Post by Fickle81 on Jun 11, 2008 23:06:10 GMT -5
Some minor spoilers ahead...nothing too detailed...
Essentially an interlapping anthology film in the vein of Pulp Fiction (although it's very linear) with a 70s film feel and look (the title screen is very grindhouse-esque),The Signal centers around a mysterious and nefarious transmission that manafests itself in TVs,phones,and radios,turning all those affected by the emitted signal into stark raving lunatics...the story is told from 3 different perspectives (referred to in the film as "Transmissions",each made by 3 seperate writters and directors),with the main focus centering around a love triangle between a woman,her lover,and her husband.
This is a rather difficult film to review in a traditional sense for 2 reasons:
1:Each segment,act,perspective,transmission,whatever you want to call it vary quite radically from one another. The first takes a full on horror approch to the happenings,but then the second suddenly changes gears and becomes a black comedy,and the third swiftly changes gears again and becomes a romantic drama. A lot of times when films attempt an intricate and complicated juggling act such as this,they tend to fail miserably by becoming too busy,messy,convoluted,and disjointed...while this film does stumble with this from time to time (especially with the disjointed thing,but that has more to do with my second point),for the most part it manages to pull off its sudden and radical gear swithcing and makes the narrative flow rather smoothly.
2:This is a hard film in which to properly and fairly judge the actions of the characters...if you've been around me long enough and know my film reviewing criteria,you should know that I usually can't stand unrealistic character stupidity written solely to force the plot to go in a certain direction,and here I certainly got the intial feeling that this was done on a lot of occations,and I was about to spank the movie hard because of this...however,theres one problem here...most of the characters in this were METHODICALLY DESIGNED to behave very irrationally in an almost over the top way,either due to the effects of the signal or due to the mental breakdown of experiencing the horrors around them...watching this movie was like watching the world and everyone in it succomb and descend into pure dilusional schizophrenia. Because of this,rational thought is thrown completely out the window,even when the characters are ACTUALLY TRYING to be rational...this combined with the film's first segment attempting to mislead the audience into thinking that those affected by the signal are nothing more that mindless killers,the film's tendency of toying with the viewer as to who might have been exposed to the signal and who hasn't,the film's habit of going back and forth in time on a whim without much forewarning,and the film's knack for springing what turn out to be hallucionations on your ass when you least expect it,the film can become VERY disjointed and hard to keep up with.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way,it's time to break the film down,transmission at a time:
Transmission I-Crazy In Love:This segment follows Mya Denton,returning home to her husband after spending a night with her lover,Ben. As she returns to her apartment complex,she notices people beginning to act strangely. When she sees her husband kill one of his friends,shit starts to rapidly go downhill. This is the straight up horror portion of the film...the part where shit really begins to plummet into the abyss of pure chaos...people getting killed left and right,open warfare on the streets,etc. It also introduces and establishes the love triangle story that acts as the emotional anchor for the film.
I counted exactly 3 flaws in this section...first,Mya apparently didn't have her shit together when it came to convincingly lying to her husband about where she was that night,and she COULD have told the truth about the blood stains on her shirt that she got from interacting with an injured man (which begins to set up the downward spiral of the film) rather than just telling him it was barbeque sauce. Second,while I got the underlying notion that she was using the music on her CD walkman to drown out the rest of the world,it significantly hindered her awareness and perception...she could have been attacked by a crazed individual and not be able to do anything about it till it was too late...sure enough,she got scooped up by one of her husband's friends,but thankfully he hadn't been exposed to the signal yet. Third and finally,said individual was told by Mya to IGNORE anybody that crossed their path,as they couldn't be trusted...sure enough,the moment they leave the apartment complex,the guy sees if somebody who turns out fo be affected by the signal needs any help...I'm pretty sure you all can imagine what happens.
Overall though,it was a good start with a few genuinly tense moments.
4/5
Transmission II-The Jealousy Monster:This chunk of the story is from the perspective of Mya's now crazed husband,Lewis Denton,after he captures Ben (who came looking for Mya) and puts him in the back of his exterminator van,as he holds up in an apartment with a man named Clarke (whom Mya encountered just before the end of the first segment) and a woman named Anna (who is beginning to lose her grasp on reality due to the mental trama of having to kill her husband after he became crazed by the signal) as he tried to find out where his wife has gone. This is where the film drastically changes directions and turns into a black comedy almost in the vein of an Edgar Wright film. Oddly enough,this is actually the goriest segment in the film (well maybe not THAT odd,seeing as how over the top gore is often used for comedic effect).
