#TAGS:
silly humor
physical comedy

emotional resonance
empathy and sympathy

fresh perspective

excellent camera work
immersive atmosphere
beautiful scenes
transcendent use of color and/or shadow
fitting soundtrack

unacceptable suspense (developments predicted too early)
acceptable suspense (developments predicted minutes before)

realistic effects
epic effects

#COMMENTS:

Truffaut!

One slight problem has to with the optimal timing for maximum suspense and thrills. The goal should be making the audience realize an answer 3 seconds after the characters in film get it. But here, it was such a pain watching Roy going nuts building big ass sculptures in the kitchen and disrespecting the trash man when I already figured out what he was seeing immediately after the authorities made the connection, which should be pretty obvious to everyone. Maybe it’s intentional for comedic effects? It just ended up as frustrations for me.

although it would make a great ad for maya 3D, blender, autoCAD, or whatever GIS and/or CAD modeling system though.

It is a much better mystery than Midnight Special (MS). The key is that the mysteries are well countered and sustained by good questions and actions from the characters. It is still not clear why Roy (etc.) are chosen but that was ok.

It is also much better paced than MS. Personally I believe the only excuses for slow shots are when strong emotion, deep contemplation, or some raw beauty and awe is present. The first type is greatly subjective and it just did not work for me in MS. But this film mostly slowed down only during the last case, which is slightly easier to judge regardless of audience (for a direct comparison, the ending of MS with the cities are paced correctly IMO).

loved that smile. (although the close humanoidal form of the alien bothered me slightly. I believe a lot of our biology is coincidental.)

#TAG SCORE: 16