Original! When everything in the picture is at its best - directing, editing, visual effects, scenery, cinematography, music and plot. The film begins like standard alien invasion movies. Progress at first is slow, can irritate the overplay of constantly whining little actors, but all this is forgivable, since after the steepest plot twist, the perception is completely transformed. The concept of the plot is brilliant: the story told to the audience tells about a civilization of living dolls, who drove out their puppeteers, and imitate them, however, only in the best. In fact, more than half a century in absolute stagnation and constant erasure of memory, not to see stagnation and not to remember that they are just forgotten dolls. Does this remind you of anything in real life?
The only advantage of artificialists over former masters is that they have taken away not only work, but also private property from people, and successfully use it as a state property. One can admire the idea of this film, which is a hidden parody of the confrontation of the socialist camp with the capitalist world, which critically hints to viewers that only biorobots can successfully build communism. In this negative view of command economy, one can see a clue – not only to biorobots, but also to people who have somehow successfully curbed animal selfishness and other base instincts. Still, as personalities, these artificial people from the characters of the film are quite cute.
A good sunrise for a series, a middle sunset for a film
What if your dreams are real? They can foreshadow something good or, conversely, threaten terrible events. They make the hero Michael Peña jump up at night in the film “The Decline of Civilization”.
Peter - the main character - over and over again dreams about the attack of alien invaders who destroy the city and shoot the inhabitants. His wife Alice (Lizzie Kaplan) insists on asking her husband to go to the doctor, but soon the dream becomes reality. Now Peter needs to save his wife and two daughters.
Netflix bought this unfinished project from Universal Pictures and released a budget movie with unexpected plot twists. Therefore, you will not see shocking special effects, exciting battles with hordes of aliens. Everything is very ascetic by the standards of modern blockbusters.
The action takes place in modest decorations of residential premises and underground structures. Heroes in fright rush in the dark through the destroyed rooms. They look at strange “flying balls” and break the invaders in mysterious suits. A distinctive feature of the latter is a mirror mask, as in the film “View” and a weapon that is tied to the carrier. But these guests do not scare the heroine Lizzie Kaplan - after "Monster" she is not afraid at all. And Michael, in general, discovers the skills of a special forces fighter.
I wasn't expecting a breakthrough action. I was curious to know what was behind the cover. And the content in places was pleasantly surprised. The writers wanted to convey an important message about humanity, the desire to become gods on this planet, and a little bit about family. The idea is worthy, but it looks unsaid and commonplace. And the logic of the actions of the heroes (aliens too) want to ask a number of uncomfortable questions.
In short, the picture turned out to be ambiguous. It gives the impression of the start of the series. We were only told the origins of the conflict and its irreconcilable sides. At the same time, the film can brighten up the evening if you are a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre.
6 out of 10
Peter constantly sees the same thing in his dreams: an alien invasion. He is sure it will happen, but no one believes him. One night, when he invites his friends to dinner, his dreams become reality.
Alien films have always been in demand. But how many of them were really good? If you take the last century, it is Alien, Men in Black, Independence Day, Alien and other fiction. In the current millennium, super large-scale War of Worlds, Transformers, Sea Battle, Avatar were filmed. There was also a lot of slag on alien subjects. For example, the recent Alien Siege or Alien vs. Avatar. This is a very interesting movie.
As for this film, as always, the poster and description did their job. While I’m not particularly fond of Netflix’s films, I still want to admit that overall I enjoyed it.
The first 20 minutes of the film are extremely boring spectacle - the main character sees dreams, works. Nothing interesting. There was a desire to turn off the film. But then the invasion started and it went. Actions began to develop very dynamically. Shooting, explosions, broken walls - it was very interesting.
In the second half of the film there was a sharp, I think, turn in the plot. Events began to develop quite unpredictable. And that's the big plus of the movie. The film from a standard action movie about the invasion turned into a fantastic drama. I don’t think I can remember such a plot development. And for this very unpredictability, I liked the film because I just didn’t expect it.
Another thing that was good about the film was that it was a musical theme that always sounded on time and in time. I’m not angry, which is important to me.
I also want to mention the special effects, which were very sensible. Both the ship and the explosions are pretty good. But the costumes of the attackers turned out softly so to themselves and caused more laughter than fear.
