Fear What's Dumped in Netflix

Rating: 3/10 (19 March 2018)

I awaited eagerly the release of this movie, as I am an avid consumer of science-fiction. I usually rate Sci-Fi flicks slightly above what they deserve, just because it is an intrinsically challenging genre and filmmakers should be commended just for trying their hand at it. In this case, however, I feel this movie was vastly overrated and my rating of 3 stars is an attempt to bring balance to the hype. I will provide some background to the story but keep my review spoiler-free.
The premise of this movie is by no means original and yet remains a compelling one. Some alien force takes over an area on the Pacific Coast of the USA and transforms it into a realm of mystery that gets bigger by the hour and from which nothing ever returns, The Shimmer. The action gets going when, out of the blue, one lone trooper does eventually return from it and the people in charge decide to send one further expedition, this time composed solely of women of various professional backgrounds, mostly academic/scientific. All of them are given assault weapons, even though only one of them appears to have any military experience. None of them wear any protective gear, even though it has been determined that biological activity is strongly affected within The Shimmer. From here on the flaws in logic, even within the weird world of the movie, begin to pile up so fast that any suspension of disbelief is not possible anymore.
The Professor of Biology in Johns Hopkins University states that "different species cannot cross-breed". Seriously? Ever heard of a mule? It's a cross-breed between a horse and a donkey, two different species. The characters actions are completely irrational, the dialogue is contrived and expository aiming at the lowest possible common denominator. We live in the year 2018, it is very unlikely that anyone watching a science-fiction movie will not have at least a vague idea of what a "mutation" is. The heavy-handed didactical tone of the characters becomes annoying very quickly, besides being unrealistic: people simply don't talk like that unless they are teaching a high school class.
Plot, dialogue, and some of the effects are quite amateurish for such a high budget movie. Some are downright unintentionally hilarious. No matter how spectacular the vistas or the colors, we as an audience are quite desensitized to astonishing visuals at this point. Anything is possible with CGI. When the direction doesn't succeed at making you care about the characters, most of which are quite annoying and act illogically for their outstanding level of education, it is difficult to empathize with their plight and get emotionally involved in the action. The tone is never set unambiguously, what are we supposed to feel? Fear? Anxiety? Tension? Horror? Curiosity? Sadness? It tries to be a blend of all of them and ends up being none.
In summary, the three stars are for the interesting premise and for the ambitious scope of the project. The seven stars that are missing from a tenner are from poor execution at all levels, including the acting, which in a few cases is as amateurish as the characters in the movie. I am worried that Netflix is taking advantage of its 'hostage' audience to force this kind of product on people. This is not high quality science fiction, it is science dumbed down to the level of illiteracy, minus any thought-sparking, tension-building, attention-grabbing plot. An unfulfilling and highly disappointing experience.