Not impressive

Rating: 2/10 (16 March 2019)

This might have worked as a romantic drama with a bit of adventuring, but the sci-fi and horror are all wrong.
A team of some women volunteer to go into the shimmer, a bubble that is spreading around a lighthouse. I say "some women" because they have no clear objective, roles, chain of command, discipline, or in most cases, even mental strength to be there. Odd considering the shimmer is under strict military police observation, and they go so far as to hunt down a dying man in an ambulance because he emerged from the shimmer.
The characters are not memorable. They have no distinct personalities, just different levels of losing their s***, ranging from fragile mind to mind-already-broken-so-not-going-to-emote. None of them are likeable or have any discernible motivation to be there. They don't talk about their research, seem fascinated in the world around them, or say anything at ALL of interest. I think they say 'I don't know' 50 times in the movie. What an inspiring bunch! One of the women comes up with a theory that doesn't make any sense, and then immediately gives up. At some point they decide they are losing their minds by literally saying they are losing their minds or 'changing' or something. They literally didn't have the direction or ability to ACT it, so they just say it.
The movie is shot poorly. 90% of my screen was black during night scenes. This means they only need a fraction of the budget for nighttime monsters and action scenes. I get the feeling they're going to stop shooting night scenes at some point all together and just leave audio on a black screen.
The ending looks like someone's project in a special effects class. Most of it does actually. The director was probably enamored with cell division at the time and made a movie with multiple shots of cell division scattered throughout with about 5 minutes worth of research on Google. They say this movie was dumbed down because test audiences didn't like it? What an insult to past and present audiences!