Stephanie Myers (the Twilight author) strikes again. One of her books is the basis for this poorly received sci-fi film except that a lot of the same legions that stormed the theaters for Twilight didn’t show up to see this movie. That’s what really matters since nobody would much care what a critic thought of this movie, but I’ll admit that I (surprisingly) didn’t hate it.
What Works: The film may be dumb, lazy, anti-climactic, and suffering from a serious lack of energy (it’s two hours that feels like three), but I found myself admiring parts of it. Why? Well, it’s very different from most dystopian, the-aliens-have-invaded-and-made-us-slaves movies. For one thing, the aliens aren’t entirely hell-bent on Earth’s destruction or humanity’s extinction. In fact, it’s weird how non-concerned most of the aliens are with the remnants of humanity that are fighting back. There’s a much more serene, peaceful mood to this film than most destroy-the-world sci-fi films and it’s juuuuuust original enough to make me feel like I didn’t completely waste two hours of my life watching it (unlike G.I. Joe). Sequences set in underground desert tunnels where wheat is being harvested through the light off a mirror’s reflection are just innovative enough to keep you from totally dozing off. And Saoirse Ronan is well-cast in a role that asks for the impossible: to make confusion look intriguing.
What Doesn’t Work: Well, there’s a lot. If the best I can say about a movie is that it’s on the low-end of mediocrity and not awful, well, that’s not saying much. Saoirse Ronan does what she can with a part that requires her to be something of a blank canvas, she really does, but it’s not a step-up from the actress’s more compelling work as an equally child-like freak in Hanna.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Even teenage girls (the film’s demo…it’s too non-violent for boys) that get into the film’s tone and tricky love rectangle will feel a little let-down by the ending and probably grow restless. Ten, maybe twenty minutes could easily have been trimmed out.