Columbia 2016 Color
112 Mins.
Sci/Fi
Chloe Moretz Grace, Live Schreiber, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, Alex Roe star.
Written by Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner
Directed by J Blakeson
Rated PG-13 for language and violence
Usually novels go through cinematic castration on their way to the screen. They end up changing the story and cutting parts out to save time. Sometimes they yield positive results like the original Maze Runner, Hunger Games and even the Twilight films and some times they don't fare as well such as The Mortal Instruments and countless others this one unfortunately falls into that category. It seems as though they've kept most of the base storyline and even changed some things to make more sense. But most of the liberties they've taken are dreadful and even if you haven't read the book the movie is pretty awful. Centering on a young girl in search of her brother during an alien invasion. The novel was promising and had subtext about individual identities and what it means to be human. All of that is gone here. This film is a crass, sloppy, amateur looking dud. Nothing connects on any level. All of the realizations are delivered with the subtly of a sledgehammer thus taking away any effect they could have had. The performances are pretty mediocre across the board, Moretz aside. But it's hard to blame the actors with the directionless direction and the insepid screenplay on display. It truly had me laughing out loud at points. There is no chemistry in the forced love triangle between Moretz, Robinson and Roe and Maika Monroe so good in It follows is an awful bad ass caricature of a real person as is the wasted Maria Bello as Reznik.Only Moretz seems to rise slightly above the material but even her "Cassie" feels limited and confusing. Add to that the fact that the effects are awful and seem right out of a SYFY channel movie and the film's cinematography is ugly most of the time and so dense and murky it's hard to see at others. Even the hair and makeup feels out of place more resembling a noxema commercial or a seventeen magazine photo shoot than the end of the world. This wanna be franchise starter/killer never gets off the ground and after a disappointing opening weekend it looks like we will thankfully not be getting any more sequels. It's a shame though because the concept merited a better execution. *.5/5
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