Dir - Derek Lee/Cliff Prowse
Overall: MEH
The full-length debut from writer/director/actor team Derek Lee and Cliff Prowse, Afflicted is a perfect example of the found footage framework utilized for the absolutely wrong premise. One of the biggest mistakes that such movies often make is in maintaining verisimilitude while characters are pointing the camera at things and this fundamental checkpoint is horrendously askew here. Two bros setting off on a year-long trip around the world and documenting it as a web series is all fine and good, but the second that things go haywire and they still keep filming the dangerous phenomena transpiring, (making sure to pick up the camera at all times and talk into it for the audience's convenience), the entire presentation falls disastrously apart. This unfortunately happens early on, leaving the majority of the movie to come off as ludicrous and stupid when no such agenda was intended. On the plus side though, the effects work is convincing, mixing digital and practical trickery flawlessly. Take away the ill-advised sub-genre gimmick though and this could have been a interesting take on one's succumbing to the undead.
Dir - Guillermo del Toro
Overall: WOOF
The big, loud, wet, loud, aggressive, stupid, and incredibly loud popcorn stinker Pacific Rim is the first bona fide misfire from Guillermo del Toro since 1997's studio-mangled Mimic. Though it is not as insultingly braindead as the Transformer series per comparison, it is just as sensory-pummeling and elementary in its narrative with groan-worthy over-acting and/or macho posturing periodically breaking up some of the ugliest CGI action sequences ever filmed. Why the latter were all done at night, in the rain, or under water is a baffling choice since it renders the giant monster vs giant robot fights hopelessly murky, which is further hampered by everything having dark gray, green, or blue hues that muddle together. As far as the dialog goes, it feels as if it was "written" by a computer program that was fed every testosterone-ridden platitude and monologue from every other schlock-fest action movie that came before it, nearly all of which is yelled at full volume by whoever is over-dramatizing it. Even Charlie Day, Ron Pearlman, and Burn Gorman in the stereotypical comic relief roles feel the need to strain their voices while delivering their quirky quips. The bombastic musical score never shuts up, the visual and sound design of the aliens is as stock as they come, every character walks like Jax Teller, (coincidentally since Charlie Hunnam is in the lead and exhibiting zero charisma), and several IQ points will be lost by all audience members, along with two hours and eleven minutes of their life that they can never get back.
Dir - James Ward Byrkit
Overall: GOOD
An impressive, minimalist, Twilight Zone-inspired thriller and the full-length debut from James Ward Byrkit, Coherence takes its metaphysics/Schrödinger's cat/doppelgänger/alternate universe/quantum decoherence smorgasbord of ideas and presents them via an improvisational character study. Byrkit and Alex Manugian both concocted of the story concept as something that could be filmed with no crew, no money, and at a single location, thus the director's own home was chosen with an ensemble cast of friends. No script was utilized; instead, each actor, (none of whom had previously met each other), was given notes over five nights of shooting which instructed them as to what information they were to convey, information that was not known to their fellow performers. Almost like an experimental, live theater piece in this respect, the spontaneous plotting ends up being ingenious within a narrative concept where multiple, random realities co-exist and the people trapped in them succumb to paranoia and desperation. Such filmmaking tactics could have easily wielded unfocused results, but lighting was captured in a bottle here as the naturalistic approach and complete lack of special effects put all of the emphasis on complex, thought-provoking ideas that are far more engaging than a similar concept done through conventional means would have likely been.
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