This part of the story,however,contains the most flaws. First off,Clarke started to make REALLY questionable decisions eventhough he had NOT been exposed to the signal and STILL contained a semblance of logical thinking even when witnessing shit crumble all around him...the big offense of this nature was his decision to not tell an obviously oblivious Jim,who had arrived at the apartment for the planned party that was supposed to be held by Anna and her husband,about all the fucked up shit thats been happening...speaking of Jim,he was a BIG part of what was wrong with this part of the movie...what an annoying little unfunny fuckbag he was (Hey,your names are Lewis and Clarke! Wheres Sacagawea? Hyuck,hyuck,SHADUP!)...and talk about fucking ridiculously oblivious...I mean,what the fuck,he couldn't tell from all the destruction,dead bodies (not many,but there were some),and even the blood on the faces of both Lewis and Clark AND that big ass fucking blood stain on the carpet that some heavy shit had gone down? Apparently not,cause all he cared about was partying and scoring some tail...I know what the writters were trying to do with him,but it doesn't work at all...at least Shaun had an excuse to be oblivious to the destruction around him due to having a hangover...Jim didn't have this,nor did he show any signs of being affected by the signal or the devestation around him (due to being completely clueless),so he had no fucking excuse.
And the flaws just kept on coming...another one of Clarke's unrealistic blunders was that he was so truthworthy of Lewis,even after he caught him staring at the signal transmission on the TV for a lenghy period of time...CMON! Another thing was that this part seems to go against what the first part established in the sense that the first part made it out like the ones affected by the signal had gone completely homicidal in a similar vein of the infected from 28 Days/Weeks Later...however,THIS part suddenly pulls the rug from under you and reveals that thats not nessasarally the case. It does take a little bit of time to get used to and it does appear that the film shoots itself in the foot here,but you need to keep in mind that the first portion really doesn't spend much time focusing on those affected by the signal,and the pure mayhem being caused was being told from the perspective of somebody else. Finally,Clarke finally telling Lewis where his wife went after Lewis exposes him to the signal...so,how exactly does Clarke know that the woman he encountered at the end of the first part was the wife of Lewis? Oh thats right,he doesn't...although to be fair,he had been exposed to the signal so he probably just grabbed whatever he could grasp to shut Lewis up.
One thing this part of the story did right was really getting inside the mindset of those affected by the signal and show what they go through as they descend into madness. However,when all is said and done,this is easily the worst segment of the film.
3.5/5
Transmission III-Escape From Terminus:The final portion of the film focuses on Ben after he escapes from the back of Lewis' van,in his quest to find Mya...problem is,it is revealed that the night before (when the first part of the film took place),he had extensive exposure to the signal and is beginning to lose his marbles. He and Clarke go after Mya to try to find her before Lewis does.
And here we have the best part of the film...it switches gears one more time and essencially becomes a romantic drama (especially during the last 20 minutes or so of the film)...however,not before having one last bit of comedy thrown in as well as some horror...so you could say that this is a small combination of the previous 2 parts used to support the romantic drama. There are,however,a couple of flaws. First,instead of just TELLING Ben where Mya is like he did for Lewis,he has to do something special to give him the information (the final comedic bit in the film)...and again,Clarke just automatically assumes that the woman he encountered at the end of the first segment is the woman Ben is looking for. Finally,it seemed Ben had found a way to put up a fight against what the signal does to your brain,yet he still found himself succombing to its effects...apparently his method wasn't as full proof as he thought. Overall though,this segment really brings everything full circle and the twist/trick Ben uses to overcome Lewis at the end was cool as hell. The film's ending is also quite ambiguous...is some ways it's optimistic,but in other ways it's a real downer.
4.5/5
So now,with all of these different ratings for all 3 sections,how do we determind the final rating? Simple,class...simply find the average of all 3 ratings by adding all 3 ratings and dividing the sum of them by how many ratings there are:
4+3.5+4.5=12
12/3=4
And there you have it...all in all,this is not a film for everybody. Some people may be turned off by how disjointed it gets (almost to the point where it becomes a surrealist film),others may be turned off by the fact that it's not a mass murdering "infected" opus like 28 Days/Weeks Later (EVEN MORE disappointed seeing as how the first part seems like it's going to go in that direction) and not even bother to see the film for what it really is (the cinematic equivelent of a severe schizophrenic in dire need of being committed),and others still may be turned off by how sharply the film changes direction in narrative tone for each segment. However those that can look past this will be in for a unique (sometimes too unique for its own good) horror movie. I can definatly see this developing a cult following.
