The Signal has a lot of intriguing ideas in its head. It is a sci-fi film with a ton of other genres, it begins from coming-of-age, to a complicated love story, then becomes a horror thriller, a psychological thriller, and somehow instantly jumps as an action with fantasy aesthetics. This case might make the film a fully packed cinematic experience, there is a strong hint of a greater movie within all of these, but when it reveals its twists, it becomes the other way around, for one big reason. The film does have a cool direction and it does deserve a credit for being sort of original, but it still falls short when it comes to its actual story.
The film works before all of the bombast happens. The hero, Nic, is handicapped, indicating that he's a really humble person, then there is a brief relationship that is about to be torn apart because of Nic's priorities. Then that decision stumbles themselves with a tougher situation, which might help them forget their personal problems and focus more on the real risk, but nobody cares about that. Though it could have been interesting if the relationship subplot has been anywhere since it shows some flashbacks of a possibly better movie. The film instead continues asking bigger questions about its heroes being contaminated by some alien contact. The mysteries behind the laboratory rooms is very intriguing, which reminiscence the classic thrillers when it's all analyzing and finding queer discoveries instead of gore and jump scares.
Once they escaped from the facility, the next act is meant to be exciting but it's rather clunky. The story suddenly goes through a motion of random events, that even a long absent character just suddenly pops out because the plot needed him to. The thrills here are cheap compared to the second act and the suspension of disbelief gets larger and larger, it's almost appropriate to wish that it could have been a straightforward superhero movie. Even the special effects can see that. Those gimmicky slow-mos and movie-preview-like-transition comes close to a Zack Snyder + Michael Bay style. Still, the visuals are much better when it sticks to the art-house shot images and Terrence Malick-inspired montages. Those scene can at least concentrate on what's happening than just being pretentious with the CGI. The acting is fine: Brenton Thwaites somewhat proves that he could be a competent lead character in movies like this, and Laurence Fishburne gives a slight sense of enticing strangeness to Thwaite's opposite.
The Signal is all interesting stories and little else. The twist in the very end cannot be exactly explained without giving enough spoilers, but to describe it, it sure is supposed to be mind-blowingly weird. Since the film doesn't get to explore enough of its possible subtext or any sign of intention from the villain, it instead looks pretty (and kind of hilariously) silly. The movie itself does seems like a mess; there's this emotional montage, then another horror movie concept there. This storytelling is just too heavy handed. Yes, it's charmingly original, but it also deserves some focusing and at least a half-decent development to each of its move. The film just makes the audience beg for more behind the idea than the idea itself.
The film works before all of the bombast happens. The hero, Nic, is handicapped, indicating that he's a really humble person, then there is a brief relationship that is about to be torn apart because of Nic's priorities. Then that decision stumbles themselves with a tougher situation, which might help them forget their personal problems and focus more on the real risk, but nobody cares about that. Though it could have been interesting if the relationship subplot has been anywhere since it shows some flashbacks of a possibly better movie. The film instead continues asking bigger questions about its heroes being contaminated by some alien contact. The mysteries behind the laboratory rooms is very intriguing, which reminiscence the classic thrillers when it's all analyzing and finding queer discoveries instead of gore and jump scares.
Once they escaped from the facility, the next act is meant to be exciting but it's rather clunky. The story suddenly goes through a motion of random events, that even a long absent character just suddenly pops out because the plot needed him to. The thrills here are cheap compared to the second act and the suspension of disbelief gets larger and larger, it's almost appropriate to wish that it could have been a straightforward superhero movie. Even the special effects can see that. Those gimmicky slow-mos and movie-preview-like-transition comes close to a Zack Snyder + Michael Bay style. Still, the visuals are much better when it sticks to the art-house shot images and Terrence Malick-inspired montages. Those scene can at least concentrate on what's happening than just being pretentious with the CGI. The acting is fine: Brenton Thwaites somewhat proves that he could be a competent lead character in movies like this, and Laurence Fishburne gives a slight sense of enticing strangeness to Thwaite's opposite.
The Signal is all interesting stories and little else. The twist in the very end cannot be exactly explained without giving enough spoilers, but to describe it, it sure is supposed to be mind-blowingly weird. Since the film doesn't get to explore enough of its possible subtext or any sign of intention from the villain, it instead looks pretty (and kind of hilariously) silly. The movie itself does seems like a mess; there's this emotional montage, then another horror movie concept there. This storytelling is just too heavy handed. Yes, it's charmingly original, but it also deserves some focusing and at least a half-decent development to each of its move. The film just makes the audience beg for more behind the idea than the idea itself.