- Biggest gripe right off the bat; it's not clear from the get-go what Lena's motivation is for going into the shimmer. I ended up reasoning it out to myself halfway through their trek to the Lighthouse that because she's a biologist, she must be looking for a cure or some way of understanding what's happening to her husband. But overall, not very clear, and I didn't feel invested in her character as a result. Her husband was back in the regular world now. I feel like we needed to know more about what her thought process was that would justify her volunteering to go in.
- Why is it so scandalous that she hid her marriage to Kane from the team? It's sort of just assumed in the writing that we're gonna buy into their outrage if they find out (and shocker *eyeroll*, they did!!). But I wasn't very convinced that any of them would have any legitimate problem with learning that fact. It doesn't really compromise her character in any way. They had no idea what Kane was afflicted with yet, and he was in the same boat they found themselves in. I don't get it.
- I didn't really buy into Anya's character arc at all. She's a comic-relief character who initially seems to have no problem with the prospect of going into the shimmer, where teams of her colleagues have NEVER RETURNED FROM. She's jolly. Then midway through their trek she flips quite sharply to a character who's completely terrified about what she's witnessing, and immediately begins to distrust the team entirely. I know what you're gonna say, that it can be chocked up to the environment messing with her head and all that. But seriously... I really did not buy it at all, mostly because it just seemed unnaturally abrupt, and not setup well at all. The scene where she ties them up and goes apeshit seemed laughably forced.
- I found myself feeling like I was figuring out the situation much more quickly than the characters as they were discovering the anomalies of the shimmer world. By the 3rd or 4th time Lena came across some strange biological mutation, I was utterly bored. Yes, we get it. This is so BIZARRE and OUTLANDISH, but haven't you figured out what the hell is going on yet by now?? Why are you still surprised? And why are they all so utterly shocked to find out that many of the members of the older team died in there? Again, they NEVER RETURNED, and you all knew that. What did you expect had happened to them? They kept saying over and over "The first team were either killed by something in here, or they went crazy and killed each other." And yet it's an absolute SHOCK once they start finding evidence that they died...?
- The way this corporation, or government entity, or whatever it is, was going about trying to figure out the shimmer world seems entirely unrealistic to me. If you've already sent full teams in and they never returned while trying to reach the lighthouse, why would you KEEP sending more teams in with the exact same objective? I'm pretty sure they'd stop sending anyone in at all. Or start by sending a team just 5% of the way in, gathering data, then calling them back, and slowly figuring out more information in pieces. Lena collects more than enough DNA and other evidence within the first minute of them being in the shimmer. Why not return and analyze it at that point?
- A movie that does this FANTASTICALLY is 'Arrival.' Much more true to how scientists and the government would TRULY operate in that situation.
- Dr. Ventress' character is utterly laughable. She makes statements throughout that no real psychologist would ever say, and certainly not one who's qualified to be running this kind of operation. Such as "I think you're confusing suicide with self-destruction." As if suicide is an admirable act? And "You can't have a lawyer" made me laugh. So cliche. Again, chances are the government or a major corporation would not conduct an operation this way. Lena didn't choose to enter into this, you forced her, and now you're demanding she cooperate without answering questions, detaining her without cause, and no lawyer. It just seems very dramatic, unrealistic, and cliche compared to a movie like 'Arrival' that did it so much better.
- Ventress says early on that the shimmer will expand and engulf cities, then states, then countries, etc. Basically the world will be annihilated and that's why nothing matters now unless we find out the truth. That's quite a leap, one that a real scientist in that position would not make. Yes, they've observed that it's expanded for 2 years, but to a still relatively small area. They have no information at all that would tell them conclusively that it would engulf the entire planet (in a scientific sense). This is just thrown in there as exposition so that we get the point that "the whole world is doomed." Her character motivation (cancer) is thrown in as an afterthought when the scientist in the hazmat suit later on is criticizing Lena for following her decisions...?? Again, we find this out now once they're already 3/4 of the way to the lighthouse, not early on so that I'm more invested in the character's motives.
- The DRAMATIC memory loss the team experiences the first few days is never revisited again. Literally. Never. Think about it, they lose their memory so drastically that they don't even remember setting up camp or being there for 3-4 days already. But for the rest of the movie that never interferes with them again. They setup camp each night, wake up and move on again, remembering exactly where they're headed and what they're doing. No explanation is given for this; either why it happened just the initial time and never again, or if it's actually happening the whole time and they just stop noticing.
I think that's about it for now. I will post more if I think of them. I was extremely disappointed for most of the movie, and baffled about why there are so many glowing reviews everywhere. The last 30 minutes or so ARE pretty incredible, and provide some iconic cinema that I was not expecting at all given how most of the movie had been up til then. Visually, it is stunning throughout, and that's one area where I have no complaints. But still, overall this movie was very weak in my book in terms of writing, character development, exposition, editing, and acting.
Edit 1: Oh yes. Just remembered "It's a trick of the light!" Anya is reduced to a terrified screaming mess after just this one incident, already turning on her team and not believing that it's possible that something was moving inside the guy's gut..? Again, this is AFTER this supernatural "shimmer world" has engulfed this whole area for 2 years, teams of her colleagues went in and never returned, they've already witnessed tons of weird shit personally... But no, the huge worm-like things moving in his gut are a "trick of the light" because that's just too crazy to believe after EVERYTHING ELSE that's going on. Just stupid writing.
Submitted March 01, 2019 at 08:34AM by _mattyjoe https://ift.tt/2UevO59
