A new genre in the making !

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2008)

A new genre in the making !, 7 April 2008 8/10 Author: (maximusnorton@gmail.com)
The Mist , the title gives you the "bwaaah ... naahhh , not for me " first impression, but as more than once in life I have been shown - "Not always do first impressions need to be all that great" ! I thought to myself on first seeing the promo of this movie somewhere, "God,is it going to be something along the lines of that Tom Welling (Smallville) fiasco, I was like couldn't they come up with something inventive , at least with the title ? 'The Fog' : 'The Mist' ! Old chocolate , new wrapper !" But at the end of the promo when I saw the words : ' A Francis Darabont film ' , I was intrigued. Why would someone of his caliber want to direct a movie named "The Mist" ? It was only later that week, when I was at the airport, I managed to read an interview of his in the "Empire" and I realized that 'The Mist' like his previous creations (The Green Mile ,The Shawshank Redemption), was also based on one of Stephen King's works. This fact added to my curiosity and I was dead set on watching the movie as soon as possible.
The movie to be honest is something new, at least in my case: The Director: Francis Darabont is a director, one of the few left, who is still fascinated by the idea of myths and fables with a dollop of mysticism. In this present day world of "INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY" or " EPIC SCALE ANIMALS AND HUMANS ARE FRIENDS AND WE ALL KNOW MAGIC" movies, here is a director who still wants to make movies based on simple but yet intricately woven tales. Tales that are held together by a sense of mysticism,of powers greater than us. His movies give us a peculiar feeling of mixed emotions, of dread and despair , joy and redemption. All his movies have that redeeming factor,in some way or the other , he manages to put it in there. In this movie, he has only surpassed his previous genius in all matters both technically and script wise. He even used the dynamic camera action used in Shield (The TV series) and also in Spike Lee's "Inside Man", to give us that feeling of intense dread of not knowing what is happening and what is about to happen. The zooming technique to heighten the portrayal of emotions and the constant swagger of the camera created an atmosphere of uncertainty, sucking the viewer right in.
The Script: May it be Stephen King's novel or novella or whatever , but the tact with which Francis put it on screen is laudable. I was amazed with the way he put in complexities of problems pertaining to the past , the present and the future. (Race, War, The Old Testament , Scientists playing God etc.) The language used even, was extremely subtle but yet forceful, every character spoke in accordance to their backgrounds.
The Cast: A well chosen group of actors whose on-screen chemistry was excellent, each one sunk into their roles, except maybe for the African American who played the neighbor/lawyer (The guy from the TV show THIEF), his histrionics were quite plain and lacked soul. ( But I guess thats what the world appreciates these days, otherwise why would they have given the Oscar to Daniel Day lewis ?) The Effects: Good,nothing too "glitzy". The tentacles were a bit lame though ! The Theme: Here is a one of a kind monster movie, one that creates a new genre, where it can be about monsters but also be pleasing to both sides of the viewing audience namely the intelligentsia and the gore lovers. This movie is an experience and you need to listen and analyze on your own what it means to you and what its trying to tell, its not just about a group of people stuck in a situation they have never seen before, its more about how they tend to handle it and how no matter who we are and where we are from, we will all, in the end, return to our primitive forms when faced with a situation, so intense and life threatening.
Some will emerge as self proclaimed saviors, egocentrics who will use anything from religion to logic to rise above others. While others will quietly do what has to be done. But when faced with bigger choices, we all act the same - There is a scene where a mother asks for help and we get to see that basically, we are all just normal people, normal people who would like to be heroes and make a difference but only when it is convenient to them.
The ending: It has the usual Darabont/M.Night twist ... But this one though obvious to some, does not happen in the usual "recollect events happened thus far" format, but actually in a more " God! What have I done?" sort of way.
So, is this a monster movie - YES ! but it is also so much more...
My vote: 8 out of 10