Muckraker Posts: 232 Joined: 18 Apr 2008 | So I finally got out to see the Fourth Kind tonight, expecting something pretty good, but to be honest what I got was kind of a mixed bag.
The movie is shot in a sort of documentary/reenactment theme, with what they claim is real footage shown beside the reenactments, with audio and interviews being interspersed throughout. Now, being somewhat of a film buff I could tell that these "real" videos are fake, but they're generally more chilling then the reenactments, thanks in part to the violent distortion they experience whenever the aliens or strange occurrences are taking place. Milla Jovovich is thankfully better in this then in the resident evil movies, but she still seems somewhat unbelievable, perhaps because the actress playing the "real" Dr. Abigail Tyler is so much better. While Milla seems to play the same soft spoken but intense woman in every movie, the uncredited actress of Dr. Abigail Tyler was genuinely believable in her portrayed emotions and her quiet, subdued personality seems more to fit with the story. Its almost enough to make me wish that the film was entirely done through these "real" shots. Over all though, the technique is well executed, mostly because the "real" footage is shown only in places where it would make logical sense for a camera to be on and rolling, rather then the strange ubiquitousness of footage in most "found film" movies. In all, I think this is the best usage of such a technique since the Poughkeepsie tapes.
Now, once again, I won't spoil the story for you, but suffice to say that aliens are here and they aren't exactly friendly, in fact the effects they have on people seem more akin to a visit from an ancient, lovecraftian being which sows madness in it's wake. Often times the hypnosis induced memories of the events appear more like demonic possession then hidden memories. People hover, twist and contort to the point that they snap their neck, speak in Sumerian and proclaim themselves god. Despite the strangeness of it all, it does do a pretty good job at unsettling you and it does feel unique. This uniqueness does however falter at one point as we're shown inside one of the ships and see one of the probes being used. The ship is nothing but bright light with partial shadows, which isn't bad, but the probe looks like an chrome egg beater with a spike at the end; its the kind of thing you expect out of a movie like mars attacks, not a serious film like this one. But, over all, the setting is good and the suspense and effects are well achieved, with the taped footage once again outshining the reenactment.
Of course, this now leaves us with the story and I can say that this is where the movie truly has the biggest problems. It would not surprise me at all to find out that screenplay for this was originally entitled "Sceptics are giant idiot heads and why aliens are like totally real". The biggest two problems are two terrific strawmen who I will call Police Chief Bullshit and Psychologist I-see-nothing! Now, throughout the movie and the strange events that happen chief bullshit continues to hound the main character, eventually going as far as to place her on house arrest. Now, this would be understandable if they had not seen anything or had any reason to believe the protagonists stories of alien encounters. The problem is that THEY DO. They have video, they have eye witness accounts of several people including police officers and they have audio recordings. They (the movie not the cop) try to hand wave this away by simply saying "the video was distorted" which it was. The problem with that explanation is that the audience sees the video they're talking about and we know that there is plenty of evidence on it, essentially making the excuse moot. However Captain bullshit seems to have the capacity only to speak in screaming, accusations and shouts of "Bullshit!" so it's not surprising that he's more of a big stupid plot device then a reasonable character.
The other major problem is the other Psychologist, who despite seeing all these events first hand, flat out refuses to believe them or back the protagonist up. This is perhaps one of the more infuriating parts of the film because their is literally no reason for this character not to back the woman up. It's sort of like Fawkes from Fallout 3 refusing to enter the radiation chamber. It makes little to no sense outside of the context of a plot device and its something that no rational human being would ever do. He and the Cop end up as these massive sceptic strawmen who seem to simply deny anything. Another, though more minor problem is the protagonist's son, who has a bad case of "40 year old 12 year old" syndrome. He talks more like a middle aged man blaming his mother for a midlife crisis then a 12 year old boy. He basically does nothing then entire film but rag on his mom, blame her for his father's death and just about anything else even if a moments thought would make it clear that she's not to blame for anything. Over all, I suppose you could say that it's the antagonist's idiocy and the protagonist's idiocy in dealing with the antagonist's idiocy that makes the story pretty bad. There are moments where you have to restrain yourself from just screaming "Show him the fucking tape you stupid bitch!" at the screen and these moments really tear you out of the movie.
In the end though, the movie isn't terrible, it's just not as good as we expected. Its no classic and despite everything it does well, there are just enough detractions that it never rises above just "good". I would say that it's worth a watch to see for yourself, but for me at least the Box was the better choice. |
So I finally got out to see the Fourth Kind tonight, expecting something pretty good, but to be honest what I got was kind of a mixed bag.
