I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I love a good base under siege story... And this is a great base under siege story.
The base is a supermarket, and the thing it's under siege from is... Well that's best left a surprise. Suffice to say that a dense fog falls on a the small Maine town that said supermarket is in, and either the fog, or somthing in the fog, is deadly.
As is always the case with bases under siege, it isn't long before the best and worst of humanity start to show, with heavy emphasis on the worst, and it isn't long before staying in the supermarket starts to look almost as bad as heading out into the fog.
Any more than that, you really are better off not knowing, so don't hit the jump until you've seen the film, or if you don't like to go in cold.
Introductions to the main players were, for my money, the perfect length; neither leaving us with so little information that we don't know enough about neighbours David and Brent, nor spending so long that we're desperate for something to happen. In fact, the whole film is very well paced, with its 4 act structure giving us a big event about every half hour.
The appearance of the fog is heralded by an air-raid siren, which made me cringe a little at first. Don't get me wrong, an air raid siren and sudden dense fog is a great audio-visual; scare it's just that it's been a great audio-visual scare back in 1999 when it became a mainstay of the Silent Hill franchise. Thankfully, it only happens the once, and is actually justifiable by context once the origin of the fog is discovered.
From seemingly supernatural beginnings, the story moves firmly into monster-movie territory, before finally taking a Lovecraftian turn, while the supermarket full of people face increasing challenges, from social breakdown as well as illness and injury, as well as the mounting threat from outside.
The ending is close to perfect, barring one small point (big spoiler, so highlight to read) There is a suicide pact, but one character can't die because they only have 4 bullets, and there are 5 people. I'm pretty sure you could kill 5 people with 4 bullets, especially when one if them is a kid; have someone hug the kid, and fire the first shot through both of their heads.
A great film, which I really enjoyed, my only issue was that the cast were almost entirely a little bit famous: not famous enough to be instantly recognisable, but enough to set you off thinking "where do I know him from" when you should be concentrating on the plot.
Showing posts with label Mist - The. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mist - The. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 December 2013
The Mist - Lisa's Review
When I saw the title of this weeks movie, I was relieved. Not another really oooooold movie. It's no secret I'm not usually a fan. There are obvious exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, I don't enjoy them.
The Mist is a movie I have seen twice previously and I re-watched it again tonight to refresh my memory. I remembered enjoying it and the refresher reminded me why.
I don't want to give away too much about this movie (especially the ending), as this is actually a movie worth taking the time to watch and giving away the ending would spectacularly spoil it.
The story is taken from a novella by Stephen King, which was originally a part of a collection of short stories. It was published in its own right in preparation for the movie release. A bit of background... I used to be a big Stephen King fan. In the days of 'Christine', 'Pet Semetary', 'Maximum Overdrive', 'Firestarter', 'The Shining'. Then something happened and he started coming out with complete drivel - 'The Flight of the Langoliers' being an awesome example! The last thing I remember watching by Stephen King and enjoying was 'The Stand'. Anyway, I deviate. This is one of the few decent thing he has done which was released in 2007. Turns out it was included in a short story compilation in 1980 so must have been written in the good old days. Explains why it was actually not bad!
The basic premise here involves a quite large group of citizins of Maine (Any fans of Mr King will recognise his obsession with this particular place). There has been a bad storm and a freakish mist has moved in causing zero visibility. Following the storm, inhabitants of Maine have rushed to the local Supermarket to gather supplies. This is the main setting for our movie.
We have a diverse bunch of folks holed up in the supermarket, who irritatingly all look extremely familiar as we've seen them all in something else. We have 2 women from 'The Walking Dead' here, as well as individuals from shows and movies you can't quite remember so it takes a while to drop that irritation that is trying to work out where you've seen them before.
It becomes clear pretty early on that there are some 'not very nice' things in the mist. It also becomes evident that leaving the supermarket to attempt to reach your car, is really not a good idea, as illustrated by the demise of an impatient young man when the situation first arises. This terrifies everyone else into non-action. This is illustrated by a young mothers desperate pleas for help to get to her car having left her 8 year old at home. She told her she would only be a few minutes. No-one steps up, even when begged directly. Everyone seems to be out for themselves.
I won't go into various happenings to spoil the story for you, but we lose more people and get a glimpse at what we're dealing with in the mist. That is the only thing that spoiled any aspect of this movie for me. The first reveal of one of the culprits is very disappointing and lets the rest of the movie down terribly. I try to overlook it though as I really did enjoy the rest of the movie.
The situation brings out the innermost characters of the folk in the supermarket. A erratic and crazy religious nut convinces half of the group that the end is nigh and what is happening is some kind of armageddon. She wants a sacrifice to be made to god to save them. This sacrifice obviously includes a child, but the people who side with her don't seem to see the ludicrousness of this. The other group are obviously our main leads who fight against this woman to try to bring things to a more peaceful end.
