A clever spin on the super hero formula.
Three buddies find a bizarre glowing object buried in a hole in a field. After coming in contact with it, they find that they are able to move things (including themselves) with their minds, a power that grows increasingly stronger as they exercise it. But one of the three, a bullied outcast, sees the potential to use his powers to get back at a world that he hates, and what begins as mostly harmless teenage boy pranks and antics becomes serious and deadly.
I liked the question this movie posed: Under what obligation are people with super powers to use their powers responsibly? If this were a different kind of movie, that question might have been explored in more depth. But this isn't that kind of movie, and instead it heads into pretty standard good guy against bad guy standoff mode with a special effects-heavy climax. So while maybe not profound, it's still pretty entertaining.
It also happens to be indirectly disturbing in the wake of so many recent school rampages, the one in Newtown, Connecticut being most recent. There seems to be an undercurrent of rage percolating in America's youth that is venting itself in terrifying ways, and it's not hard to read this film as an allegory for the themes recurring in our media culture.
The only thing I distinctly disliked about this movie was the director's decision to film it in the "found footage" style. Everything in the movie is shot in first-person perspective, via someone's video camera, cell phone, etc. This is easy enough to accept at first, but becomes downright preposterous toward the end as victims continue to film (and quite adeptly at that) events even as they're trapped in cars being hurtled through the air. It's an unnecessary gimmick that takes the viewer out of the experience.
Grade: B
Three buddies find a bizarre glowing object buried in a hole in a field. After coming in contact with it, they find that they are able to move things (including themselves) with their minds, a power that grows increasingly stronger as they exercise it. But one of the three, a bullied outcast, sees the potential to use his powers to get back at a world that he hates, and what begins as mostly harmless teenage boy pranks and antics becomes serious and deadly.
I liked the question this movie posed: Under what obligation are people with super powers to use their powers responsibly? If this were a different kind of movie, that question might have been explored in more depth. But this isn't that kind of movie, and instead it heads into pretty standard good guy against bad guy standoff mode with a special effects-heavy climax. So while maybe not profound, it's still pretty entertaining.
It also happens to be indirectly disturbing in the wake of so many recent school rampages, the one in Newtown, Connecticut being most recent. There seems to be an undercurrent of rage percolating in America's youth that is venting itself in terrifying ways, and it's not hard to read this film as an allegory for the themes recurring in our media culture.
The only thing I distinctly disliked about this movie was the director's decision to film it in the "found footage" style. Everything in the movie is shot in first-person perspective, via someone's video camera, cell phone, etc. This is easy enough to accept at first, but becomes downright preposterous toward the end as victims continue to film (and quite adeptly at that) events even as they're trapped in cars being hurtled through the air. It's an unnecessary gimmick that takes the viewer out of the experience.
Grade: B