Reviews

The premise is intriguing - a virus is causing people everywhere to go blind - but how everything is portrayed? WTF happened? Did the director take the whole cast hostage? Was everybody method-acting, in that they thought they had to get blind for real? Why didn't anyone associated to this mess react somewhere down the line? There are so many errors in this film, one does not know where to begin. But rest assured, no one ,and I mean NO ONE, involved has done any psychological research before they entered this project. Cliché-ridden, over the top, ridiculous, embarrassing, completely unbelievable, hopeless waste of time. Makes "The Happening" look like Citizen Kane.AVOID!

Its been said before and Ill say it again: Heath Ledger steals this movie.Every time he is in frame you are in the presence of greatness. He so in control of everything happening and nearly outshines all flaws.Because this is, in spite of Heath Ledgers powerhouse performance, a flawed project. The plot & subplots are messy and things happen that are not allowed to breathe. Hans Zimmer tries to calm everybody down sometimes through a beautiful one-note sound but there is not enough silence to balance the action. Remember Gladiator?One of the reasons that works so well is because time is given to the characters and audience to reflect. Something Christopher Nolan showed us in Batman Begins which is far superior to this one. I thought this one would be more in vein of that one but The Dark Knight is all roller-coaster, which is fine as part of something but not as a whole film. The lack of reflection makes it hard to actually care about what happens on the screen. I mean, everyone delivers but there is lack of sparks over everything. Except for Ledger that is. Check him out in Candy and then in this one and marvel over his acting range.

These visuals are good but not great.

There is nothing wrong with the synopsis, the "gated community" - dilemma could be delivered with a twist like this, no doubt. But the problem is how it is executed.There is not one character here with any kind of depth whatsoever. Its all one-dimensional cardboard-pieces responding to some really incoherent twists of the plot.

The dialogue is embarrassingly bad sometimes and the actors fight to get some kind of guidance in their performances. The story kind of wants to be both drama and suspense-thriller but fails on both parts.Not that a drama cant be in the vein of a thriller and vice versa. (Check out Buenos Aires 1977 for some chilling thrills and high drama.)

The stage is great though. The scenes of the clean cut streets clashing with the outside slums is alone thought-provoking. And the watchful eye of the surveillance-camera is perhaps tiresome by now but never the less effective here. But thats hardly a reason to spend time and money on this shoddy piece.