I'm no film critic, so I'm not going to speak about lighting, angles, etc. This is my personal opinion as a viewer.
The beginning was not bad. I had never come across the title and it was a boring evening, so it was either this or the hundred-thousendth rerun of King of Queens (in hindsight that would have probably been a better idea...) Where was I... Ah, yes. It started kind of OK - not much happening, the lead is a hard-working young man, got a business to run, loves his wife and so on and so forth. I caught myself smiling when the first action scene arrived. I was almost laughing out loud by the end of it. And it happened again with the second one. And then it was all downhill. I can't put my finger(s) on why, simply because I don't have enough for each of the things...
At this point I started thinking, 'It looks like a low-budget one - let's try looking past the cheapness.' Well guess what - that didn't help. The storyline became so flat and boring, I started wonder why I was doing this to myself and why not change the channel (we all know why, so let's not go there). By the way, if you haven't noticed, the budget is stated at $21 mil. - not exactly garage-style.
But then, maybe the acting would compensa.... Bwahaha, what acting?! Must have missed it while too busy trying to count in how many buildings they've had the same lift with the same flimsy panel (no, I refuse to comment on the buttons).
I'll just cut it here, skipping the Swiss-cheese-like plot - could have been worse, hence 3 stars. Oh, and it did trigger a response - made me write this.
What I find really annoying and deeply concerning is how this has even been greenlighted. As somebody who tends to appreciate a good film, I'm genuinely worried about the trend this 'masterpiece' represents. Again, no professional critic here and a fairly forgiving one on top of it, but the constellation of goodness called 'The Shadow Effect' looks like yet another example of money + marketing - everything else. Which in projection, based on the current rate of development, would mean that, if things don't change - A LOT, in 5 to 7 years time there will literally be nothing new worth going to the cinema for... Almost said I was glad I didn't spend anything on it, but then remembered that nowadays you pay for everything you see, one way or another. So unless cable and streamers join the game and start filtering stuff they offer, a measly margin of profit through royalties will remain in existence, fuelling this truly sickening part of the film industry.
The beginning was not bad. I had never come across the title and it was a boring evening, so it was either this or the hundred-thousendth rerun of King of Queens (in hindsight that would have probably been a better idea...) Where was I... Ah, yes. It started kind of OK - not much happening, the lead is a hard-working young man, got a business to run, loves his wife and so on and so forth. I caught myself smiling when the first action scene arrived. I was almost laughing out loud by the end of it. And it happened again with the second one. And then it was all downhill. I can't put my finger(s) on why, simply because I don't have enough for each of the things...
At this point I started thinking, 'It looks like a low-budget one - let's try looking past the cheapness.' Well guess what - that didn't help. The storyline became so flat and boring, I started wonder why I was doing this to myself and why not change the channel (we all know why, so let's not go there). By the way, if you haven't noticed, the budget is stated at $21 mil. - not exactly garage-style.
But then, maybe the acting would compensa.... Bwahaha, what acting?! Must have missed it while too busy trying to count in how many buildings they've had the same lift with the same flimsy panel (no, I refuse to comment on the buttons).
I'll just cut it here, skipping the Swiss-cheese-like plot - could have been worse, hence 3 stars. Oh, and it did trigger a response - made me write this.
What I find really annoying and deeply concerning is how this has even been greenlighted. As somebody who tends to appreciate a good film, I'm genuinely worried about the trend this 'masterpiece' represents. Again, no professional critic here and a fairly forgiving one on top of it, but the constellation of goodness called 'The Shadow Effect' looks like yet another example of money + marketing - everything else. Which in projection, based on the current rate of development, would mean that, if things don't change - A LOT, in 5 to 7 years time there will literally be nothing new worth going to the cinema for... Almost said I was glad I didn't spend anything on it, but then remembered that nowadays you pay for everything you see, one way or another. So unless cable and streamers join the game and start filtering stuff they offer, a measly margin of profit through royalties will remain in existence, fuelling this truly sickening part of the film industry.