, the movie opened in theaters and via VOD on February 5. Click here for more information on the choices you have to watch this movie.