The movie is shot in a sort of documentary/reenactment theme, with what they claim is real footage shown beside the reenactments, with audio and interviews being interspersed throughout. Now, being somewhat of a film buff I could tell that these "real" videos are fake, but they're generally more chilling then the reenactments, thanks in part to the violent distortion they experience whenever the aliens or strange occurrences are taking place. Milla Jovovich is thankfully better in this then in the resident evil movies, but she still seems somewhat unbelievable, perhaps because the actress playing the "real" Dr. Abigail Tyler is so much better. While Milla seems to play the same soft spoken but intense woman in every movie, the uncredited actress of Dr. Abigail Tyler was genuinely believable in her portrayed emotions and her quiet, subdued personality seems more to fit with the story. Its almost enough to make me wish that the film was entirely done through these "real" shots. Over all though, the technique is well executed, mostly because the "real" footage is shown only in places where it would make logical sense for a camera to be on and rolling, rather then the strange ubiquitousness of footage in most "found film" movies. In all, I think this is the best usage of such a technique since the Poughkeepsie tapes.
Now, once again, I won't spoil the story for you, but suffice to say that aliens are here and they aren't exactly friendly, in fact the effects they have on people seem more akin to a visit from an ancient, lovecraftian being which sows madness in it's wake. Often times the hypnosis induced memories of the events appear more like demonic possession then hidden memories. People hover, twist and contort to the point that they snap their neck, speak in Sumerian and proclaim themselves god. Despite the strangeness of it all, it does do a pretty good job at unsettling you and it does feel unique. This uniqueness does however falter at one point as we're shown inside one of the ships and see one of the probes being used. The ship is nothing but bright light with partial shadows, which isn't bad, but the probe looks like an chrome egg beater with a spike at the end; its the kind of thing you expect out of a movie like mars attacks, not a serious film like this one. But, over all, the setting is good and the suspense and effects are well achieved, with the taped footage once again outshining the reenactment.
Of course, this now leaves us with the story and I can say that this is where the movie truly has the biggest problems. It would not surprise me at all to find out that screenplay for this was originally entitled "Sceptics are giant idiot heads and why aliens are like totally real". The biggest two problems are two terrific strawmen who I will call Police Chief Bullshit and Psychologist I-see-nothing! Now, throughout the movie and the strange events that happen chief bullshit continues to hound the main character, eventually going as far as to place her on house arrest. Now, this would be understandable if they had not seen anything or had any reason to believe the protagonists stories of alien encounters. The problem is that THEY DO. They have video, they have eye witness accounts of several people including police officers and they have audio recordings. They (the movie not the cop) try to hand wave this away by simply saying "the video was distorted" which it was. The problem with that explanation is that the audience sees the video they're talking about and we know that there is plenty of evidence on it, essentially making the excuse moot. However Captain bullshit seems to have the capacity only to speak in screaming, accusations and shouts of "Bullshit!" so it's not surprising that he's more of a big stupid plot device then a reasonable character.
The other major problem is the other Psychologist, who despite seeing all these events first hand, flat out refuses to believe them or back the protagonist up. This is perhaps one of the more infuriating parts of the film because their is literally no reason for this character not to back the woman up. It's sort of like Fawkes from Fallout 3 refusing to enter the radiation chamber. It makes little to no sense outside of the context of a plot device and its something that no rational human being would ever do. He and the Cop end up as these massive sceptic strawmen who seem to simply deny anything. Another, though more minor problem is the protagonist's son, who has a bad case of "40 year old 12 year old" syndrome. He talks more like a middle aged man blaming his mother for a midlife crisis then a 12 year old boy. He basically does nothing then entire film but rag on his mom, blame her for his father's death and just about anything else even if a moments thought would make it clear that she's not to blame for anything. Over all, I suppose you could say that it's the antagonist's idiocy and the protagonist's idiocy in dealing with the antagonist's idiocy that makes the story pretty bad. There are moments where you have to restrain yourself from just screaming "Show him the fucking tape you stupid bitch!" at the screen and these moments really tear you out of the movie.
In the end though, the movie isn't terrible, it's just not as good as we expected. Its no classic and despite everything it does well, there are just enough detractions that it never rises above just "good". I would say that it's worth a watch to see for yourself, but for me at least the Box was the better choice.