Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (3189)

Content

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The 5th wave (2016) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019

The 5th wave (2016)

2016 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

5.9

(28 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Films about invaders from space have been a staple of film and television since the golden age of cinema. Playing on many Cold War fears in the aftermath of W.W.II, aliens bent on destruction has been an enduring staple of cinematic culture.

In the new film “The 5th Wave” which is based on the book of the same name, Chloe Grace Moretz plays Cassie, a teen who has her entire life turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious craft. A few days after the arrival of “the Others” as they are known, a pulse wipes out all electronics on the planet. This is soon followed by tsunamis and earthquakes as well as disease and death.

Cassie along with her father and brother find shelter but their community is soon disrupted by the arrival of the military who say that the invaders are now amongst them and posing as humans.

The military under the leadership of Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) has a plan to train the children to spot and defeat the alien invaders thus setting in motion the main conflict of the film. The secondary story consists of Cassie attempting to reunite with her family and her relationship with a mysterious stranger named Evan (Alex Roe).

The film is clearly aimed at a young adult market and as such I was able to spot the big twist in the film a long ways off as the clues were blatantly obvious to me. That being said, the film is better than you might expect and being the first chapter in a trilogy of books does set up the possibilities of sequels.

The dialogue and acting is pretty groan inducing at times, but again, remember the target audience, the film should entertain and it is nice to see Moretz deliver a solid performance in what in many ways could have been a limited role.

While it is not going to make you forget “The Hunger Games” anytime soon, the film is still a decent escape for those willing to overlook the flaws.

http://sknr.net/2016/01/22/the-5th-wave/

Kudos

Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Brightburn (2019) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019

Brightburn (2019)

2019 | Horror

7.0

(63 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Super Nasty

Brightburn is a short film that moves at a blistering pace but its the calm moments where the movie truly shines. Brightburn successfully turns the entire superhero genre on its head going almost full horror movie on us & while it does fall into the trap of using to many horror cliches its a really interesting, fun & stand out movie. If I were to compare it I'd say its a mix of A Quiet Place, Midnight Special & The Children leaning towards the horror side of things more than anything else but there are sprinkles of Scifi & obviously dabs of Superhero here & there. Visually its such a looker the screen often painted fully in deep inky blackness with the only thing breaking it up being the warm glow of natural light coming from a lamp or street light. This not only helps create great atmosphere but heightens tension by limiting the viewers vision perfectly. There are neat swaps between camera techniques too eg from an almost raw found footage style to a really cool slightly obstructed first person scene. Action doesnt disapoint & the film makes the viewer wait for its violence & big pay offs making it more impactful when it finally hits. Acting is great & Elizabeth Banks clearly steals the show here. Theres a running comparison of Brandon to predatory animals such as a wasp, jellyfish or Wolf & I found the creepiest elements of the film were the slower paced scenes where we see him discover, adapt & learn how to evolve into a more successful killing machine (ie studying human anatomy) & also the impact of his actions begin to tear up his happy home & constantly disappoint his loving parents. Theres a big metaphore about adoption & the difficulties it can bring for both the new parents & the child (especially when the child hits the age where questions need to be answered) & at one point I wondered if that was really the overall message the film was actually trying to relay because this scene was so full of realistic emotion. Brightburn at times can be very predictable & show its budget constrains too but as a first film I really did dig its format & would definitely like to see a sequel or two to it for sure.