Reviews

I applaud them for trying something different this season. The first two episodes were fine. I liked the creepiness and I love the desolate setting. Though I was afraid it was moving too slow for a season with only 6 episodes. Boy, was I right.

The subsequent two episodes were horrible. I can't even remember anything happening that actually furthered the main plot along. In stead, we mainly got fillers about characters we know and/or care little about, a few pointless sex scenes and some other middle-school shenanigans. Among which a sanctimonious disapproving housewife, who actually manages to say that her studies are more important than her husbands job as a deputy, keeping the people alive in this small freezing town, and asks him to go sleep somewhere else... because he listened to his boss? Are we supposed to understand or even agree with this? Then again, this is the same guy who goes on to shoot and kill his dad (out of self-defence) showing very little remorse or emotion.

This final episode might be the worst of all. It starts with the two lead characters exploring a narrow ice cave, on their own without any back-up (because why would you NOT make it cheesy). They both fall some 3 or 4 meters through the ice on a rock hard surface, without sustaining any injuries whatsoever.

During the chase of their suspect, which ensues, she gets locked inside a sort of freezer for ice samples (seems a bit redundant considering the location, but whatever), with glass doors. For soms reason she actually puts her gun away and starts looking for something to break the glass with... I mean, what? She tears a metal pipe off something as if it's nothing, and proceeds to try and smash the glass, taking a lot of effort. It would seem to me that the gun would have been the better choice. I doubt they'd have any need for bullet-proof glass.

During the interrigation of their subject (after a bit of casual torture) inside the same facility, one of the leads puts a gun to his head, with the intention of executing him on the spot because she has a score to settle with him. Something which the other lead is willing to overlook, because apparantly when women do it, vigilantism is perfectly fine (just like at the very end of this episode). The suspect is then screaming and begging for his life, while LITERALLY a few moments later he's pleading for her to kill him or to let him kill himself because ''he's so tired''. That's quite the mood swing.

Meanwhile, no one is recording his confession/explanation in either video or audio. He then proceeds to kill himself in the fastest flash freeze I have ever seen, after which the lead starts screaming about him being their only witness. Smartphones were being used throughout this season, but I guess they simply forgot to do so when it mattered most. Also, later on, she falls through the ice in freezing water, but seems to survive this more effortless than their suspect simply walking outdoors.

Don't even get me started about the quasi-spiritual ending.

I've never considered Emile Hirsch to be a great actor, but at least he's alright. I read other reviews on here commending his performance in this, but I guess we must've watched an entirely different movie. To me, his role was simply excrutiaring to watch. Admittedly not entirely his fault, but still it was mostly him who made this movie look like a parody. I thought I was watching a horror comedy. There's also a lot of ridiculousness. When Walden takes revenge on his first purp/vic, without spoiling too much, it appears no one has ever heard of fingerprints in this town (or simply didn't care about solving this murder). Later on, he starts gunning down people as if it were nothing. After which there seems to have been no ballistics done whatsoever. The main antagonist finally admits to countless of heinous acts. He got made due to a minor ''mistake'' (which he could've easily denied by the way, but whatever). This little mistake seemed to annoy him, yet he had numerous of bodies (skeletons) put on display, posed in chairs (that somehow no one had ever come across, even by smell, in such a very small town), for no apparent reason other than shock value for us viewers.

It's a real shame though, I mean, how many times do we actually get to see a movie about steno? It's another wasted opportunity.

The movie immediately starts off with a very melodramatic piece of music supporting a scene with people we know nothing yet about. Before trying to jerk some tears or even sympathy out of me, it might be a good idea to try and make me care about them in the first place. Also, some of the acting here is pretty bad, especially the kid.

Then, when he (Driver) leaves Earth in his spaceship, nothing of his departure is shown. It's just skipped entirely. That's no way to build any tension or character either. He simply wakes up in his ship, due to an emergency alert. For some reason, the autopilot on his ship is unable to steer clear from an uncharted meteor cloud, and needs manual override to do so. I mean, nowadays we already have cars that can easily evade any obstacle on their own, but whatever.

Within seconds, he crashes onto an unknown planet. Despite being the pilot he somehow survives, but his cargo (people in stirdy pods) does not. There's actually very little time spent in space at all. The whole ordeal seems rushed and all in all very cheap. Considering the movie has a very small cast, I'm guessing most of its budget went to Driver.

Then he discovers that a very young girl has somehow survived the crash as well, without a scratch, apparently having exited the pod on her own, while all others died (without actually having properly checked on any of them). Also, it doesn't really seem wise to send a small group of people on an exploratory mission, who can't even communicate with each other, due to language differences. Kid or no kid.

Going forward, the creatures on this planet seem to attack other creatures without hesitation, but when it comes to a small human they hold back and approach very slowely. I guess this is where they did remember to build some tension, however inapplicable. The CGI isn't bad, but it isn't up to standards either.

All in all, if you're into sci-fi, skip this one. If you're into brainless jumpscare movies with some pew pew, then go for it.

I personally love topics about conspiracies or shadow governments and the likes, especially when it's about the occult and mysticism, but...

WHEN DO CREATORS FINALLY START PAYING ATTENTION TO DETAIL?? Your audience isn't as stupid as you seem to think.

I could go on forever, but here's a few...

• CIA agents do not carry badges! I mean, they're the CIA... they're secret agents... do I need to explain this any further?

• Why can't Langdon just be an older guy? That would make it a hundred times more believable. Stop revolving stories about young cute people getting together. No one cares.

• No matter how much this guy (Langdon) knows, no one in their right mind is gonna allow him to just suddenly pick up an object on the crime scene, before having it dusted for prints. Similar things happen in other situations.

• Pacing things up is great, but don't do that by making everyone (even random bystanders) immediately solving everything as if they've been doing it since birth, like in the Panic Room movies.

Other than that, it looks promising and the main villain seems awesome. Please address the details, while there's still a chance.