4/5
Essentially an interlapping anthology film in the vein of Pulp Fiction (although it's very linear) with a 70s film feel and look (the title screen is very grindhouse-esque),The Signal centers around a mysterious and nefarious transmission that manafests itself in TVs,phones,and radios,turning all those affected by the emitted signal into stark raving lunatics...the story is told from 3 different perspectives (referred to in the film as "Transmissions",each made by 3 seperate writters and directors),with the main focus centering around a love triangle between a woman,her lover,and her husband.
This is a rather difficult film to review in a traditional sense for 2 reasons:
1:Each segment,act,perspective,transmission,whatever you want to call it vary quite radically from one another. The first takes a full on horror approch to the happenings,but then the second suddenly changes gears and becomes a black comedy,and the third swiftly changes gears again and becomes a romantic drama. A lot of times when films attempt an intricate and complicated juggling act such as this,they tend to fail miserably by becoming too busy,messy,convoluted,and disjointed...while this film does stumble with this from time to time (especially with the disjointed thing,but that has more to do with my second point),for the most part it manages to pull off its sudden and radical gear swithcing and makes the narrative flow rather smoothly.
2:This is a hard film in which to properly and fairly judge the actions of the characters...if you've been around me long enough and know my film reviewing criteria,you should know that I usually can't stand unrealistic character stupidity written solely to force the plot to go in a certain direction,and here I certainly got the intial feeling that this was done on a lot of occations,and I was about to spank the movie hard because of this...however,theres one problem here...most of the characters in this were METHODICALLY DESIGNED to behave very irrationally in an almost over the top way,either due to the effects of the signal or due to the mental breakdown of experiencing the horrors around them...watching this movie was like watching the world and everyone in it succomb and descend into pure dilusional schizophrenia. Because of this,rational thought is thrown completely out the window,even when the characters are ACTUALLY TRYING to be rational...this combined with the film's first segment attempting to mislead the audience into thinking that those affected by the signal are nothing more that mindless killers,the film's tendency of toying with the viewer as to who might have been exposed to the signal and who hasn't,the film's habit of going back and forth in time on a whim without much forewarning,and the film's knack for springing what turn out to be hallucionations on your ass when you least expect it,the film can become VERY disjointed and hard to keep up with.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way,it's time to break the film down,transmission at a time:
Transmission I-Crazy In Love:This segment follows Mya Denton,returning home to her husband after spending a night with her lover,Ben. As she returns to her apartment complex,she notices people beginning to act strangely. When she sees her husband kill one of his friends,shit starts to rapidly go downhill. This is the straight up horror portion of the film...the part where shit really begins to plummet into the abyss of pure chaos...people getting killed left and right,open warfare on the streets,etc. It also introduces and establishes the love triangle story that acts as the emotional anchor for the film.
I counted exactly 3 flaws in this section...first,Mya apparently didn't have her shit together when it came to convincingly lying to her husband about where she was that night,and she COULD have told the truth about the blood stains on her shirt that she got from interacting with an injured man (which begins to set up the downward spiral of the film) rather than just telling him it was barbeque sauce. Second,while I got the underlying notion that she was using the music on her CD walkman to drown out the rest of the world,it significantly hindered her awareness and perception...she could have been attacked by a crazed individual and not be able to do anything about it till it was too late...sure enough,she got scooped up by one of her husband's friends,but thankfully he hadn't been exposed to the signal yet. Third and finally,said individual was told by Mya to IGNORE anybody that crossed their path,as they couldn't be trusted...sure enough,the moment they leave the apartment complex,the guy sees if somebody who turns out fo be affected by the signal needs any help...I'm pretty sure you all can imagine what happens.
Overall though,it was a good start with a few genuinly tense moments.
4/5
Transmission II-The Jealousy Monster:This chunk of the story is from the perspective of Mya's now crazed husband,Lewis Denton,after he captures Ben (who came looking for Mya) and puts him in the back of his exterminator van,as he holds up in an apartment with a man named Clarke (whom Mya encountered just before the end of the first segment) and a woman named Anna (who is beginning to lose her grasp on reality due to the mental trama of having to kill her husband after he became crazed by the signal) as he tried to find out where his wife has gone. This is where the film drastically changes directions and turns into a black comedy almost in the vein of an Edgar Wright film. Oddly enough,this is actually the goriest segment in the film (well maybe not THAT odd,seeing as how over the top gore is often used for comedic effect).
