Gifted, The Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  10/27/2009

The Little Details

Running Time: 80 min.

Production Date: 2 / 3 / 2009

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Alektra Blue, Kaylani Lei, Mikayla Mendez, Rachel Roxxx, Alan Stafford, Barrett Blade, Rocco Reed, Voodoo

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Michael Raven is easily one of the best directors in adult movies today and only seems to be getting better. I can't help but look forward to every movie he makes.

Initial Reaction: It's quite possibly the most poorly written script for a Wicked release I've seen, and the sex isn't much better.

Who Should Watch It : Extreme fans of the stars

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting a well written adult feature

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects leave a bit to be desired. The audio is pretty good through much of the movie, but either the audio and video aren't in synch during a fair amount of the opening sex scene or it might have been dubbed. Either way, the audio felt completely off for it. The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen and looks okay. The camera work is smooth and there's a touch of grain to the presentation, but the lighting for the sex scenes is always extremely low and only seems to come up for some of the setup sequences. This gives the movie an odd feeling that just didn't work for me.

Music: The music is nicely done. It has a soft feeling and rests quietly in the background throughout the movie.

Menus: The main menu works from a quick clip of the movie to the boxcover blended with a bit of the movie for a pretty good first impression. The chapter menu, as usual with Wicked, shows very little effort and just lets you choose a scene based on a scene number and a small clip from each scene.

The Feature

Alektra knows there's something different about her, but just doesn't know what. When her boyfriend hits it big and they break up, she finds herself drawn to an old house for a place to live. There she meets Mikayla and Kaylani, who know she's a witch and set out to help her realize her talents.

Although Barrett wants to learn his lines for an upcoming part, brunette Alektra wants him to play with her. After teasing him with her tits a bit he gives in to toss the script aside and kiss her mouth and tits instead. His kisses continue as he moves south to eat her pussy, and then lets Alektra suck and stroke his cock in return with a bit of titty fucking mixed in. Alektra lets Barrett fuck her missionary style before getting on top for a cowgirl ride with plenty of spanking mixed in. Alektra mixes in a little cocksucking as she fucks him, and then finally suck and strokes him to a nice facial finish.

This is an okay scene. There's good chemistry between them as well as some nice energy. The audio for the scene, however, holds the scene back and often feels like it was dubbed in or slightly out of synch. Throw in some unnecessarily low lighting with only two sex positions and you have a scene that isn't bad, but also doesn't really shine in any way. This is a pretty average scene that left me underwhelmed.

Barrett lays back and lets Brunette Rachel mouth his manhood to start the second scene. The action cuts to him fucking her doggie style before they spoon. Finally, Rachel gets down to let Barrett spew his seed over her face before she sucks out the last bit.

This is another average at best scene. Once again the lighting seems unnecessarily dark, and only having two positions really limited the scene. There is nice chemistry between Barrett and Rachel, and she does put out some nice energy as she fucks him. At the same time, Barrett's ego held the scene back a bit even though some of the setup for the scene was about Barrett's ego going wild and him needing other women. I just couldn't get into this scene much.

Kaylani gets it on with Alan to try to ease some of her appetite. They kiss before moving to the bed where Kaylani lays back for Alan to kiss her mouth, tits, and pussy. Kaylani sucks Alan's cock in return before riding him cowgirl style. She also lets him spoon her before Alan pops on her tits.

This is another okay scene. Kaylani and Alan seem to have nice chemistry and keep the action moving at a nice pace. At the same time the low lighting and only having two positions in the scene left it seeming all too limited. This was an average scene, but not much more.

After guiding Alektra in a little revenge with her gift, Kaylani and Mikayla help to initiate her. The girls kiss a little and help each other strip down before Alektra get sin the middle to eat Kaylani and Mikayla tongues her. Alektra keeps tonguing Kaylani as they move around to put Kaylani in the middle eating Mikayla, Mikayla also takes s turn in the middle eating Alektra while Kaylani eats her. Finally the scene fades out feeling like there's still plenty to go.

