$hubes

6/10

I was really expecting to be wow'd by this documentary, especially since I have an avid interest in abandoned places. The film, however, even though it did have it's fascinating/heartbreaking moments, was a bit of a letdown... Well, no, not actually "a bit"; it was very much a letdown. It started out absolutely great, like it was going to be a top-notch documentary and the first...probably 30-35 minutes?...seemed like this was really going to be a great film. Right around the 35-38 minute mark, however, it just seemed to go completely flat, like they ran out of money and weren't sure how to finish this. It seemed to go from a top-notch, high-quality, professionally-produced documentary film to suddenly just being a couple of people with a video camera and some comments. For one thing, it really WAS - at one point - just a couple guys with a vidcam walking around with a flashlight exploring an abandoned amusement park. (That particular segment was, indeed, so poorly done that it actually had me wondering if they had permission to do this or had they just snuck onto the premises without warning anyone.) After that segment, it just continually "devolved" into where there wasn't much of interest. The whole part with the city, the different city leadership, the RFQs, etc just became (to me) completely muddled and had it not been for the closing captions, I probably would have been left wondering what (if anything) ever happened. Make no mistake: This was an amazing documentary and it started off really interesting. It just seemed to fall flat about halfway through and - much like the subject of the film itself - never really recovered. I'd still say it's worth watching, especially if you're fascinated with old abandoned places, as I am.