This part of the story,however,contains the most flaws. First off,Clarke started to make REALLY questionable decisions eventhough he had NOT been exposed to the signal and STILL contained a semblance of logical thinking even when witnessing shit crumble all around him...the big offense of this nature was his decision to not tell an obviously oblivious Jim,who had arrived at the apartment for the planned party that was supposed to be held by Anna and her husband,about all the fucked up shit thats been happening...speaking of Jim,he was a BIG part of what was wrong with this part of the movie...what an annoying little unfunny fuckbag he was (Hey,your names are Lewis and Clarke! Wheres Sacagawea? Hyuck,hyuck,SHADUP!)...and talk about fucking ridiculously oblivious...I mean,what the fuck,he couldn't tell from all the destruction,dead bodies (not many,but there were some),and even the blood on the faces of both Lewis and Clark AND that big ass fucking blood stain on the carpet that some heavy shit had gone down? Apparently not,cause all he cared about was partying and scoring some tail...I know what the writters were trying to do with him,but it doesn't work at all...at least Shaun had an excuse to be oblivious to the destruction around him due to having a hangover...Jim didn't have this,nor did he show any signs of being affected by the signal or the devestation around him (due to being completely clueless),so he had no fucking excuse.
And the flaws just kept on coming...another one of Clarke's unrealistic blunders was that he was so truthworthy of Lewis,even after he caught him staring at the signal transmission on the TV for a lenghy period of time...CMON! Another thing was that this part seems to go against what the first part established in the sense that the first part made it out like the ones affected by the signal had gone completely homicidal in a similar vein of the infected from 28 Days/Weeks Later...however,THIS part suddenly pulls the rug from under you and reveals that thats not nessasarally the case. It does take a little bit of time to get used to and it does appear that the film shoots itself in the foot here,but you need to keep in mind that the first portion really doesn't spend much time focusing on those affected by the signal,and the pure mayhem being caused was being told from the perspective of somebody else. Finally,Clarke finally telling Lewis where his wife went after Lewis exposes him to the signal...so,how exactly does Clarke know that the woman he encountered at the end of the first part was the wife of Lewis? Oh thats right,he doesn't...although to be fair,he had been exposed to the signal so he probably just grabbed whatever he could grasp to shut Lewis up.
One thing this part of the story did right was really getting inside the mindset of those affected by the signal and show what they go through as they descend into madness. However,when all is said and done,this is easily the worst segment of the film.
3.5/5
Transmission III-Escape From Terminus:The final portion of the film focuses on Ben after he escapes from the back of Lewis' van,in his quest to find Mya...problem is,it is revealed that the night before (when the first part of the film took place),he had extensive exposure to the signal and is beginning to lose his marbles. He and Clarke go after Mya to try to find her before Lewis does.
And here we have the best part of the film...it switches gears one more time and essencially becomes a romantic drama (especially during the last 20 minutes or so of the film)...however,not before having one last bit of comedy thrown in as well as some horror...so you could say that this is a small combination of the previous 2 parts used to support the romantic drama. There are,however,a couple of flaws. First,instead of just TELLING Ben where Mya is like he did for Lewis,he has to do something special to give him the information (the final comedic bit in the film)...and again,Clarke just automatically assumes that the woman he encountered at the end of the first segment is the woman Ben is looking for. Finally,it seemed Ben had found a way to put up a fight against what the signal does to your brain,yet he still found himself succombing to its effects...apparently his method wasn't as full proof as he thought. Overall though,this segment really brings everything full circle and the twist/trick Ben uses to overcome Lewis at the end was cool as hell. The film's ending is also quite ambiguous...is some ways it's optimistic,but in other ways it's a real downer.
4.5/5
So now,with all of these different ratings for all 3 sections,how do we determind the final rating? Simple,class...simply find the average of all 3 ratings by adding all 3 ratings and dividing the sum of them by how many ratings there are:
4+3.5+4.5=12
12/3=4
And there you have it...all in all,this is not a film for everybody. Some people may be turned off by how disjointed it gets (almost to the point where it becomes a surrealist film),others may be turned off by the fact that it's not a mass murdering "infected" opus like 28 Days/Weeks Later (EVEN MORE disappointed seeing as how the first part seems like it's going to go in that direction) and not even bother to see the film for what it really is (the cinematic equivelent of a severe schizophrenic in dire need of being committed),and others still may be turned off by how sharply the film changes direction in narrative tone for each segment. However those that can look past this will be in for a unique (sometimes too unique for its own good) horror movie. I can definatly see this developing a cult following.
4/5