Hypnotic was a bland and mediocre film inspired by a concept that wasn't really that new.
While watching it, I constantly felt like they just couldn't handle the idea. And it's not the budget. It's the overall delivery of the story. All the characters just spat out exposition, and due to questionable editing, the film felt more like a cutscene in a video game.
They were probably afraid that the plot would confuse people, but there are ways to handle this with less explanation done by the characters. There's nothing to care about in its current state since everyone just explains who they are and what they do or have to do.
All the action was shot poorly and way under the standards of excitement today. The interesting scenes were mostly horror-themed ones, like a chained dog cop buddy and the scissors one. It has plenty of nods and homages to other films, which are easily spottable, but not in a fun way.
All the other technical stuff wasn't good, weird shots, clunky editing, and very uninspired and bored acting. Affleck looked happy only in the last scene, maybe because of his celebrating that it's over now (or maybe something I cannot spoil).
Building "twists" upon "twists" in such a film just adds nothing. There should be rules, and the twists can be surprising only if the film feels real while fooling you. If you're watching under the impression that anything can be fake, it devalues the twists.
Even if you buy the magic aspect of the film, the whole concept of the governmental program is just as implausible as possible. There's no need to try to break it down to understand that such an undertaking would just bring absolute chaos, and nobody would care about the mission they've tried 12 times for some reason.
Overall, I'd say that Hypnotic was a mediocre B-movie with an idea they didn't utilize seriously or in a comedic way. It's something in-between a cheap action film and a supernatural horror drama, not reaching any of these completely. Not sure why Affleck was there, but he didn't seem to care anyway.
While watching it, I constantly felt like they just couldn't handle the idea. And it's not the budget. It's the overall delivery of the story. All the characters just spat out exposition, and due to questionable editing, the film felt more like a cutscene in a video game.
They were probably afraid that the plot would confuse people, but there are ways to handle this with less explanation done by the characters. There's nothing to care about in its current state since everyone just explains who they are and what they do or have to do.
All the action was shot poorly and way under the standards of excitement today. The interesting scenes were mostly horror-themed ones, like a chained dog cop buddy and the scissors one. It has plenty of nods and homages to other films, which are easily spottable, but not in a fun way.
All the other technical stuff wasn't good, weird shots, clunky editing, and very uninspired and bored acting. Affleck looked happy only in the last scene, maybe because of his celebrating that it's over now (or maybe something I cannot spoil).
Building "twists" upon "twists" in such a film just adds nothing. There should be rules, and the twists can be surprising only if the film feels real while fooling you. If you're watching under the impression that anything can be fake, it devalues the twists.
Even if you buy the magic aspect of the film, the whole concept of the governmental program is just as implausible as possible. There's no need to try to break it down to understand that such an undertaking would just bring absolute chaos, and nobody would care about the mission they've tried 12 times for some reason.
Overall, I'd say that Hypnotic was a mediocre B-movie with an idea they didn't utilize seriously or in a comedic way. It's something in-between a cheap action film and a supernatural horror drama, not reaching any of these completely. Not sure why Affleck was there, but he didn't seem to care anyway.