First off-- the premise of the movie was intriguing: An airplane takes off for a trip with a young Girl Pilot and her friends. A mechanical mishap sends it off into a dark cloud in another dimension where dark things lurk.
THAT was the basic premise that caught my interest. A bit of Twilight Zone. A piece of Stephen King. A dash of Outer limits, maybe. . .
THEN I actually WATCHED the movie.
What ruined it principally was the casting: No, I don't blame the Actors themselves, but the Character/Plot premise that presupposes that any story stocked with good-looking young adults posing as Teenagers acting out the normal angst, trivia and emotional immaturity of Teenagers is somehow Must-Watch Movie-Making. Uhm. . NOT.
The second flaw was the script. Again, teen angst, teen bickering, off-the-cuff fist fights, Teen boyfriend-girlfriend drama and immature cursing may work in your generic stock Haunted House or dark abandoned Mental Institution, but NOT in the small cabin of a twin engine turbo-prop. And the fact that the titular star of the story, the young female pilot, spent most of her time facing BACKWARD and participating in the on-going fracas instead of FOCUSING ON FLYING THE PLANE adds to the unbelievability.
And I must say that while I know that what we call blithely 'Autopilot' automation is actually VERY ADVANCED Technology that is WAY BEYOND COOL today-- the several times that the pilot gets OUT OF THE SEAT (Remember, she HAS NO CO-PILOT) and CLIMBS into the back seat to have heated emotional showdowns while a plane FULL OF FRIGHTENED TEENAGERS Flies itself. . .and NO-ONE even says: WOULD YOU PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO FLYING THE PLANE, LADY?!? That beggars belief.
The movie would have been a better, deeper thriller had it been cast with character-study adults as opposed to a bunch of bickering teens.
If you want to watch this-- Rent it - Don't Buy.
And rent it as a group event with your friends-- and be ready to tear it apart as the action ensues.
THAT was the basic premise that caught my interest. A bit of Twilight Zone. A piece of Stephen King. A dash of Outer limits, maybe. . .
THEN I actually WATCHED the movie.
What ruined it principally was the casting: No, I don't blame the Actors themselves, but the Character/Plot premise that presupposes that any story stocked with good-looking young adults posing as Teenagers acting out the normal angst, trivia and emotional immaturity of Teenagers is somehow Must-Watch Movie-Making. Uhm. . NOT.
The second flaw was the script. Again, teen angst, teen bickering, off-the-cuff fist fights, Teen boyfriend-girlfriend drama and immature cursing may work in your generic stock Haunted House or dark abandoned Mental Institution, but NOT in the small cabin of a twin engine turbo-prop. And the fact that the titular star of the story, the young female pilot, spent most of her time facing BACKWARD and participating in the on-going fracas instead of FOCUSING ON FLYING THE PLANE adds to the unbelievability.
And I must say that while I know that what we call blithely 'Autopilot' automation is actually VERY ADVANCED Technology that is WAY BEYOND COOL today-- the several times that the pilot gets OUT OF THE SEAT (Remember, she HAS NO CO-PILOT) and CLIMBS into the back seat to have heated emotional showdowns while a plane FULL OF FRIGHTENED TEENAGERS Flies itself. . .and NO-ONE even says: WOULD YOU PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO FLYING THE PLANE, LADY?!? That beggars belief.
The movie would have been a better, deeper thriller had it been cast with character-study adults as opposed to a bunch of bickering teens.
If you want to watch this-- Rent it - Don't Buy.
And rent it as a group event with your friends-- and be ready to tear it apart as the action ensues.