movies: the invisible

the invisible - life, death and something in betweenI'm going to start with my final thought on The Invisible and work backwards I think...

I came out of this movie feeling vaguely unfulfilled by my movie experience, although I'm somewhat at a loss as to WHY I was unfulfilled.

Maybe because it's a remake of a Swedish film (are dark and brooding and slightly depressive movies what the Swedes are known for?)... maybe because I was REALLY unhappy with the way it ended... maybe I was expecting something different when I went into the cinema... I dunno.

Ma said that she was taken along on the ride, but I don't know that I was so much.

I will say this though... the title is something of a misnomer... the main character isn't "invisible" at all... okay, he is... but not in the traditional "Invisible Man" kind of way. And the blurb that Greater Union used... so very much not helpful.

A supernatural thriller about a writer who finds himself trapped between the world of the living and the dead - completely invisible to the living.

The main character isn't a writer, he's a high school student (okay, he WANTS to be a writer... but that doesn't make him one).... I wouldn't exactly say it was a "thriller" either, at least not in the conventional sense.

It also seemed to take a REALLY long time to get to the "trapped between worlds" bit... there was all this angst and blah blah blah. I did sit there at one point and try and work out why it just wasn't doing it for me... it wasn't the acting, that was actually pretty good, even from some of the very minor characters... okay Justin Chatwin as the lead is a bit of a one note actor, but even he's not that bad. The directing is pretty good I think... although I may be a little biased there before it's David S. Goyer, and I liked his work on the Blade series, particularly the last one (although maybe he should just stick to writing them rather than directing them). And the script wasn't THAT bad... yeah, it could have been tightened up in spots, but you can say that about pretty much any movie ever made.

If I had to pick a weak link, I would say the script... but I actually just don't know... maybe the acting actually saved some of the script.

I know I'm not giving this movie a very resounding, or particularly clear review, but it bugged me, and I think I would be better off if I could figure out why. I do know that I hated the ending... I'm not saying it wasn't the RIGHT ending, it certainly was where the movie was heading to... but I hated it anyway.

Can you tell I'm just really ambivalent about this one?

yani's rating: 1 spoiled dead teen out of 5

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