Reviews

I'm a big fan of anthology horror movies, and horror in general and I'm willing to accept found footage movies if they're done well enough. That being said this is not done well at all. They use every found footage cliché except night vision. Constant "glitch cuts", people carrying the camera around while in danger for no reason, disoriented confusing action sequences. The found footage aspects are the main weakness in this movie, but I'll put that aside for now and review this movie on its other aspects.

First of all every character in this movie is terrible. They're either perverted frat boy assholes or completely void of personality. They're not the kind of characters you can't wait to be killed, they're the kind of characters you can't wait to stop listening to. I know there's no time to really flesh out any characters in an anthology, but you can at least give them a personality, these guys are just boring, boring, boring.

The plot of most of these shorts are only possible through monumentally stupid decisions from the characters. They never call the call the cops, are constantly tripping while running away (maybe if you dropped the camera...), and the overarching plot characters are the stupidest of them all.

There's no bow-tie at the end connecting all these stories, and therefore no need for the very bland overarching story itself. However in a few of the tapes the mystery is strong enough to keep you interested and some of the tension is pretty thrilling, although it never really pays off.

I would be more forgiving of the cliché story and characters if it was easier to watch, and I'd be more forgiving of the found footage faux-pas if it had better stories. But this is the worst of both worlds, I would give this a 4/10 but I'm bumping it up 1 for the tits.

I like many other people was initially put off by the trailer. After hearing some good reviews about it, I decided to go in with low expectations.

You should know, that this is at it's heart a family movie. Don't expect to be blown away by metaphysical themes and surprising plot twists. It's a very tried and true story line, but still enjoyable. The one complaint I had with the story is that it moves pretty fast in the beginning, and I can understand if some kids will have trouble following it.

The real star of this show are the amazing effects. There's some truly stunning things in this movie. Nearly all the set pieces are creative and interesting and all the owls are wonderfully animated.

I'm also glad to see that this movie treated children very maturely. There's no fart jokes in this movie, and it doesn't shy away from the violent nature of owls. There is one montage with an obnoxious pop song by 'Owl City' (HA HA GET IT!?). Which is easily the weak point in the movie, but thankfully it's over quickly.

I wouldn't probably recommend this to kids under the age of 8-9, not that it's overly violent or scary, but more so that the story and talking may move a bit too fast for them. But to anyone else this has the feeling of a strong and beautiful family adventure movie that's almost on the same level as 'Labyrinth.'

What is there to really say about this? If you go into this movie expecting anything but bottom of the barrel acting, plot, and effects; I'd recommend seeking help. This movie is trying to be one of the self-aware B-horror movies, constantly poking fun at itself, but if fails so miserably that all of it's jokes are funny for the wrong reasons. Pretty much every scene in this movie is funny for the wrong reason.

But hey, you're watching a 'SyFy' movie. You know what this is. It's a cheesy cliché movie shoveled out with a bare minimum budget to try to make a quick buck. I actually enjoyed this movie, but that's because I love poking fun at horrendously bad movies such as this with my friends. So if you're a bad movie fan like me, this is a somewhat fun watch, otherwise this movie is total garbage.

2/10

I wanted to like this movie, but at no point in time did I trick myself into thinking that this would be as good or even nearly as good as the original. At the very least, I thought, people who have never seen the original would get to enjoy the story with some flashy graphics and it will bring attention to a classic sci-fi movie. I was wrong. This movie is just plain boring. Whether you're a fan of the original or someone new that thought this looked interesting, I can't imagine you enjoying this.

My first complaint is that the pacing is so very slow. You spend most of the movie listening to monotone conversations or watching Keanu Reeves stare at things intently. The movie only has one tone, and that's DEAD SERIOUS. There's no light hearted moments to contrast the graveness of the situation like the original. All the actors give the same grim-dark unwavering performance, which results in you not caring for anyone in the movie or the situation as a whole.

At least the CG is entertaining, right? No, not really. There's lots of bright lights and bloom effects, but for the most part it's poorly done and blatantly obvious. However I must admit, I thought the idea of an ever growing swarm of destructive nanobots was interesting, and I enjoyed watching them wreak havoc on everything in their path.

The plot was pretty weak and shallow. It's worth mention that this is based on a 50s sci-fi movie (an era where most sci-fi movies were "Devil Girl from Mars" or "Attack of the Killer Ant") and managed to make the plot less believable and ridden with more plot holes. The motives for most of the characters are far fetched at best, and downright silly at worst.

All things considered, there's really no reason to watch this movie. I can't think of a single person who would like this better than the original. Even if I completely ignore the fact that it's a remake, this is still a weak movie on it's own legs. Unbelievable, unlikable characters and monotone performances are just some of the low points in this otherwise mediocre and boring movie.

4/10

This is very much a typical low budget "Good vs. Evil" story. If you can swallow the poor acting and boring script it has some neat effects and action. It's not half bad for a Saturday afternoon viewing. (5/10 = It's exactly half bad, but whatever)

You can predict most every scene and there's no real surprises, the whole movie takes itself way too seriously. The script is cliché at best, and the acting is quite poor all around featuring no good performances. Along with that there are some mildly entertaining monsters, and some decent swordplay.

If you have kids that were anything like I was when I was growing up, I'm sure they'll enjoy it (be warned it is a bit gory). Or if you're just a big fan of campy sword and sorcery movies, it might be worth a rental. But to anyone else, I'd recommend watching another movie.