I tried to get into this movie, and by the time it was over, I realized I had wasted an hour and a half of my life. The only reason I stayed with it was because it reminded me of 2010's NINE DEAD, a far better movie.
CIRCLE tells the story of a group of strangers who wake up inside a darkened room, all standing in lit red circles placed in a larger circle in a few rows so that everyone can see and hear each other. A mysterious orb in the middle of the room starts killing each of them off one by one, seemingly without any rhyme or reason. The characters begin trying to figure out how the killing process works, and surmise that the orb kills off another person every two minutes, and that the survivors have the collective ability to vote for the person who will be next. They also discover that death befalls anyone who leaves the lit circle in which they are standing, as does having physical contact with anyone standing near them.
The group spends a little time trying to figure out how they all got there, and to see if they have any ties to anyone else in the room. Not enough time is spent on this investigative process and the uncovering of the layers that might keep the audience interested. Instead the generic conclusion is that a giant ship from outer space reached down and grabbed each of them and brought them to the ship and placed them in captivity. The group then exercises flawed reasoning as to who should be killed next, whether it be determined by age, race, or socioeconomic standing.
The screenwriters tried to portray the group as a random cross section of people: The young, the old, people of different races and occupations. The story then unfortunately takes too many pot shots at stereotypes, particularly conservative ones. For example, the one police officer in the group is labeled judgmental for pointing out the one criminal in the group, and the one the white collar worker wearing a tie and suspenders (a white male, of course) is branded as a racist for his words to a black man in the group. And the stereotyping wouldn't be complete without the same white male devaluing the lesbian mother's life and worth. Even the one minister in the group is scoffed at for suggesting that God is the answer, while the continued elimination of people in the group suggest that God is nowhere to be found. And the lone soldier in the group is accused of having information about the spaceship that he was keeping from the rest of the group.
As the herd thins out, the remaining survivors deduce a convoluted idea that with enough votes in one direction, the young girl and pregnant lady in the group can be spared death. How the script got to this point is fuzzy, and the story was already too far gone for the audience to care if anyone survived.
In the end, the lone survivor is seen on the ground outside the ship, with onlookers gathered to watch the ship leaving the skies above the earth. No further explanation is given, and whatever attempt at a bombshell explanation that is given by the survivor's narration at the end of the movie was ineffective. I finished this movie feeling cheated and empty, like I had been lectured to.
CIRCLE tells the story of a group of strangers who wake up inside a darkened room, all standing in lit red circles placed in a larger circle in a few rows so that everyone can see and hear each other. A mysterious orb in the middle of the room starts killing each of them off one by one, seemingly without any rhyme or reason. The characters begin trying to figure out how the killing process works, and surmise that the orb kills off another person every two minutes, and that the survivors have the collective ability to vote for the person who will be next. They also discover that death befalls anyone who leaves the lit circle in which they are standing, as does having physical contact with anyone standing near them.
The group spends a little time trying to figure out how they all got there, and to see if they have any ties to anyone else in the room. Not enough time is spent on this investigative process and the uncovering of the layers that might keep the audience interested. Instead the generic conclusion is that a giant ship from outer space reached down and grabbed each of them and brought them to the ship and placed them in captivity. The group then exercises flawed reasoning as to who should be killed next, whether it be determined by age, race, or socioeconomic standing.
The screenwriters tried to portray the group as a random cross section of people: The young, the old, people of different races and occupations. The story then unfortunately takes too many pot shots at stereotypes, particularly conservative ones. For example, the one police officer in the group is labeled judgmental for pointing out the one criminal in the group, and the one the white collar worker wearing a tie and suspenders (a white male, of course) is branded as a racist for his words to a black man in the group. And the stereotyping wouldn't be complete without the same white male devaluing the lesbian mother's life and worth. Even the one minister in the group is scoffed at for suggesting that God is the answer, while the continued elimination of people in the group suggest that God is nowhere to be found. And the lone soldier in the group is accused of having information about the spaceship that he was keeping from the rest of the group.
As the herd thins out, the remaining survivors deduce a convoluted idea that with enough votes in one direction, the young girl and pregnant lady in the group can be spared death. How the script got to this point is fuzzy, and the story was already too far gone for the audience to care if anyone survived.
In the end, the lone survivor is seen on the ground outside the ship, with onlookers gathered to watch the ship leaving the skies above the earth. No further explanation is given, and whatever attempt at a bombshell explanation that is given by the survivor's narration at the end of the movie was ineffective. I finished this movie feeling cheated and empty, like I had been lectured to.