I also love the cast. Anything Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds do works for me, and Rebecca Ferguson has become quite a star in the past few years. Her performance in 'Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation' was very bad-ass and stole the show.
On the face of it, this film is exactly what you would expect from the similarities that I mentioned earlier. But while there is little new about it, there is a lot of fun to be had with this for pretty much the entire duration. The build-up to the ending was predictable. But it is probably as satisfying of a finale as it could have been.
The performances were pretty solid and moved the film along well. Gyllenhaal does as well as you would expect. However his character felt underdeveloped and dare I say weak at times. Rebecca Ferguson continues to prove how strong of a female actor she is. Ryan Reynolds was as playful as ever. But also had enough of a serious side to make you feel like his character belongs in this sort of film.
From the supporting roles, it was great to see Hiroyuki Sanada. He is one of Japan's biggest names and has made a pretty heathly living in America. As for the unknowns, Ariyon Bakare was a stand-out. I've never heard of this actor, and he gave a very memorable performance that easily matched the bigger names in this cast list. I also have to mention the good job Olga Dihovichnaya did as well.
I think the film's biggest strength is the directing from Daniel Espinosa. I haven't gone nuts over his previous films. But I think his work in this one was noticeable and made it his most enjoyable film to date. Also, the duration felt just long enough to not feel unwelcome or draining.
Any sci-fi film these days needs to have top-notch visual effects. They certainly didn't disappoint. It looked convincing and it flowed well with the live-action content and the design of the antagonist was a very good one.
The biggest surprise was how grounded the story was. I was certainly not expecting that, and that for me made the film much more memorable then it could have been. The use of music worked really well, especially during the tense scenes.
It's lacking of new ideas is its main weakness. It will struggle to stand out from any other sci-fi. But despite there being a lot of unoriginality, its execution of a successful concept made it a very enjoyable watch. This sort of story will win me and many other people over, as that story works really well when done right. For me, Espinosa and his team have done a good job.
I was hooked for pretty much all of it. I was scared and tense for a fair amount to have this be worthy of a horror as well as a sic-fi. It was certainly a lot more exciting then I was expecting.
As for the rumor that this film had, I would completely ignore it and not go into the film expecting it to be that.
Rating: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment