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Strange film. Basically, a probe unknowingly returns an alien egg or something to Earth. Fast forward a few years and the northern half of Mexico has become a quarantine zone, with a here-there-be-monsters warning. Of course, given this setup, it's inevitable that our heroes will find themselves in this zone. Despite that exceedingly cheesy sounding summary, it's not at all what you might expect. It features unknown (but very good) actors, which is one of the film's strengths -- you don't immediately say "Ah, that's Ving Rhames" and settle in for alien-blasting goodness. Instead, you allow the movie to develop the characters and even moreso play to it's greatest strength, which is incredible world-building. The world they present is 100% believable, aided in no small part by sets that will have you wondering how the hell they pulled it off; CGI usage is sparse as far as I can tell, but the ruins of cities our protagonists wander through are just fantastically executed. But the movie knows that's where its strengths lie, and action is very sparse with only two big setpieces. This is a movie exploring the world and the relationship between the characters in a science fiction setting and tells a much smaller tale than, say, Independence Day, and the pace can drag a bit at times. And the CGI at the end is second rate and I found it a bit distracting, and I wasn't too impressed with the design of the aliens. Those nitpicks only slightly detract from the overall experience. If you're in the mood for an atmospheric, moody, desolate science fiction film I'd strongly recommend it; think closer to Children of Men than Aliens or Battle for LA. 3.5 / 5
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| # ¿ Apr 6, 2011 05:14 |
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| # ¿ May 23, 2013 12:22 |
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