When I first read the premise for the upcoming film Branded, I thought it sounded like an intriguing concept; a thoughtful, satirical science-fiction film that would potentially be right up my alley. Then I watched the trailer and I was both confused and repulsed by the terrible special effects. Maybe that’s not a fair reaction since it is actually a low budget Russian film and the cartoony CG seems like it is intended to be trippy and psychedelic. Still, I think this might be a hard sell for a lot of moviegoers.

The movie takes place in a dystopian future where advertising essentially controls the population. When one former marketing exec starts to have visions of strange creatures influencing people’s actions, he realizes that there is a conspiracy going on and he launches a plan to stop it. The movie seems very reminiscent of John Carpenter’s They Live but with the indie sensibility of something like Monsters. The cast includes Max von Sydow, Leelee Sobieski and Jeffrey Tambor and it is scheduled to hit theatres sometime this fall; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.