The Visit

The Visit – 94min – PG13

This film is a return to the thing that made M. Night Shyamalan famous: a great story told simply. Doing a micro budget film forces you to focus on only the essentials in the story. Mr. Shyamalan has some good stories. I learned a while back that when going to one of his films don’t try and guess where the story is going; just sit back and enjoy it as it unfolds. It’s a bit like going to see a magician and working out how the tricks are done when you watching the show. You miss the magic. Maybe I’m not the best person to review this film, I already have a high opinion of his work so yeah I am going to love it. It does nothing but make me enjoy his creativity more.  

Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) spend a week with their estranged grandparents. Becca is a budding filmmaker and wants to document the trip. This leads us down a path that I have never cared for as a device. The main characters are shooting the footage. It’s not really a found footage per se but it’s chocked full of oddly staged scenes and shaky camera shots.  Using these devices, in my opinion, on a big budget film is a lazy story-telling tool. But on a micro budget, it’s understandable.

Beyond that, what really attracted me to the story is that the characters are genuine. The family is going through a separation and the kids are going away to give mom some time with the new man in her life. The kids have some time to examine the effects of their parents break-up, and we can see them working out their issues.

The pacing is very deliberate. Rising tension is relived by a touch of humor and the simple explanation that what they saw is very normal if you look at it from a certain point of view. This is another reason to enjoy this film with its understanding of human nature to accept reasonable explanations for things because the alternative would be too horrifying. Yet the horrifying is sitting right there waiting for you to recognize what you have been seeing all along. As it comes more and more into focus, the feeling is akin to that of the slow rise up the hill on a roller coaster. Click,click, click,click as you go up and crest the hill you can see the drop off and do nothing but go with it and hope that you survive out the other end.

I loved the symbolism in the film. It may be heavy handed but still done well. The characters surviving their ordeal and walking out into the rain as a baptism to their new lives touches the right notes. Unlike other films it doesn’t make victims of its characters who survive only to become creatures themselves or are horribly scarred for the rest of their lives.

The dialog has the flavor and touches of humor that have been missing from some of his previous work. You can tell that he has the story clearly in his mind and that translates to the screen perfectly. This has the same feel as the Sixth Sense. They both have similar themes: kids are stronger than we give them credit for and life can sometimes be scary but we get through it. 

I for one, am glad this film is doing well and that Mr. Shyamalan is telling stories again. I’m looking forward to the next one.  Are you? 

After Earth

After Earth - 89min – PG-13

This is the latest film from M. Night Shyamalan. I know, I know, many of you groan when you hear he is making more movies. I am a fan and I have not been quiet about my appreciation for him as a filmmaker. I truly enjoy the stories that he tells and his eye for shot composure is wonderful. I even like his signature movie of filming a character in reflection. He has a reputation of providing a hook with the movies but I have learned to not look for the hook just watch and enjoy the ride. It’s a bit like when you watching a magic trick and trying to figure out how the trick was done, you miss out on the show. He has seemed to be out of the hook phase and is now focusing on just telling straight forward stories. This movie is a green light from me, and no, not just because it was from Mr. Shyamalan…ok, maybe a little bit.

Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son, Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith), crash land on planet Earth, but the Earth has been evacuated for a millennium. The planet has become a very hostile place. Kitai has to traverse the landscape and get to a distress beacon located a few days journey through this harsh environment alone to save himself and his injured father.

This was a good adventure story with an undercurrent of relationship dynamics that play well in the development of the characters. The father and son are not close as Cypher is a typical military father who is distant and shows almost no emotion. I think this was a good stretch for Will Smith as he usually plays very passionate and animated characters. I like it when an actor breaks out of type and takes risks with different characters.

Jaden is growing as an actor, this role has a lot more emotional baggage to deal with than his previous roles but I think he did well. A friend of mine once said he has talent but needs more craft. This was primarily Jaden’s movie. His father was an important role but all eyes are on Jaden to carry this film.

As I understand it Will Smith wanted to do a movie about a father and son stranded in the forest and brought it to Gary Whitta and they transformed it into a stranded on Earth in the far future. Gary Whitta has my attention because I have enjoyed almost all of his work. He also wrote the Book of Eli and an episode of the video game version of The Walking Dead. I am going to have to look at Prey -- the other game he worked on.

Warning Spoilers !!!!! Only Rangers beyond this point!!!!!

Kitai’s internal conflict stems from his attempts at impressing his father. He tries to become a ranger but has personal emotional demons that hold him back. His sister, Senshi (Zoe Kravitz), was a ranger and died saving his life from the hostile alien life form known as Ursa who can smell fear. Her performance was short but very well done. Her connection to her father was very present in the few scenes she was in.

I thought the movie was a bit heavy-handed in its environmental message. You can set the same stage by saying something as simple as The Earth was used up and unable to support human life. I know this is a rip off of Firefly but it is an excellent example of how you can express something without being preachy.

As preachy as the message was, they did follow through on the making that fact a big part of how the technology was made, it seems very organic and it blended well between the leather look of the uniform and the how technology blended in with it. I liked how it changed colors to fit the need of the wearer, white for illness of physical problem, and black when danger was near. Ooh wait! It was peril sensitive overalls.


Do you think the movie was overly complicated in its concept or were you ok with how it was presented?

-By the by
I am back to regular writing I might catch up on the ones I missed but I am going to focus on movies I see going forward.