As I watched Neil Marshall's first films, it seemed to me that they were remarkably different from his last two, and to me, his downfall seems to be correlated to the appearance of his co-writer Charlotte Kirk, also starring in both THE RECKONING and THE LAIR.
Kirk is not the worst actress, but I can imagine that Neil Marshall has succumbed to her considerable charms and looks, leading to compromise and a noticeable drop in quality.
The premise is solid, the overall plot alright, but the writing, acting and direction are all over the place. With some rare exceptions, the script is a cheesefest that should have been revised a few times, especially concerning the dialogue. The acting ranges from decent to hilariously bad. Holy hell, those fake American accents were just incredible. How any director with some skill to him (and I know Neil Marshall does have that) can accept that kind of acting is beyond me. No budget restraints can explain that. Compared to the worst offenders, Charlotte Kirk is fine indeed, but still isn't close to believable in her role as tough pilot girl. Walking and holding a weapon already seem to be too tough of a challenge, which isn't very good in this kind of film.
There is also some incredibly uninspired and downright bad directing going on, many times so unbelievably bad that I wonder if someone else was sitting on the director's chair at times. Was it you, Charlotte?
Add in some amateur sound mixing mistakes (How do the Afghans have no reverb on their obviously ADR'd voices down in that lair? Why is some of the dialogue so low in volume?), some pretty bad THE THING rip-offs, quite a bad John Carpenter rip-off score and awful humour, and voilà - another step down for a talented director.
On the good side, there are, at times, some very decent camera work and some great scenery to behold, but those do not outweigh the bad aspects. Quite the contrary, because you get a glimpse of what could have been, which is a bit frustrating.
And so, I can only hope that Neil Marshall finds out of this lair of desperate and hopeless desire and finds back to the roots of his inspired filmmaking - next time without any co-writer who also has to play the protagonist. You can do better, Neil.
Kirk is not the worst actress, but I can imagine that Neil Marshall has succumbed to her considerable charms and looks, leading to compromise and a noticeable drop in quality.
The premise is solid, the overall plot alright, but the writing, acting and direction are all over the place. With some rare exceptions, the script is a cheesefest that should have been revised a few times, especially concerning the dialogue. The acting ranges from decent to hilariously bad. Holy hell, those fake American accents were just incredible. How any director with some skill to him (and I know Neil Marshall does have that) can accept that kind of acting is beyond me. No budget restraints can explain that. Compared to the worst offenders, Charlotte Kirk is fine indeed, but still isn't close to believable in her role as tough pilot girl. Walking and holding a weapon already seem to be too tough of a challenge, which isn't very good in this kind of film.
There is also some incredibly uninspired and downright bad directing going on, many times so unbelievably bad that I wonder if someone else was sitting on the director's chair at times. Was it you, Charlotte?
Add in some amateur sound mixing mistakes (How do the Afghans have no reverb on their obviously ADR'd voices down in that lair? Why is some of the dialogue so low in volume?), some pretty bad THE THING rip-offs, quite a bad John Carpenter rip-off score and awful humour, and voilà - another step down for a talented director.
On the good side, there are, at times, some very decent camera work and some great scenery to behold, but those do not outweigh the bad aspects. Quite the contrary, because you get a glimpse of what could have been, which is a bit frustrating.
And so, I can only hope that Neil Marshall finds out of this lair of desperate and hopeless desire and finds back to the roots of his inspired filmmaking - next time without any co-writer who also has to play the protagonist. You can do better, Neil.