The actors played well, but did not remember. I have never seen anyone in the film except Michael Peña. I didn’t expect to see Peña in a movie like this, I thought he was a comedian. In particular, not so long ago, the California Highway Patrol went out on a comedy theme with him. He did a great job, though.
As a result, we have an interesting, qualitatively executed fantastic film with good actors and an unexpected outcome. I want to say that not everyone will like it, but the film will not remain without its viewers.
Now on the screens very rarely comes the movie with the theme of the invasion of aliens. Maybe because the budget does not allow, because you need to show everything properly: destruction, the design of another civilization, and everything else that goes into this genre. Or maybe because all the ideas have long outlived themselves, the viewer saw, if not hundreds, then dozens of options for invading our world, and it is already very difficult to surprise him with something. But, it is clear, even within the framework of literature, the genre is undergoing a crisis.
Netflix’s Exctinction is a product on the subject. What surprises the film, and what new, innovative brings to the genre?
Starting with the synopsis for the film, the plot seems not trivial, the main character every time dreams of an invasion, which naturally comes true. It seems that the idea itself is interesting, and excludes a banal attack, but, it seems, up to the action itself.
As soon as the viewer sees the “aliens” in the frame, he will ask a number of questions. First, the imagination of the creators leaves much to be desired, and a super advanced civilization uses a typical firearm, and costume design seems primitive even for the last century. Secondly, the film has a rather small budget, which distorts and destroys all aesthetic pleasure from the picture and action. For 2018, special effects look very weak, eyes cut, and the feeling of dissatisfaction with what is happening will be an eternal companion throughout the entire timekeeping. The game of actors is also very average, but later this will be explained by the plot twist, which actually holds the entire skeleton of the film.
Regarding this “cool” twist of the plot, which is supposed to turn the plot of the film, you can also say a few words.
First of all, the whole film is simply saturated with the work of writer Philip Dick, and for a long time I did not leave the feeling that this is either a free adaptation or just a brazenly stolen plot. If you are familiar with this author, then during the film you will see several references to his books and stories.
Secondly, many people know such series as "Black Mirror", and, in fact, the series "Electric Dreams of Philip Dick". So, the film in its essence looks like a separate series of these series. A small budget, a banal plot, which has been used many times, cannot surprise the viewer.
But, despite all the disadvantages, and a rather naive plot, the film is worthy of a one-time viewing. There are moments that were worth cutting in order to speed up the film, saving it from the brazen stretching of timekeeping. Also, perhaps closer to the finale, the unsophisticated viewer will really get their pleasure benefit.
In general, the movie, of course, could be better by all indicators, and the Netflix platform itself should take the quality, not the quantity of the passing movie. For ten films, there are only a couple of average pictures.
It’s hard to say about Netflix movies. On the one hand, this online service has brought about a revolution in television, adding huge competition in terms of quality, budget, but most importantly, freshness. Almost all of his projects are made from a very interesting angle, and the courage of the streaming Internet cinema almost knows no bounds. But... The series, in fact, are often not sinless. In general, it is difficult to find a sinless series, especially when there are more than two seasons. But if you manage a full-length movie based on Netflix, it gets even sadder. Yes, the budget makes you do unpretentious CGI, which generally speaking is not necessarily bad, remember how much it cost CGI ten years ago, and the quality it also had not strong. Now is the time when CGI saves writers and directors on a low budget - to watch cardboard destruction, even if professionally filmed, is not very pleasant to say the least. No, but the problem is again in the budget, but from a different angle. The service almost does not pay attention to critics, by and large, this scourge of any TV projects - criticism is useless. The subscription has already been paid (or the cable has already been paid for, or the advertising has already been inserted, not the point), which means that even the failure will be paid for. Therefore, it turns out to save not just on the quality of CGI, but on the quality of the script, the quality of actors, the quality of inventory, the quality of the director and other staff. Low-budget work in everything. And in general, only one Netflix project from the big movie actually turned out a little more successful. Of course, we are talking about fantasy brightness (Birght), certainly not without the help of a famous star. The rest retain their position of bloated short. But why?
The film itself is an ode to a single twist, or how moral perception changes with sufficient information. For the film, according to the authors, probably, the preferences of the audience should change 3 times. So first we see a simple, ugly guy. We don't quite understand why we should empathize with him. But funny attempts at a father and a certain feature still in some way cause certain feelings for him. Sweet face of his wife in principle remains a nice face, but nevertheless, some extremely negative feelings for her also does not arise. With children is more interesting, because we almost do not show them, but hint about the classic squeezed little child with his very important toy and teenager in transition. But in general, the characters are quite flat and this is a significant minus, especially when you see some characters. Illogical behavior? It is difficult to say, since the entourage of the incomprehensible-how far-off future clouds the mind. And coming back to the twist, the moral problem that the authors wanted to show, or didn't want to, but showed, is actually class inequality. In our world, the world of LGBTQ, black presidents, women presidents and other social equality, when people seriously talk about reverse discrimination and in principle the world moves more towards global absorption and processing of cultural experience than towards rejection. In such a world, the script unfolding in the film seems strained and implausible. Although, perhaps cornily lacking details. Despite the abundance of flashbacks designed to explain what is happening, the film is inferior in the study of the same War of the Words (War of the Words) or Pacific Rim (Pacific Rim). I mean, the latter, for example, despite the huge problems with physics and some problems with logic, nevertheless has a vast world with a good history. It's not here. And this is another stone in the garden of the film.
And the entourage finishes. Despite the rather not bad effects during the film (I am sure that most viewers will not understand where the effect is, where the statics are, and where the real shooting is), there is still a wild cardboardness of the surrounding world. And everything plays into that. From the interior in postmodernism, to the terrible physics of electronics (any person with a technical background will get his eyes on his forehead). And it could be bad, but the writers simply did not take out, could not open Wikipedia. This is almost hand-made props on video from YouTube. And it's a terribly linear story that, although it turns out to be nonlinear, the sediment still remains. And unfortunately, flat action. And the efforts are visible, but the director did not take out to put normally. About the flat game to start a conversation is not very desirable, because by and large it is even explained by the plot, but nevertheless, it adds cardboard of what is happening.
And so the picture has to fall apart. Because of the low budget. Because of physics, sociology, cardboard, flatness and very noticeable in places CGI. But somehow it didn't fall apart. And sometimes even my heart stopped. You can see that the picture tries to be like the best works, here and sitting in the corners in the spirit of the War of Worlds, here and the plot twist in the spirit of the Sixth Sensor. Eh... If it wasn't for those suits. . .
That's why it seems like you're watching a very inflated short film. And she was lucky enough to bear the line to the twist, which actually turns out to be somehow three, one cooler than the other. When you look, you miss and the piano knocks on the head. And it gets interesting. When you get bored again, the piano knocks, which really gives you more questions. And after some, not very long time, throw the final chewing of events, but not for those who did not understand. It will be hard to guess, such a movie. It's not a mystery, it's a one-twist movie. Why one? Because the first two don’t really change anything. Even more so, had there been exactly two of them, this movie would have slid to the level of The Asylum. But turning the situation inside out, the creators pose a rather deep problem that somehow you think about, especially in our age. And I wouldn’t say that no one thought about it, on the contrary. The theme is worn-out, but this is the merit of the ideological nature of the film, in the conditions of an extremely jaded topic, he not only tried, and even not just could, but succeeded. Because the associative series also works inside out, and waiting for one thing, you get something else. This film is not associated with others. And there is a certain cunning here, of course. But you can’t throw words out of the song, and you can’t send an impression away.
What can I say? Be at the helm of some J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Wars), starring the conditional Will Smith (Legend, Brightness) with the passion of Ellen Page (Inception). Be by the script pen... Even though Charlie Kaufman (The Eternal Sunshine of the Pure Mind, Being John Malkovich), then we could get something with something. Stretching for two and a half hours, keeping in suspense from beginning to end and an expanded edition with a scene after the credits.
But we have. A kind of gum for the mind. Which is good.
Earth, near future. A certain Peter lives in the same city, works at a factory, has a wife and two daughters and everything seems to be good for him. He has nightmares about a future alien invasion. The poor fellow is sent for treatment, but it quickly turns out that he is far from alone with a similar problem. But twenty minutes after the credits, the invasion really begins!
Except the aliens are weird. Instead of shaming with some superweapon, they act in the manner of a modern and not too skillful special forces – dressed in ridiculous suits and armed with artisanal firearms (even blasters are not!) they begin to clean buildings. And one of them the furious aunt beats to death with some stick resistant to the floor lamp, I think? What is...?
But then begins the banal and tedious running of the family in search of salvation against the background of poorly and low-budget scenes of battle. And only an hour later we will finally see a plot twist that puts everything upside down and in theory should shake us. But there is nothing wrong with that...
And the point is not even that this turn is not original and has been more than once. The authors of the script do not understand the obvious. In a really good work, a sudden semantic trick serves only as a means, not an end. But in this movie, the plot twist is an end in itself and in general the only reason why it can be seen. But not really. After all, everything that we will see before him is well, very weak and stamped, and even badly played by mediocre actors. Although, given the twisting of the plot, maybe the bad acting was also part of the plan. But I think too much about the filmmakers. :
At the same time, the movie clearly does not set itself any special tasks except to simply surprise the viewer near the end. And accordingly, the first hour of action can be watched on accelerated rewinding, there will be no damage to perception. And the one after the twist, too. For what little they had to say to the authors, they had already said, had to be finished somehow. Well, they're done. Somehow.
I will not put a negative assessment, the film is short, thank God, and it is quite possible to watch it once with one eye, but without doing this, you will absolutely not lose anything.
5 out of 10
The plot twist to the plot twist is discord. In one case, the plot twist is necessary to surprise the viewer, add a few points to the treasury of likes of the film just watched, give an additional impetus to impressions. In another case, twists serve a larger purpose, allowing you to look at the material in a new way, turning the narrative on its head (or vice versa). Well, "The Decline of Civilization," a new project from Netflix, contains the worst kind of plot twist: a twist for a twist. I will not deliberately bring it because of the politics of spoilers, but I will say that this is, firstly, the only thing that gives “Sunset” any individuality, and, secondly, it is absolutely uncomfortable and awkward plot move, which makes you want to shrug your shoulders.
So Peter works in some factory and has vivid nightmares. In dreams, unfriendly skies approach and strange ships destroy the whole family of Peter. Well, a person is trying to warn others about the impending end of the world, but no one believes him, a black boss in the person of Luke Cage offers to go to the clinic, and soon there really is an alien invasion.
The plot follows the actions of Peter, his wife Alice and their children, as they, by a strange coincidence, were in the epicenter of the invasion. By and large, the scenario here is subject to some general structures, including the attempts of the characters to escape, not become pieces of meat, etc. Director Ben Young doesn’t have any clear vision of what the picture was supposed to be, so it’s all just a mess. The action constantly jumps and stalls in the emotionless passages of the heroes. Even the alien threat in the face of humanoids, well, not the most original: monsters here are like some guest workers with bubbles on their heads, whose tweeting exactly does not make them the number one universal danger.
It's equally hard to get attached to Peter and Alice. Heroes have no real depth or purpose; they are ordinary people who are threatened. The question is, why are they? Sometimes to look at the cataclysm through the prism of an ordinary person is even curious, but definitely not here. In this case, it devalues the film altogether! Therefore, weak characters also affect the acting: Michael Peña and Lizzie Kaplan feel lost, reading the memorized lines of the script. Life is at stake, and the heroes certainly don’t act like family. A comparison comes to mind with the recent “A Quiet Place”, where the quality of acting was much higher.
However, even without compelling characters and a sane plot, there would have been some grain in "Downfall of Civilization," especially given the main plot twist. The fact is that the main twist gives the picture a zest, an opportunity to appreciate the fragile morality and in general the complexity of the situation. However, the script does not sufficiently explore the possibilities offered by the underlying plot detail. Apparently, these are “ears” from the early version of the picture, even before the revision of the script by Eric Heisserer. It is very strange that a person in whose track record “Something”, “And the lights go out...” and “Arrival” have chosen such a one-sided version of the interpretation of events.
While the script is fundamentally flawed and, I'm not afraid of the word, stupid, the production is also lame. The young director, whose filmography spelled out only the operational picture “Love Hounds”, in my opinion, is not suitable for the role of director of a powerful sci-fi action movie. Not only does it not fit, but the rudimentary effects of CGI, owing to the low Netflix budget, are eye-to-eye. Netflix has recently experienced failure after failure in the fantastic genre ("Tau", "Cloverfield Paradox", "How It Ends"), but such a shame they have for the first and, hopefully, for the last time.
