Let’s
play nice and call Spectral an homage
to a heap of sci-fi films and not a mash-up of clichés from all that has come
before. A mash-up, yes, but certainly a nice-looking one at that.
James
Badge Dale, proving he had leading-man chops, as evident from HBO’s The Pacific, stars in first-time
director Nic Mathieu’s sci-fi muscle film that provides more hardcore military
meat than a Michael Bay Transformers
film. Dale plays a scientist invested in designing protective tech for the US
Army of the very-near future when he is assigned to accompany a Delta Force
unit on the field in Moldova who have encountered, well, ghosts. Ghosts that
can fly through walls and humans, the latter of which immediately perishes upon
contact.
Mathieu’s
constantly-moving camerawork and in-your-face visuals are slick and
surprisingly high-quality, thanks to the use of Weta for the F/X work. The
story, however, is nothing more than an outline for the big-bang shoot ‘em-ups
and creepy apparitions. The Delta Force team members are mostly faceless fodder
smacking of, but lacking the charisma of, the marines from Aliens; they even rescue a blonde girl who has been scavenging and
hiding out safe from the ghosts in the inner workings of an old factory. Later,
when Delta has the chance to regroup and restock, they are luckily holed up
with enough provisions and workable gear that would make B.A. Baracus smile
with glee, welding torch in hand.
The
overall premise of Spectral makes for
fun viewing. The film’s a fast-paced video game where the viewer doesn’t mind
playing the third person role. And while the story briefly describes the HOW of
the ghosts, the WHY is untouched resulting in an unfulfilled feeling as the
convenient failsafe stopping the threat is thrown allowing the credits roll.
The quick wrap-up makes you think that if there were a couple more available
quarters to feed into the slot, the story could continue with a more satisfying
ending.
As Always,
theJOE
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