First of all it is absolutely essential to establish initially that this movie is in no way a lovecraftian movie but rather advertised as one.People who expect something remotely reminiscent of Lovecraft will be absolutely disappointed by this movie.
I was excited to hear about it's announcement and shocked to see who was the protagonist.I could hardly imagine an actor more unsuitable for the role than Cage.Of course anyone who's ever read Lovecraft could tell you the same which in turn shows that the director has absolutely no clue about his subject.That was the first clue of what was about to come.Still the colour out of space is one of my favourites novels and i tried to keep an open mind.
Let's start by the positives.The movie is visually perfect. The special effects are stunning and the scenes depicting the colour are flawless.Unfortunately this is where the positives stop.
The movie fails in every other aspect to be not just a decent lovecraftian movie but also just a decent horror movie.The plot is slow which is not necessarily a bad thing but the action is stagnant.It has no climax.You don't feel like the horror and anxiety are actually escalating partly because the main protagonist fails horribly to deliver a performance that reminds us of all the terror and uncertainty a lovecraftian character feels and partly because the plot doesn't help.
You see the thing about the plot is that there's hardly a plot.A very small part of the movie actually has to do with the plot which is very sloppy since no effort was put on it.Instead what you'll mostly see is the desperate attempts of the protagonist to fit in the shoes of a lovecraftian character trying to emulate a feeling of terror which he has never been able to accomplish in his entire career as an actor and some flashy special effects which in the director's mind are more crucial than building a plot .
But although the plot is hardly relevant to Lovecraft's work the worst by far is that the movie fails spectacularly in the most crucial part of actually being a lovecraftian movie.At no point in the point it makes you feel the terror and escalating madness that Lovecraft's works are notorious for and Cage's attempts are hilariously inadequate to mimic the feeling of helplessness that Lovecraft's protagonists have in his works.
The absolute terror that they feel when confronted with something that is not only greater than them but also incomprehensible to them and the dive into madness they take when they realise how small and irrelevant they are in the face of Lovecraft's eldritch abominations.
To sum up this movie failed because of a director who completely neglected or made an effort at all to understand his subject and because of his bad choices regarding actors as well as his inability to present a plot that was already written perfectly for him.Somehow Lovecraft's written work seems more alive and impactful on generating feelings than a high budget movie made in 2019.
There are plenty of movies made regarding Lovecraft that although they were made 30+ years back are actually closer and depict successfully his dark and twisted world managing to enter deeper into the writer's mind that this movie would ever hope to do.
Movies like from beyond and Re-animator which although old would eat movies like this for breakfast with their majestic plot progression and flawless and meticulous look into the very essence of Lovecraft's work.
We can only hope that the director of this movie won't attempt to murder Lovecraft again for the third time!
I was excited to hear about it's announcement and shocked to see who was the protagonist.I could hardly imagine an actor more unsuitable for the role than Cage.Of course anyone who's ever read Lovecraft could tell you the same which in turn shows that the director has absolutely no clue about his subject.That was the first clue of what was about to come.Still the colour out of space is one of my favourites novels and i tried to keep an open mind.
Let's start by the positives.The movie is visually perfect. The special effects are stunning and the scenes depicting the colour are flawless.Unfortunately this is where the positives stop.
The movie fails in every other aspect to be not just a decent lovecraftian movie but also just a decent horror movie.The plot is slow which is not necessarily a bad thing but the action is stagnant.It has no climax.You don't feel like the horror and anxiety are actually escalating partly because the main protagonist fails horribly to deliver a performance that reminds us of all the terror and uncertainty a lovecraftian character feels and partly because the plot doesn't help.
You see the thing about the plot is that there's hardly a plot.A very small part of the movie actually has to do with the plot which is very sloppy since no effort was put on it.Instead what you'll mostly see is the desperate attempts of the protagonist to fit in the shoes of a lovecraftian character trying to emulate a feeling of terror which he has never been able to accomplish in his entire career as an actor and some flashy special effects which in the director's mind are more crucial than building a plot .
But although the plot is hardly relevant to Lovecraft's work the worst by far is that the movie fails spectacularly in the most crucial part of actually being a lovecraftian movie.At no point in the point it makes you feel the terror and escalating madness that Lovecraft's works are notorious for and Cage's attempts are hilariously inadequate to mimic the feeling of helplessness that Lovecraft's protagonists have in his works.
The absolute terror that they feel when confronted with something that is not only greater than them but also incomprehensible to them and the dive into madness they take when they realise how small and irrelevant they are in the face of Lovecraft's eldritch abominations.
To sum up this movie failed because of a director who completely neglected or made an effort at all to understand his subject and because of his bad choices regarding actors as well as his inability to present a plot that was already written perfectly for him.Somehow Lovecraft's written work seems more alive and impactful on generating feelings than a high budget movie made in 2019.
There are plenty of movies made regarding Lovecraft that although they were made 30+ years back are actually closer and depict successfully his dark and twisted world managing to enter deeper into the writer's mind that this movie would ever hope to do.
Movies like from beyond and Re-animator which although old would eat movies like this for breakfast with their majestic plot progression and flawless and meticulous look into the very essence of Lovecraft's work.
We can only hope that the director of this movie won't attempt to murder Lovecraft again for the third time!