What makes it different from others?

Very Cool!!!

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

"Encrypt" is a medium-budget film that tries to do at least three genres simultaneously: post-apocalyptic sci-fi, commando-type action, and philosophical rumination on what it means to be a human or a machine. It achieves modest success in all three fields. Occasionally the budget constraints show through and it becomes a bit too talky, but in general the effects are pretty good and the relatively unknown actors play their parts solidly (the most familiar name is probably Vivian Wu, who appears exclusively as a hologram). The script is rather ambitious and concludes with a hopeful but not happy ending. If you can find this movie, it's worth a look. **1/2 out of 4.

"Encrypt" reminded me of "Resident Evil" without the zombies. A team of specialists led by a former major enters a building full of deadly traps, and a computer appears in the shape of a female person to talk to them - preparing death for them all, maybe. Anyhow, the character development is interesting in so far as Vivian Wu (playing the hologram) gets the opportunity to begin a relationship with the major, and being damned to immortality, she has a tragic edge. In a beautiful scene, the mercenaries discover a painting of her and realize how obsessed the hologram creator must have been with her when she was still alive. The whole post-apocalyptic scenery is nothing new, the hundreds of shot-shells used is what you expect for the genre, so in the end it's nothing unusual, but OK for the TV budget.

I switched to this movie because nothing else was on and expected the usual garbage that comes out of a "Sci-Fi Channel Original", due to low budgets and everything else. I was actually pretty impressed with the script when I took considerations for what TV writers have to go through in terms of rigorous formulas and budget crises. There were definitely some issues: was it really necessary to have a bad guy? What if the team really was going after what the hero thinks they are going after? The worst was that stupid robot Rook; although it's not a bad name for a robot, it looked like a 30s scifi plastic piece of junk. We could have skipped all of that. The psychological games between the hologram and the hero actually make up about 90% of this film anyway. The rest is just 10 minutes of silly subplot. Without any of the extra fluff and with a budget this movie actually had the potential to work.

Guys,As the author of the EnCrypt screenplay that was the basis for the Sci Fi Channel movie of the same name, I must point out that writers receive no credit when a film is good (because it's the result of the 'director's vision'), and often all of the blame when it's bad ("Man, this was a piece of crap! What was that writer thinking?") The EnCrypt film is not the spec screenplay I wrote, which, after all, was shiny enough to sell to strangers at the Sci Fi Channel. Another writer was brought in behind me and extensive changes were made resulting in the film you saw. If anyone is interested I'll email them the original spec screenplay. Judge for yourself what EnCrypt would have been in a perfect world.The world is not perfect.-- Richard Taylor