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Reviews
Higher Power (2018)
Poor man's intellectual escapade
As with other reviewers, the beginning was a slog. It was trying to be dramatic and build up the type of person Joe is, but it was horrible to watch. I guess that burned me out on the rest of the 'emotional' acting going on after because nothing in the movie seemed 'real'. The characters were stereotypes of 'film 101'. The bad guy was telegraphed and pretty much the guy had a cue card saying 'Bad Guy' with his clumsy introduction.
The special effects were amazing and, honestly, the best thing about the movie. Too bad they happened in the last 20 minutes of the film.
As far as the story goes, it wasn't worth it to me and they focused too much on, what I felt, the wrong things. He's a family man who loves his daughters, but doesn't have a good job? His wife must make a ton of money because that was a nice house. And why did he run away? Money? Did he become a druggie because his wife died? Is that what they refer to when he ran away? I'm guessing it took them a year to evaluate 700 people and it was coincidence that he was like he was, because if he was the first person evaluated, he would have failed? Or is it multiple years that they evaluate? Who knows. The motivations didn't really make sense, as it was overly convoluted for what they wanted. If their idea was to create 'God' through anger, a la 'Hulk', then wouldn't you kind of give thought to how you create them? There were too many inconsistencies for me to enjoy it. It also didn't really have a sense of time passing, other than 'Oh hey...it's been a day'.
Van Helsing (2016)
Terrible show that rambles
I figured I'd give this a shot as I have seen low budget series that weren't that bad. This is not one of them. The acting is laughably bad. For the lead, I'm not sure if it's the character or the actress, but one dimension pretty much sums it up. This movie has a ton of plot holes and the characters turn on a dime as to what their motivation actually is. Plot twists are seen from a mile away. It's not even worth watching for the storyline as that is really non-existent. I made it partway through Season 2 before I had to call it quits.
The Vanguard (2008)
Mediocre Horror movie
The movie had the tired premise of a world gone mad because of a viral agent, a la Resident Evil/28 * later. The low budget gave the film a visceral feel that was ultimately letdown by the mediocrity of the rest of it, ie. poor effects, rambling plot, poor cinematography.
Honestly, I'm not even sure what the movie was trying to convey other than that people came, they saw, they fought a little, then most died. I suppose it sets up a back story for a sequel or something. The movie is filled with inconsistencies and plot holes that defy imagination. At the end, they revealed a plot twist that made it somewhat interesting, but again, turned the previous two hours into a 'why' session. Why doesn't it make sense? Why did I just waste 2 hours on this pile of crap? Why does anyone think this movie is good in any sense of the word? Why do some think it's in anyway original? Resident Evil did the same exact thing, but better.
The acting was alright and the story did have some interesting premises, in that a corporation wanted to cull the Earth's population because of the sudden decrease in oil, ensuring the survival of the 'elite'. It has some hints of behavioral conditioning that it never really explored beyond a few lines of dialogue between the characters, which might have made things more coherent.
Overall, this movie is simply a mediocre attempt at Resident Evil with a male protagonist but it ultimately fails because of the lack of a cohesive plot. They never really explored any of the issues at hand and tried to develop the main character, but ultimately failed by leaving too many unanswered questions.