Pretty Good

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2018)

I enjoyed it more than I did the book. Surprisingly, it had the skeleton frame of the book but was otherwise very different. Though, I only read the first book and not the entire trilogy, so there could have been some stuff worked in there. I would say you could read and watch the film and get almost two different stories. The film had a nice pace to it while the book ambled along not giving much payoff. It was sort of The Maze Runner for adults, but much more literary and not a rough draft of a book that somehow made it on the shelves.
I most enjoyed the performance by Gina Rodriguez, whom I didn't recognize from Jane the Virgin, given her performance was such a departure. Tessa Thompson...I just like her performance from Thor: Ragnorak, so I'm going to like her regardless. The movie mostly centers around the women, the mystery, and the other world, so, the actor's performance is the most vital, as is the look of the film. They all did a great job. I personally hate Poe from Star Wars, so, it will be hard to package Oscar Issac to my liking, but, whatever, yeah, he's in it too.
It had good tension, good mystery, looked great, good to great performances, and the overall film is an interesting take on the whole invasion concept which is typically involves lasers or alien possession. More of an interesting thought piece. I don't remember the whole biology angle playing in the book that much, other than she was a biologist...but that could be because I was bored of the book ambling along, but I did think it was interesting in the film, the whole concept of splitting cells. They even weaved it into being a bit poetic, intermingled with the horror-type elements.
Not great like the new Blade Runner, but a decent enough film.