Movie review: The Tesla Files

 Prompted by declassified CIA documents, researcher Marc Seifer, astrophysicist Travis Taylor, and investigative journalist Jason Stapleton explore the life and work of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest scientists in history.

Jonathan Adams (Narrator), Marc Seifer (himself), Travis Taylor (himself), Jason Stapleton (himself).

The Tesla Files begins by teasing us about the recreation of a Tesla experiment in which he caused light bulbs stuck in the ground to light. From there the film shifts gears and begins to look more like a conspiracy story. While Seifer seems mostly focused on connecting the dots in documentation, Taylor and Stapleton travel to several locations Tesla called home in hopes of discovering new secrets, which feels a bit misleading. For example, they imply the discovery of tunnels at Wardenclyffe is a surprise however, a quick search reveals archeology articles about the tunnels in 2016, two years before this series release. That said, the series is interesting and does gather quite a bit of information about Tesla in a friendly format.

Being a documentary there is not much acting. At the same time, it is quite obvious things are scripted for everyone, often resulting in awkward dialogue.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds are good and enjoyable. I don't know that the film shows you anything the public can't see if they wish, but it did bring a variety of locations together nicely. Dialogue was okay, though infrequently repetitive. Sound and soundtrack are okay.

Overall if you have interest in Nikola Tesla this series does a decent job of showing us the variety of things Tesla worked on or created, experiments of his which have been recreated, and where information about him is found bringing us up to speed. It does not seem to add much new information not already known.

Nothing here to limit audience age.

Released: 2018
Reviewed: 4.21.21
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Documentary, History

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