Rating:

I was actually expecting more judging by the trailers, but that’s how it usually ends up. The trailers showing a selection of two minutes of the best parts of the movie and the rest turns out to be boring garbage. Well this one is not completely boring and not really garbage, but it’s an experiment that failed to deliver. The idea itself is pretty awesome – some aliens come and turn on the blue lights, that are extremely attractive to humans, draw them near and the aliens snatch them to supposedly eat their brains. Or something. And we have a couple of people trapped in a fancy hollywood apartment building trying to survive. Of course we get the whole package here : There’s the military, there are their failing attempts, there’s confusion and some nice special effects. But behind it all we get a sci-fi thriller that could’ve been so much better. In fact, the main problem with it is the overcomplication. The directors were probably trying to create a cult classic, so they didn’t say much on what’s going on and why. The purpose of the aliens is unknown, except for the fact that they kidnap people.

This should be a good thing, right? I mean plenty of room for interpretations, blog posts and such. Well I’m gonna be honest with you – this movie is just another version of Cloverfield. Which I think was a good movie for a couple of reasons outside of the obvious (how it was shot).
First of all there was something going on in the city, destruction, panic. Movement. Action.
Second of all – we also don’t know where the monster came from, but we can very well assume that it’s only here to destroy things and not “consume our knowledge” or “flicker some lights”. The point is – if you want a character driven story you’ve got to have action. And action in here takes about 10% of the time, the rest is supposedly used to build tension, but seriously, it doesn’t do that very well.

Sure the action sequences are pretty good. But also there are cliches and even terrible banalities like a kiss in a very defining moment of the movie.

I’m not saying that I need to know the purpose of the aliens, but the ending clearly shows that they’re either waiting for a second part, or the movie wasn’t about the aliens at all. That it was rather about how people react to situations in which they don’t have any control and idea of what’s going on. But if it’s the latter the acting wasn’t convincing enough. If it’s the aliens there wasn’t enough action. And I do think this could’ve been an awesome movie. Really. The basic concept is great. Too bad the directors seem undecided what they want to accomplish here. Worth a watch but no cult classic status just yet.