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Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy (MGSP), directed and starred in by Giacomo Talamini, is a nonprofit, fan-made Metal Gear Solid movie.  Over a span of 8 years, Talamini has worked on the project and, although it has been a long process, full of mishaps and just plain bad luck, the film was completed.  And it is pretty freakin’ sweet.  

The project started off in 2002, when two Italian high school students, Talamini and his friend, Gialunca, were playing Metal Gear Solid 2.  The game had a significant impact on them, driving them create a movie.  After they started filming, Giacomo realized their inexperience in film making and after a couple years, the project had run out of steam and the group, then Shamrock Creations, lost motivation.

After being somewhat abandoned, members of the project, who saw the project as more than a mere pastime, met in Venice to discuss.  Deciding to continue, the group changed their name to Hive Division and started pre-production: storyboards, computer graphics, searching for locations, etc.  The new plot spanned over 3 hours and was divided into three parts.  After shooting and editing, the movie was released on September 27th.

MGSP starts soon after Solid Snake has teamed up with Philanthropy, an organization created to stop the widespread of Metal Gears.  “The Overnight Nation,” Part 1, follows Snake, sent by Harrison Bishop to rescue Abraham Bishop, a politician with answers as well as Harrison’s father.  Snake teams up with mercenaries, Pierre Leclerc, a capable sniper, and Elizabeth Laeken, a soldier with a background.  By rescuing Abraham, Philanthropy hopes to find out more about “The Overnight Nation,” a uniting of two countries, who were at each other’s throats, overnight.

When I first visited the site, all I saw was a video to download or stream and not much else.  Within the week of release, Hive Division created a full blown website with some extra behind the scenes content to boot.  The new website has various media, backstage pics, press links, and some FAQ’s.  It’s pretty simple In general, but it looks good and gets the job done.

MGSP itself, as I said earlier, is plain awesome.  While some scenes you can definitely see the budget constraint, others leave you with your jaw hanging.  The action sequences were what I feared most coming into the movie, but ended up better than many Hollywood films.  None of the action seemed tacked on just to have action; each sequence furthered the plot or was necessary for the story to continue.  I won’t talk about too much so as not to reveal anything, just know that grenades are sweet and headshots are amaaaaaaazing.

Italy was probably the perfect location for Hive Division to shoot their film.  History Lesson: During the Industrial Revolution lots of factories were opened in rural areas.  Many were abandoned.  MGSP takes place mostly in a rural area with a factory.  Perfect!  This unique scenery is something I don’t think I’ve seen before, but I’m seriously hoping others take advantage of.  The shots with combinations of the green, hill filled background and grey concrete and steel are beautiful.

My other concern with the film was the acting.  In my head I’m thinking, “Dude, no one can pull of Snake.  He drips of manliness.”  Clearly I was wrong.  Yeah, so some of the acting was a little stale.  I seriously don’t care.  I didn’t pay to see the movie and I know it’s done by, essentially, first time actors.  Based on this, I’d say the acting was superb.  These guys aren’t getting paid and are working in their free time, yet still end up performing better than Dragon Ball Evolution, a $45 million piece of crap.  Mad props to Talamini for both directing MGSP and acting as Snake.

My biggest problem with MGSP is the name.  Why would a group based on destroying Metal Gears name themselves Philanthropy?  Because seriously, if I destroyed giant nuke-launching-capable-of-earth-destroying robots, I’d name my group “Badasses from Manly-land that Destroy Big Ass Robots” . . . you get the point.  Aside from that, Hive Division did a seriously awesome job.  

MGSP is completely deserving of Metal Gear status.  It has a relatively large fan base and has generally received good press.  I know I praised it profusely, so much so that it might seem over the top.  Maybe.  But that’s how surprised and pleased I was after finishing the film.  If the first chapter is anything to make a base off of, the next two will be nothing short of amazing.