Radiant

The story here is a captivating one, four people three of which are accidentally infected by this man made virus which is suppose to kill off other viruses but hasn't been tested enough to be sure of what it really does. As they wonder and wait in fear to see what will happen they decide to flee into the desert rather than become guinea pigs in a lab somewhere and wait it out to see what happens without infecting other innocent people. I see some other reviews for Radiant that suggest that the film is boring, well I think one of the problems is the ways the film was promoted, this isn't your typical "Hollywood" zombie like film but it was never made to be that type of film. Instead this is a character driven sci-fi thriller that instead shows a much more realistic take on what could possibly happen in case something like this were to ever occur. In spots you can see where the film suffers a bit from it's low budget but over-all the settings and acting give the film a realistic feel, the cast did such a terrific job, I was taken in by their characters and really began to care for them. The story is slow but it is deliberate, you are not getting a horror film here but instead a science fiction film that is just that so don't go into this thinking you aer going to watch another "Resident Evil", and you are going to find it to be as thought-provoking as I did. I thought that the film-makers did a great job at creating a thinking man's sci-fi, the kind that are never made anymore. This is Writer/Director, Steve Mahone's debut film and if this is any indication of the kind of cinema we are going to see from this man then I certainly look forward to what he has to offer next. The bottom line is you need to know what you are getting here and I hope my take on it helps in doing so, if you get a chance to see the find do so and make your own mind up on how it is, I thought for the budget the story and characters did a terrific job at setting a mood that is certainly desperate.

If you suffer from insomnia then Radiant would be the best way to send you into a 7-year coma. The film is so preposterously overwrought and mundane that it's hard to imagine that director Steve Mahone could overlook such obvious dullness.

The story has an exiled Doctor (who we never get to see) move out into the desert to create a vaccine that will cure all diseases by filling the hosts full of antibodies that can combat any infection (yes, just like that episode of Futurama). The vaccines don't work and the human guinea pigs become infected with a virus that kills within 48 hours.

Not wanting to be caught by the Government guys in masks the group head into the desert for cover, hoping that the sunshine will kill the virus. All of this is narrated by Michael, the only one of the quartet immune to the infection. And it's the most boring narration ever. They could have cast someone with an interesting voice but instead we get someone with less vocal personality than Clive Owen.

On top of this the editor insists on fade-cutting more than half the movie, giving it a weird dream-like feel and increasing the audiences desire to go to sleep. It's no surprise that half of the audience walked out of this, I was not one of them for some reason. But I bloody well should have.

The ending is supposed to be shocking and clever and foreboding. But it's plain and simply not. A relief yes, but not dramatic in the slightest.

The utter cheapness of this production and muffled sound that renders a lot of the dialogue unintelligible cripples what could have been an interesting sci-fi story if it had better actors, cooler locations and a sense of urgency. As it is, Radiant is a snoozefest.

This movie is about a group of people who are infected by a powerful man-made virus. They are pursued by government men into the desert.

The premise of the film is quite interesting but is hampered by the fact that the delivery is extremely boring. At no point does the film engage with the viewer on any level. Granted, the miniscule budget is a problem but is not the reason for the film's failure. Much more at fault is the very po-faced delivery. There is a great deal of narration but, unfortunately, the narrator has an annoyingly over-dramatic voice. Very little seems to happen to these people and well before the end you will be rooting for the government men - the sooner they kill the protagonists the sooner the movie will end. A much better title for this film would have been Four People Run About In The Desert With Some Stock Footage Of A Helicopter. Overall, very tedious.

This movie is simply rubbish. I have to say I am an expert of rubbish movies. I reserve the "1" rating for movies that are rubbish but funny, but this film is just tedious and certainly not crappy in a funny way but crappy in a crappy way. It gets a "2" so those of you out there can distinguish between the ones that will make you laugh and the ones that will make you fall asleep. There are scenes in this movie where the actors are looking at something, their expressions are of amazement and there wide eyes and slack jaws tell the audience that what they are looking at is going to be profoundly amazing, this simply isn't it's just a cupboard or even more desert. It has to be pretty god damn awful for me to walk out, let me tell you, I walked out and so did quite a few people.

After reading the other reviews on this site, I wonder if I saw the same movie as everyone else.

Radiant is about four people, three of which are accidentally infected with a man-made virus with the purpose of purging the body of all other viruses. However, all of the prototypes of the virus up to this point have behaved in unpredictable ways, so no one is exactly sure what it does. When the characters are suddenly forced to make a decision between spending the rest of their lives as government lab rats or fleeing they choose to escape into the desert and allow the disease to run its course without infecting others.

At this point I'd like to agree with everyone else who has posted on this film: Radiant is indeed slow, but not in a bad way. The film deliberately takes its time to breathe in order to extend to the viewer the unease and eeriness that the characters are experiencing (think Wim Wenders on digital video). As each of them are waiting in extreme tension to see what happens so is the audience.

But the film is more than merely waiting. As the story unfolds, we begin to know the characters on an extremely intimate level. For all that they know this disease is going to kill them and as they all prepare themselves for that possibility they bond with each other in an unique and powerful way which the audience experiences too. And when it comes down to it that is what Radiant is about--connection. It explores human relationships in an original and in depth manner that left me speechless.

Radiant is a patient, very cerebral, deeply human film that deserves to be watched with an open mind. Kudos to you Steve Mahone for a remarkable and moving first effort.