What happens in the next 10 minutes makes the movie for me. It's unexpected (at least for me) and I felt it was very powerful. I won't give it away, but it is really worth watching and if you're like me it will leave you with a very strong emotion. This movie certainly doesn't peter out. It's one of those ending I liked and didn't all at the same time. If you want to find out how the movie ends, highlight the text below.
Eventually, the more sensible group (consisting of a man and his son, Andrea from The Walking Dead and an old couple) decide they need to brave the outside. As they drive along in the ever enveloping mist, we get to see glimpses of the creatures that have been lurking there. Although far fetched, they don't have the ridiculous rubberiness of the purple tentacled beast who we met in the supermarket. It manages some of the tension we experienced with the giant beastie in Cloverfield (if indeed you have watched Cloverfield). There are bodies entombed in spiderweb everywhere. There seems to be no escape. A gun with 4 bullets is in the car. It seems like the only answer. However there are 5 people in the car. The dad in the group says he'll work something out. We see flashes from outside the car and hear 4 gun shots. The father stumbles from the car covered in blood spatter, having just killed the old couple, the young woman and his own son.
As he wanders off in despair, the mist seems to clear and we see soldiers in tanks who have killed and are burning the monsters. The woman who originally asked for help in the supermarket is on one of the tanks. If they had waited a few more minutes they would have been saved, so he killed his son for no reason. Heartbreaking :( This is where the movie ends. Although it's not the most pleasant of endings, I felt it was a really powerful one and was in keeping with the general mood of the movie.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this movie and will most probably watch it again in the future. Apart from one small disappointment with some special effects early on in the movie, I can heartilly recommend it. Thumbs up from me.
The basic premise here involves a quite large group of citizins of Maine (Any fans of Mr King will recognise his obsession with this particular place). There has been a bad storm and a freakish mist has moved in causing zero visibility. Following the storm, inhabitants of Maine have rushed to the local Supermarket to gather supplies. This is the main setting for our movie.
We have a diverse bunch of folks holed up in the supermarket, who irritatingly all look extremely familiar as we've seen them all in something else. We have 2 women from 'The Walking Dead' here, as well as individuals from shows and movies you can't quite remember so it takes a while to drop that irritation that is trying to work out where you've seen them before.
It becomes clear pretty early on that there are some 'not very nice' things in the mist. It also becomes evident that leaving the supermarket to attempt to reach your car, is really not a good idea, as illustrated by the demise of an impatient young man when the situation first arises. This terrifies everyone else into non-action. This is illustrated by a young mothers desperate pleas for help to get to her car having left her 8 year old at home. She told her she would only be a few minutes. No-one steps up, even when begged directly. Everyone seems to be out for themselves.
I won't go into various happenings to spoil the story for you, but we lose more people and get a glimpse at what we're dealing with in the mist. That is the only thing that spoiled any aspect of this movie for me. The first reveal of one of the culprits is very disappointing and lets the rest of the movie down terribly. I try to overlook it though as I really did enjoy the rest of the movie.
The situation brings out the innermost characters of the folk in the supermarket. A erratic and crazy religious nut convinces half of the group that the end is nigh and what is happening is some kind of armageddon. She wants a sacrifice to be made to god to save them. This sacrifice obviously includes a child, but the people who side with her don't seem to see the ludicrousness of this. The other group are obviously our main leads who fight against this woman to try to bring things to a more peaceful end.
What happens in the next 10 minutes makes the movie for me. It's unexpected (at least for me) and I felt it was very powerful. I won't give it away, but it is really worth watching and if you're like me it will leave you with a very strong emotion. This movie certainly doesn't peter out. It's one of those ending I liked and didn't all at the same time. If you want to find out how the movie ends, highlight the text below.
Eventually, the more sensible group (consisting of a man and his son, Andrea from The Walking Dead and an old couple) decide they need to brave the outside. As they drive along in the ever enveloping mist, we get to see glimpses of the creatures that have been lurking there. Although far fetched, they don't have the ridiculous rubberiness of the purple tentacled beast who we met in the supermarket. It manages some of the tension we experienced with the giant beastie in Cloverfield (if indeed you have watched Cloverfield). There are bodies entombed in spiderweb everywhere. There seems to be no escape. A gun with 4 bullets is in the car. It seems like the only answer. However there are 5 people in the car. The dad in the group says he'll work something out. We see flashes from outside the car and hear 4 gun shots. The father stumbles from the car covered in blood spatter, having just killed the old couple, the young woman and his own son.
As he wanders off in despair, the mist seems to clear and we see soldiers in tanks who have killed and are burning the monsters. The woman who originally asked for help in the supermarket is on one of the tanks. If they had waited a few more minutes they would have been saved, so he killed his son for no reason. Heartbreaking :( This is where the movie ends. Although it's not the most pleasant of endings, I felt it was a really powerful one and was in keeping with the general mood of the movie.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this movie and will most probably watch it again in the future. Apart from one small disappointment with some special effects early on in the movie, I can heartilly recommend it. Thumbs up from me.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
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