Starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Emily Van Camp, and Christopher Meloni
Directed by Alex and David Pastor
Directed by Alex and David Pastor
Some form of deadly virus has swept across the United States (the world? Who knows...we're not really told), killing nearly everyone. There are a few survivors and this movie follows four of them -- two brothers, the older bro's girlfriend, and some other girl who (maybe?) is friends with the younger brother. They travel across the US, looking for food, shelter, and, well, I'm not really sure what else.
The movie overall is very vague. Yes, there's a virus, but we don't really find out what the virus does and we certainly don't find out why the virus spread so quickly. There's a lot of open-endedness here. Part of me kind of liked that the film didn't answer all my questions. But the film isn't quite good enough to earn a complete pass on the vagueness.
However, despite that, I kind of liked this movie, and in better hands than the writer-director Pastor duo, this could've been a really interesting character study. A film focused solely on four young adults and their coping with this apocalyptic barren world could've been kind of cool. And it was kind of cool, but only kind of, and that's where it falls short. Looking back on it now, it's one set-up followed by another set-up followed by another, and we're just slowly moving from scene to scene without any real emotional build-up or rise in tension.
I thought the acting was fine, but there were some horribly written lines here and no one could have really delivered them any better. Chris Pine was quite good in Star Trek and I actually think he was okay here (although he started to falter at the end). Similarly, Piper Perabo was okay, but her role started to fall apart as the film progressed (not her fault, though). Emily Van Camp and Lou Taylor Pucci (who is he and why did he get top billing?) were adequate in their roles.
So, the thing is, this isn't going to get a rating that falls into the recommended category or even in the "recommended for some" category, but it came pretty darn close. There's a good movie in there somewhere...it's a shame that the filmmakers weren't a little more adept at molding it into one.
The movie overall is very vague. Yes, there's a virus, but we don't really find out what the virus does and we certainly don't find out why the virus spread so quickly. There's a lot of open-endedness here. Part of me kind of liked that the film didn't answer all my questions. But the film isn't quite good enough to earn a complete pass on the vagueness.
However, despite that, I kind of liked this movie, and in better hands than the writer-director Pastor duo, this could've been a really interesting character study. A film focused solely on four young adults and their coping with this apocalyptic barren world could've been kind of cool. And it was kind of cool, but only kind of, and that's where it falls short. Looking back on it now, it's one set-up followed by another set-up followed by another, and we're just slowly moving from scene to scene without any real emotional build-up or rise in tension.
I thought the acting was fine, but there were some horribly written lines here and no one could have really delivered them any better. Chris Pine was quite good in Star Trek and I actually think he was okay here (although he started to falter at the end). Similarly, Piper Perabo was okay, but her role started to fall apart as the film progressed (not her fault, though). Emily Van Camp and Lou Taylor Pucci (who is he and why did he get top billing?) were adequate in their roles.
So, the thing is, this isn't going to get a rating that falls into the recommended category or even in the "recommended for some" category, but it came pretty darn close. There's a good movie in there somewhere...it's a shame that the filmmakers weren't a little more adept at molding it into one.
The RyMickey Rating: C-
Speaking of Dystopian movies, The Road got a standing ovation at The Telluride Film Festival.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it, Justin, but I'm not really loving the trailer anymore. I wanna see as little about it as possible in these weeks leading up to it.
ReplyDelete