It has to be said I was apprehensive myself when choosing this film to watch. Another end-of-world apocalypse film, another group of disparate, desperate, survivors fighting against all odds. Then I realised who the directors were, David and Alex Pastor had previously directed Carriers from 2009 that started Chris Pine amongst others. That film was an intelligent look at a post pandemic society and was more interested in how certain characters behaved put into a truly extraordinary situation. It was focussed on cheap thrills or painting its participants black and white and nothing else. It was interesting, intelligent and just as importantly different.
So to The Last Days. The premise of the disease, epidemic, virus – you choose – in itself was interesting and not something I had really come across in any of this genre of fiction before. So the survivors were not deformed or monsters or particularly horrible, just survivors stuck wherever the disease struck them. So far so good.
There is no explanation for the problem, other than perhaps a big volcanic eruption, but the main protagonists work in an office how or why would the know other than from the news. Just like most of us really and there the film leaves and pseudo-babble behind. Likewise, the survivors are a mixed bunch most of whom are just trying to get to relatives or friends and most are not evil or bad just to drive the narrative along. There are some baddies just like real life but in general not hundreds of them. Well at least not until we get the supermarket, which probably was a step too far in ‘how it has panned out’ story line.
The film is certainly not perfect with the acting varying from great, in particular Enrique’s character not being just a cardboard cut-out, to sometimes slightly too melodramatic. Overall though the cast hit the right notes and you certainly felt an affinity with Marc who was most definitely flawed.
Influences from various other world-ending films are there to be seen but in this circumstance this is a good thing as mostly the directors go their own way with the story. Clearly there are too many coincidences and plot-holes but in this type of story logic does have to take a bit of a back-seat and despite the fact that Marc succeeding in the manner he does being much too far-fetched the film just about hangs onto enough believability to ground it.
I particularly liked the very end of the film which easily could start off a ‘Brave New World’ type of sequel and ends the proceedings on an up-note.
Overall in the gazillions of apocalyptic, end-of-the-world, films and novels out there this one sits very near the top. After all the story itself is no sillier than stone-dead people coming back to life to consume the living which after ten minutes of viewing you want the stone-dead people to consume everyone.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2016-06-11T11:57:33Z
It has to be said I was apprehensive myself when choosing this film to watch. Another end-of-world apocalypse film, another group of disparate, desperate, survivors fighting against all odds. Then I realised who the directors were, David and Alex Pastor had previously directed Carriers from 2009 that started Chris Pine amongst others. That film was an intelligent look at a post pandemic society and was more interested in how certain characters behaved put into a truly extraordinary situation. It was focussed on cheap thrills or painting its participants black and white and nothing else. It was interesting, intelligent and just as importantly different.
So to The Last Days. The premise of the disease, epidemic, virus – you choose – in itself was interesting and not something I had really come across in any of this genre of fiction before. So the survivors were not deformed or monsters or particularly horrible, just survivors stuck wherever the disease struck them. So far so good.
There is no explanation for the problem, other than perhaps a big volcanic eruption, but the main protagonists work in an office how or why would the know other than from the news. Just like most of us really and there the film leaves and pseudo-babble behind. Likewise, the survivors are a mixed bunch most of whom are just trying to get to relatives or friends and most are not evil or bad just to drive the narrative along. There are some baddies just like real life but in general not hundreds of them. Well at least not until we get the supermarket, which probably was a step too far in ‘how it has panned out’ story line.
The film is certainly not perfect with the acting varying from great, in particular Enrique’s character not being just a cardboard cut-out, to sometimes slightly too melodramatic. Overall though the cast hit the right notes and you certainly felt an affinity with Marc who was most definitely flawed.
Influences from various other world-ending films are there to be seen but in this circumstance this is a good thing as mostly the directors go their own way with the story. Clearly there are too many coincidences and plot-holes but in this type of story logic does have to take a bit of a back-seat and despite the fact that Marc succeeding in the manner he does being much too far-fetched the film just about hangs onto enough believability to ground it.
I particularly liked the very end of the film which easily could start off a ‘Brave New World’ type of sequel and ends the proceedings on an up-note.
Overall in the gazillions of apocalyptic, end-of-the-world, films and novels out there this one sits very near the top. After all the story itself is no sillier than stone-dead people coming back to life to consume the living which after ten minutes of viewing you want the stone-dead people to consume everyone.