This is a disappointing scene. The girls all do a nice job eating and being eaten, but this scene seems like an effort in redundancy. There's really only one position in the scene that's just repeated three times, and due to the low lighting if not for little details like Kaylani's sexy thigh high boots and Mikayla's neck tattoo it's hard to even notice the girls trading positions. This was an extremely forgettable scene.

When Alektra's neighbor Rocco stops by, she can't help but use him to feed her sexual appetite. She pulls him in and kisses him against the wall while they strip down before he sucks her tits and rubs her pussy. She sucks his fingers after he fingerbangs her and then drops down to suck his cock as well. Alektra lets Rocco fuck her from behind against the wall before they move to the floor to fuck reverse cowgirl style. Finally Alektra strokes Rocco onto her tits.

Not surprisingly, this is yet another scene that can't make it past the average mark. There's only two positions and very low lighting, but this scene takes a step backwards by seeming like it tries to see how long it can make the first position last. This scene had good potential, but never made much use of it.

The Gifted is easily one of the weakest releases I've ever seen from Michael Raven. All right, a lot of the blame shouldn't go to him, as the scripting is poor even by porn standards. There's a bit of a story here, but it's almost completely given in voiceovers rather than having the cast actually attempt to act and show a sense of a story. Sadly, the sex is just as weak. Every scene except for the group scene is limited to two positions, and the group scene only uses one position with the girls moving around three times. Throw in low lighting for all of the sex, and even though it's very well done low lighting it leaves the action feeling extremely limited and boring. The cast shows some nice potential for acting as well as fucking in The Gifted, but due to a very poorly written script and limited sex scenes never lets them get close to showing their full potential.

The Extra Stuff

Trailers are included for Making Amends, Whack Job, Deceived, Hardcore Cougars, The Wicked, Kissing Girls, Almost Perfect, and Bound. The photo gallery lasts about four minutes with about seven seconds per decent looking snapshot or full screen photo. There's also a bonus scene, a behind the scenes featurette, and some of the usual Wicked extras.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts about fifteen and a half minutes. Michael Raven starts out working with the cast before Kaylani and Alan get it on shooting their scene. Between shooting some of her scenes with Mikayla and Kaylani, Alektra talks about guys coming on her. Kaylani also has a few words about her upcoming schedule and food. After shooting Alektra's scene with Rocco it moves to Barrett and Rachel getting busy for their scene. There's a few words with Alektra before she gets it on with Barrett for the opening scene. Finally Michael Raven gives a little rundown of the movie. This is an okay behind the scenes featurette. The focus seems to be on shooting the scenes more than it is chatting with the stars and showing off them as people, which is where Wicked behind the scenes featurettes so often shined for me in the past. This left me a little disappointed with this featurette, but didn't disappoint me quite as much as the movie did.

The bonus scene comes from Heavy or Hell. Alektra starts out sucking and stroking Voodoo's cock as he lays back on a bed. She mixes in a little titty fucking before letting Voodoo lick and finger her pussy in return. She urges him on as he eats her before having him move up to fuck her missionary style. Alektra moves around to ride him reverse cowgirl style before having him spoon her. Finally Alektra gets down and has Voodoo blow his load around and in front of her eager mouth.

This is a very nice scene. There's great chemistry between Voodoo and Alektra, and they look like they're putting out plenty of effort trying to please each other. The scene moves at a nice pace and there's some very nice attention given to the lighting and camera work. This scene worked quite well for me.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, titty fucking, group, and lesbian

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Condom Usage: 100%

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many Wicked DVDs can be found for between about $17 and $25 with several stores offering them near the low end. Rent this one before you shell out anything like that kind of money. The movie is poorly written with sex that leaves plenty to be desired. The technical aspects also leave a bit to be desired and due to a lackluster behind the scenes featurette the extras don't add much either. This is the most disappointing Wicked release I've seen in a very long time.

Note to Wicked Pictures: I guess everybody makes a bad decision once in a while...

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight