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Wednesday, June 6, 2018

"Collapse" - It Ain't "The Mist"

"Collapse" is currently available for viewing on Amazon Prime.

There are actually several movies on Prime Video by this title.  I am reviewing the one about a fog that eats people here. I mean, I think that's what it was about.  It's complicated.



"Collapse" is a strange kind of slow burn movie in that it starts out pretty strong and then drops quickly into a slow moving study on humanity.  It's not a horror movie for everyone and definitely leans more toward the drama side of its listed genres.

Cynthia Gatlin stars as Sheila, a physicist at the end of the world. (What is it about Sheila as a scientist's name? I named the entomologist in "Lumber vs Jack" Sheila.)  Sheila is the conscience of the movie.  The voice of reason in a set of characters that are trying to figure out this mysterious fog that has been wiping out life on the planet.  Eventually we are led to believe that we are looking at the four last adults on the Earth.  She recites poetry, quotes philosophy and generally tries to help the others, and the audience, figure out what's going on.

The rest of the characters are pretty much exaggerations of personality traits, with Heather, played by Kristin Barret, being the most two dimensional and annoying.  She's the "survive at any cost, nothing is my fault, I need to be in charge" character that is in all of these apocalyptic movies, but dialed up to 11.


Some other reviews make a point of insulting the acting.  I actually don't think the acting is all that bad, but the dialogue was awful at times. Sheila's monologues were even worse.  Or were they soliloquys? There is definitely an attempt at a Shakespearian style in this movie.  It didn't work for me.

I watched it because the description mentioned a monster or creature. I knew about the mist (not that mist), so figured I would never see much of the monster, but I never guessed that it really wouldn't play an important part in the movie at all.

If you're looking for a fun bloody 90 minutes, this isn't it.  If you want to listen to a lot of dialogue, explore some interesting concepts about humanity, and watch some people in a closed space get on each other's nerves during a dire situation, then this movie is for you.  Expect a lot of concepts to be thrown out at you and very few of them to be explored to any depth.

Technically the movie is very competently made.  Good sound.  Mostly good video and a couple of uninspired but effective computer generated visuals.

This is probably best suited for a high school sociology or philosophy class.

  

2 comments:

  1. I really like your writing style, great info, thanks for posting
    :D.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Compil' des vidéos qui ont fait le buzz ce mois ci.

    ReplyDelete