Cyre2067
The Living Force
Just caught the new remake of Body Snatchers and figured I'd give my two cents. Overall the movie was good, it takes place in DC which is a familiar local for me, so a lot of the cinematography was recognizable. The acting was believable and pretty good compared to what makes it to the big screen these days. There was also a lot of hint dropping; what do i mean by this? well basically the Iraq War was mentioned multiple times, Katrina was also referenced, and there are various scenes where the news or the radio is on in the background and discussing current events. So very apropos given the subject matter.
The plot was interesting: Shuttle crash results in contaminated materials being thrown across multiple states, anyone who touches it gets 'infected' with some alien bacteria/fungi that becomes active when you sleep(esp liked that part, great reference). After sleeping you wake-up and are under the control of some alien entity which remains formless, unidentified. The weird thing is that the alien can only distinguish humans by overt displays of emotion. You can 'trick them' by remaining calm, robotic and not letting your emotional state displayed outwardly.
This is where the good acting comes in, a lot of the non-humans did a good job at appearing eerily emotionless, calm, yet inhuman. While Nicole Kidman did a great job of faking the non-human state. She also does a lot of mothering, which was very believable and in one dinner scene she eloquently shoots down the "All of us could be animals in the right situation" theory. Thou i must admit, that bit is the one piece of propoganda i picked up on in the film, the twist that accompanies a lot of truth.
The one part I didn't like was the ending(SPOILER WARNING), a dramatic chase scene followed by a rooftop-helocopter escape with alien zombies at their heels, and a little science and everyone's fine. There wasn't even a dramatic hint of a possible sequel. So while the movie itself is good the end just leaves one feeling a bit empty, unsatisified. Maybe that's the point - the problem itself still exists IRL and it hasn't been solved, therefore it's not over... i was a little anxious going to bed thou.
The plot was interesting: Shuttle crash results in contaminated materials being thrown across multiple states, anyone who touches it gets 'infected' with some alien bacteria/fungi that becomes active when you sleep(esp liked that part, great reference). After sleeping you wake-up and are under the control of some alien entity which remains formless, unidentified. The weird thing is that the alien can only distinguish humans by overt displays of emotion. You can 'trick them' by remaining calm, robotic and not letting your emotional state displayed outwardly.
This is where the good acting comes in, a lot of the non-humans did a good job at appearing eerily emotionless, calm, yet inhuman. While Nicole Kidman did a great job of faking the non-human state. She also does a lot of mothering, which was very believable and in one dinner scene she eloquently shoots down the "All of us could be animals in the right situation" theory. Thou i must admit, that bit is the one piece of propoganda i picked up on in the film, the twist that accompanies a lot of truth.
The one part I didn't like was the ending(SPOILER WARNING), a dramatic chase scene followed by a rooftop-helocopter escape with alien zombies at their heels, and a little science and everyone's fine. There wasn't even a dramatic hint of a possible sequel. So while the movie itself is good the end just leaves one feeling a bit empty, unsatisified. Maybe that's the point - the problem itself still exists IRL and it hasn't been solved, therefore it's not over... i was a little anxious going to bed thou.
