Jefferson_Jensen

This movie is okay for what it is. It's a pretty basic story about meteors that fly in from space and cause some urban destruction before things worsen when a space amoeba is realized from the smoldering meteors that turn people into zombies (this is not a spoiler, it becomes clear from the first ten minutes of the film). There are some pros and cons here. For one, if you're a horror fan like me then you'll spot that this zombie premise is an homage to Romero's classic "Night of the living dead" wherein the zombies are also caused my meteorite impact, so I did appreciate that as opposed to the more in vogue 'zombie virus' trope that was popular around the time of the movie's release. Also, this movie is well lit, it's easy on the eyes and the main actor, Justin Ray, stands out as a talented performer amid an unwatchable cast including actor Jerod Meagher who is so awfully overacting that it makes you beg for him to die off from scene one. This film has a weird mix of actors who seem either too timid to devote themselves to the situation or too reactive and they overdo it and I think that makes for a very disjointed viewing experience because everybody is reacting to threats in this movie with different levels of interest/fear and you start to wonder if these are actors or just friends of the director that he threw in front of the camera. The effects are okay for what they are, after all this is obviously an independent production and I don't fault the VFX crew because at the time of the release I'm sure that the smoke and debris overlays were considered decent looked better but looking at this in 2023 the CGI is obvious and looks cheap. As for the makeup FX, I think that they would've been better if the movie wasn't overly lit in those parts, revealing the flaws in them because let's be clear here, the zombies just look like people in Halloween store prosthetics, which CAN work in an indie film certainly but only if you're clever with the lighting and shadows. Another thing, the zombies never seem to be a threat due to how finite they are. Presumably the city is being overrun by thousands of these monsters and yet we don't see more than a handful across the course of the whole film. Again, I know that this didn't have much of a budget and they surely couldn't afford to hire lots and lots of extras for the story, but because they're so few zombies it feels like the stakes are low. For example, it'd feel much more invested to see a character I like being chased by 200 zombies rather than 3 because one is more intense and more visually interesting and the other reminds me of the budgetary issues this probably faced.

I saw this movie on the SyFy channel in the middle of the day years ago when I was in high school and if a movie is given the same timeslot as daytime TV that generally is a bad sign that it's just filler until prime time kicks in. I recalled liking it and watched it again recently only realize that now that I've wizened up with age that this film isn't amazing. It's watchable for sure, and again I'll note that Justin Ray did a good job but other than that this was a good idea executed poorly thanks to budgetary constraints, inconsistent acting performances and dated CGI. I'd honestly like to see a story like this remade with more money behind it because the story had potential.

I honestly didn't expect this film to be very good, especially given the lackluster Dungeons and Dragons film from the 1980's and the fact that I normally am not a fan of Chris Pine. However, this film was just completely fun to watch. The jokes land, the special effects are pretty great looking and the cast gave it their all! I think that this film also did a great job of being a stand alone fantasy film for those who aren't very family with Dungeons and Dragons, because while I'm a fan of the game, I went with my friend who doesn't understand a thing about it and they enjoyed it as well because of the world of the film is made very approachable and the way dialogue unfolds really helps give context. Overall, I'm glad I saw this in theaters and, while I'm not normally a fan of sequels, I'd be eager to see one for this film. The only reason I can't give a higher rating is because it's not very memorable. I loved watching the movie in the moment but now, a few weeks later, the storyline doesn't fully stand out to me. Overall though, great movie.

I saw this movie in theaters with my family when it first came out, despite the bad reviews. It's really a pretty good movie to watch casually or with kids obviously and I think that aside from some odd story points here and there, it was funny and competent. One odd thing to me was that the mother was British and the daughter and Uncle were not, and it took place in New York. I don't see why they didn't just opt to use an Americana accent, I doubt it'd be noticeable given that the mother was only on camera for 5 minutes or so out of the whole film. The CGI looked pretty great to me, which is interesting because I saw lots of critics deriding it but Clifford looked like a real dog in my point of view, especially when animated as a normal size early on in the film. Everybody pulls their weight when it comes to the cast, and John Cleese gives a standout performance as a charming and whimsical circus owner, though Tony Hale and Darby Camp are excellent too. Overall, this movie wasn't special, but it was good enough to see in theaters and didn't deserve to be reviewed so poorly.