ejonconrad

Post apocalyptic movies are probably my favorite genre, and I love Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton, so I was really looking forward to this movie. I also like musicals, but I did have my doubts about whether the two genres could mix.

Maybe they can, but not this time, because as a musical, it's *absolutely terrible*. The songs are so generic and bland that you forget them the minute they end. Seriously, I watched this last night and can't remember a single song. Michael Shannon does have a surprisingly good singing voice, but Tilda Swinton sounds pretty much exactly like you would expect Tilda Swinton to sound, and that's not good.

Setting the music aside, it's a pretty mediocre story. It's about a family and a few others living an "idyllic" life underground after some sort of never specified apocalypse. Things get shaken up when a newcomer arrives, and then.... well, not much happens. Certainly not enough to fill two and a half hours.

I'm glad I watched it on Hulu rather than wasting money at the theater.

This is an interesting story, but this series suffers from both padding and laziness.

First of all, not EVERYTHING needs to be a miniseries. This story could have easily been told in a 90 minute one-and-done documentary.

So you would think that be stretching it out to a four part series, they'd be able to do a deep dive into the details. Nope. You basically learn everything important in the first episode, and after that, they basically just keep looping over the same people, occasionally adding a new one, but never really fleshing out any interesting details.

For example, my wife is a nurse, and the first thing she asked was how she managed to fake so many pictures from inside hospitals. That's never even discussed. They also never really talk about the specifics of how they built the case against her.

When the final credits rolled, we looked at each other and said, "Is that it?"

I'm a little confused by the negative reviews. Did they seriously cue up "Chompy and the Girls" expecting an Oscar contender? If so, yeah, they were probably disappointed.

On the other hand, if you're looking for some over the top, campy fun, this will scratch that itch.

It starts with a girl trying and failing to commit suicide. In the next scene, she texts her father, who had knocked up her mother in college and was completely unaware of her existence. The two meet in a park, where they observe a man walk up to a young girl, open his mouth absurdly wide, and swallow her whole.

That's the setup. Where could it possibly go from there? Watch and see.

It's fun and full of surprises, but I dinged it a couple of points for getting a bit formulaic at the end.

Still, overall I found it very entertaining and I recommend it.