Of all the movies I have ever seen, this is certainly one of them.
Other than the sheer charisma of Chris Hemsworth and likability of Miles Teller, there wasn't much carrying the film. The plot is fairly obvious and uninspired (I hope the book is better) and the characters are all somewhat underdeveloped.
Another mediocre Netflix film. It's a very cookie cutter movie. Actually, for Netflix it was good. It just turns out that a good Netflix film is just mediocre when compared to everything else.
With some tweaks to make things less obvious, this could have gone from mediocre to good. Instead of assuming the audience is stupid and unable to figure out whom the bad guys are, make this an intelligent story where things are only partially explained and left open to interpretation. Add nuance to the story to make it interesting.
As it is, it is good enough to watch once and immediately forget. I would never recommend it, but if someone said they were interested, I wouldn't tell them to avoid it. The very definition of mediocre.
I thought this movie was quite good, especially for a Netflix original, though I do agree the ending fell a bit flat.
The writing is strong. It's a great example of show, not tell, as there was very little exposition in this unfamiliar world and yet we could easily understand what was going on.
All the actors did an incredible job of having to show a wide range of extreme emotions, sometimes having to switch between them quite quickly. Smollett is always a dream to watch, please put her in everything. Even Hemsworth, who is usually just meh to me did a fantastic job in this. I'm excited to see him in more films that have this quality of direction and writing.
The plot does a good job of exploring the intersections of late stage capitalism meets carceral culture. The themes of redemption, love and forgiveness through the narrative without needing to hammer down on these too much. Though I do enjoy a deep, heady, academic exploration of these topics, I also like when a story can let the morals come through via the emotional impact of the narrative, and this movie does that well, allowing us to meet the prisoners as people first, seeing their humanity before we learn of their mistakes, and feel appalled at how they are experimented on.
The twists were well delivered and the pacing was perfect for me, keeping me glued to the story while giving the characters space to do emotional development in the quiet moments.
All in all I had a great time. More of this please!
:heart:x6
For some reason, I really enjoyed watching Miles Teller beat up Thor - lol.
This could have been a better movie. It started out strong but fell flat in the end. Hemsworth plays the bad guy really well. It would be nice to see him play a worse bad guy, give Hemsworth a bit more to dig into .
How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!
Very uninspired third act ruins what was building up to be a rather decent and reflective story with striking visuals to match. The end reduced it to another soulless action flick with a generic bad guy with daddy issues, a himbo and his lady friend who barely gets her time in the sun (literally). Disappointing.
This the definition of an average movie. Good enough to not be bored for 90 minutes. Bad enough that afterwards you'll forget everything about it because nothing actually interesting happened.
The sad thing is that the premise and the idea are interesting, a very exploitable, but the way facts unfold... well, the plot is very shallow and superficial, expecially in the second half.
I can rate this film: Depressionflux/10
They had such a great chance to make a movie about the ethics and morality of experimenting on prisoners and everything that comes with it. Instead they fucked it right up and the end makes everything they’ve built up meaningless. Also what is with trying to make me sympathise with people who have done bad shit.
If this was a Black Mirror episode, it would be one of the more forgettable ones. Cool idea but the ending had me like “oh ok“.
Good idea. Poorly executed. Lacks imagination. Chuck in some nostalgic music, because people like that...
Started off well, but got stupid with the drug testing procedures as the movie went along and fizzled out with a typical Hollywood ending.
Why can't someone mix up these endings every now and then?!!!!
A very generous 6/10
As Thor you don't see how horrible he is as an actor. Here with the weakest of all stories, it becomes obvious. Horrible waste of time.
Slow build up, bland ending
Very strong premise and great performances. The last 10 minutes really let the film down.
The writing decision to involve B-6 (Obediex), stripping away the prisoners' agency and taking the inherent oppressive nature of prison out of the equation, ruined any commentary the film was trying to make on false free will and brainwashing.
With these two cast leads and a fresh sci-fi thriller, I’m all in. Unfortunately, this rock solid premise doesn’t really go anywhere as the story unravels. I really enjoyed the build up. I really enjoyed where I hoped the story would go. