Pros- You figured out my first incentive...Katee. It's not that I have a woman-crush on her, but she was the lead female actress in Battlestar Galactica, so I think she is uber talented and haven't seen her in anything except BSG. You see the intrigue? Next interesting concept is that Nathan Fillion was the male lead opposite her in the film. Guess what he stars in? Firefly, which I admit I have never seen, but it's another sci-fi series, so I would probably enjoy it.
ANYWAY, I started to watch the film, and was instantly hooked. It started out with the text on the screen describing statistics on near-death experiences and then cut away intermittently to horrific and ghastly images...it was brilliant! You don't want to look because the images are scary, but you have to because the information is crucial. Well played. Like Insidious, this movie had very unexpected and crazy-scary pop-up moments. They were well-executed, and not overdone, so bonus points for that. I also really enjoyed the plot of this movie as it ties in a lot of spirituality and other worldly concepts to the story. I also liked that it initially portrayed positives and negatives of Abe's condition after his failed suicide. He was able to see when people were about to die, and thus was able to save their life. The film, however, did not neglect to show the downside of having supernatural powers, hence the creepy, mutant-faced spirits that often haunt him throughout the film.
Lastly and most importantly, as this is my first review to noticeably embrace this concept, was the symbolism included in the cinematography.
"According to Henry Dreyfus, it is popularly felt that red, the color of blood and fire, represents life and vitality." http://www.three-musketeers.net/mike/colors.html
I already had a good idea what the color red symbolized, but I researched it a little further to get more specifics. There were a few shots in the movie that not only included the color red, but innately focused on it. A dark colored scene with a red neon light flashing in the background, a scene at night with a dark building and a red jeep pulling up. Even without the use of red, there was a tiny instance in a scene where a neon light in the shape of a cross is hidden in the background. I have to say, I was pretty impressed that I even noticed these things, since I have a tendency to be aloof at times, but I really appreciated and valued the director's attention to detail. The only reason I even thought to take notice is that it is also done in the movie "The Sixth Sense", but it's still a very clever concept. Kudos!
Cons- This, for once, is the short list- hooray! First of all, it is not news to you that I really like Katee Sackhoff...but her hair in this movie is all kinds of wrong. It looks cute, but she's got these goofy, overly bright extensions in a variety of colors. When mixed with her platinum blonde hair, it looks like she let a first grade art class go to town with colored markers in her hair- not super flattering.
The next thing that was odd to me was the manner in which one of the characters' lives is saved. This girl turns around and accidentally spills this man's coffee all over him when she bumps into him. He starts getting so pissed that he makes lewd comments to her, insinuates she's a hooker, and slaps her ass as she turns around. I mean, really, that's like the bare minimum wrath someone should incur for doing such a blasphemous, horrendous deed. I'd have made her lick it up off the ground and then kicked her. Seriously? I thought the guy was a weeeeeeee bit extreme, but it's a movie, so I guess that has to happen every once and again.
Also slightly irksome was the ending's pace. Maybe I'm just slow on the uptake, but a lot of things happened in such a short period of time that I couldn't really keep them straight. I like that the ending didn't go exactly where you thoguht it would, but I had a hard time following it in ways. Could just be me, though.
And last but not least was my least favorite part...I literally scoffed out loud. Katee's character is widowed from a man who was a music teacher- kick ass job. Anyway, she is describing him and his work to Abe and says "Yeah, I loved his approach with kids. He didn't bother with any of that Do-Re-Mi crap." GASP! For those of you who know me, you can imagine my disapproval. Also, they showed his students singing a benefit in his honor, and let me tell you- kids that age DON'T collectively sing that well. Unless they're British.
Wrap-up- Great movie! I was so pleasantly surprised by it, and am glad I watched it. One of my favorite parts of having this blog is that I now watch horror movies whether I think they will suck or not, which gives me the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised every once in awhile by a diamond in the rough like this one.
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