Not what it could have been

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2019)

This film is not what it could have been or was trying to be, that much is clear. Fortunately some awe-inspiring effects and a wave of energy towards the end keeps it from being a real stinker, but the problems remain. What problems? You could call it ground-breaking to cast a bunch of actresses in the traditionally male roles of a team of scientists and explorers checking out an unexplainable phenomenon, but in this case you could also call it boring and unbelievable. There is zero chemistry between the romantic leads (Portman and Isaac) and Portman seems pretty detached throughout. She and her team are called on to inspect some sort of anomaly (the shimmer) that appears to rewrite the genes of animals and do other weird things. The movie is clearly influenced by J.G. Ballard's weird phenomena stories, SF horror flicks, and especially by Tarkovsky's "Stalker." At the end you will still be scratching your head over what took place, but it is not likely you will care very much.