I can't believe I quit The Wonders for this...
R
Johnathon Schaech, Erica Leerhsen
Soldier 1: Bullets didn’t stop this thing! Fire, disinfectants…you saw what we threw at it! So what genius thinks that these sand bags are gonna do any good!??
Soldier 2: How ’bout I stretch your mouth open and fill it with sand so that you shut the f*** up!?
Some army scientists uncover a hidden container deep inside a base that is being closed down. Despite warnings not to open it, they open it. Inside is a deadly organism that starts to spread outward rapidly, threatening a nearby town and perhaps the world.
This movie has bigger ambitions than its budget would allow, which resulted in several things occurring off screen – like a helicopter crashing – because they couldn’t afford the effects. It’s all done so earnestly though, that it’s hard to hate on the movie. It’s a big scale movie stuck in a Sci-Fi (or SyFy or whatever) channel budget.
The actors are third tier, but they try their best…not always successfully. The main annoyance for me was the plot contrivances. Characters acted stupidly, specifically those in command of the military, just to further the plot along. As usual, the higher-ups won’t listen to their inferiors, even though they’re the very scientists meant to advise them in these situations. So our heroes, civilian Frank Shears (Schaech) and military scientist Carrie Freeborn (Leerhsen), are left to run around and save the day themselves while avoiding arrest, as well as the deadly organism’s spreading tentacles.
We find out pretty quickly that Frank’s father was a scientist on the base in the 60s, and because he was infected with this organism when he fathered Frank, some special traits have been passed to Frank that help him fight the thing. His DNA is death for the creature, which leads to the movie’s one wholly original, and bizarre, scene. In order to protect Carrie Freeborn from the organism, Frank slices open his hands and spreads his blood over the entirety of her body. Funny, whenever I try to do that to girls, they get a little freaked out.
This movie is cheap and by the numbers, but I liked how straight the actors played it and the energy they attempted to bring to it. That’s not to say they made it very good, but I appreciated the effort.
When a civilian knows secrets about your military base and warns you not to tamper with whatever is hidden away there…take that advice seriously.
10 – 1.8 ’cause it’s cheap cheap cheap – 1.3 for some periodically bad acting – 1.6 for by the numbers plot = 5.3
The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things 