3 out of 10
Peter has the same nightmare in which he gets up early every day, hugs his children, kisses his wife and walks to work past the same urban landscape. There is no way out - the day of the groundhog of an ordinary average working man stuck in the cycle ' work-house-family-work', continues over and over again, and only a strange foreboding brings to it, that something will soon happen, complete with constantly imagining pictures of the genocide of humanity by alien invaders. Stress increasingly captures the life of the main character and on the advice of a colleague, he decides to contact the Health Center, in which his doubts will move to a new level. However, let’s not languish in vain – the invasion soon still happens, and Peter will have to squeeze his dark fists very hard to clear the family’s path to salvation.
Australian director Ben Young, whose full-length debut 'Hounds of Love' was once very warmly received by critics, gets involved in a dangerous adventure, deciding to shoot another fiction for Netflix. Good for him ' The decline of civilization' at first it does not look so doomed - the constantly recurring dream of the main character brings a plot muddle and calls to wait for the sudden, but in the end it does not give anything except games with worldview. After a stretched exposition, in which the unfortunate Peter struggles with a permanent lack of sleep, the film unleashes on the viewer all the power of the alien invasion and it seems that it begins the most interesting, but not here it was. Ben Young only pretends to remove his mixture 'Skyline' and 'Bushwick' with Michael Peña and lights falling from the sky, in fact he carefully prepares for the presentation of plot twists, which are served in moderation spectacularly, but unfortunately, do not bring any benefit.
Turned on its head, the story allows you to draw much more parallels between the attack of aliens and the conditional third world war than you would expect, but young makes the movie is not about that. Compressing the scope of the narrative to the attempts to save one single family, the plot ' The Decline of Civilization' is not aimed at giving the narrative socio-political sharpness, drama or dynamics. His characters in fact just run from point A to point B, to learn the not so terrible truth about the reality in which they live, to be surprised with the viewer of this turn and say a few words in the sunset. To fill the gaps, there is an action, but it is so expressionless that in principle you can easily walk away for tea and not miss anything (for convenience, rewinding has long been invented). Screaming children, fire in the eyes of a little Latino and the decline of civilization, which happens not at all when it seems – a pity of course, but this is categorically not enough to justify the time spent watching. Another ' well, suddenly' does not happen, and Young's film turns out to be just a new addition to the streaming giant's science fiction cohort, in which a curious idea side by side with a complete misunderstanding of how to turn it into a really interesting picture.
The routine of the average person rarely breaks anything. It exists according to a given cycle: home, work, meetings with friends. Year after year, almost nothing changes. That’s how the hero of the tape lives – Peter, he has everything standard: work on which is appreciated, a loving wife, two daughters, in general, a very boring character, mundane to yawn.
But then, in the usual course of things, nightmares invade, in which Peter sees how the Earth is being invaded by aliens. Descending from the sky, they destroy the city, mercilessly kill people. Peter dreams of running away with his family, but will he escape? Will he save his family from the chaos? Gradually, Peter’s real life becomes a shadow of his nightmares that engulf him. The wife asks her husband to go to the doctor, but the patients of the psychological center only confirm Peter's paranoia.
The tape begins as many of its kind, as if the writers with the director do it on purpose, using stamp after stamp. Here you have the usual scheme of development of the plot: the husband of a hard worker, the daughter of a rebellious teenager, in general, a slick society of happy inhabitants. Stamps develop further. When the main character begins to worry about nightmares, and the family begins to crack slightly at the seams: the wife is worried, the children are worried and upset about the problems between the father and mother, in general, the life idyll is threatened. But luckily...
Fortunately, the film contains an element that favorably distinguishes it from a similar host of films about an alien invasion. No, of course, this plot twist will not be a stunning revolution, and will not blow the spirit out of the viewer. But we must admit that the writers made a high-quality work, taking care that the viewer received not another stamping, but something fresh and original. They came up with not even a double, but a triple bottom, and it seems that, having received the answer to one riddle, everything becomes clear, but it was not here, another mystery awaits to be ahead.
As for the video sequence, something extremely important for a fantastic tape, there are no complaints, the effects are quite high-quality, although it is obvious that the tape is a bit chamber, and this restriction (space of action) is made in order to save budget. But this in no way spoils the picture, yet, everything is tailored to conscience, even if not rich, and besides pays off with a curious plot.
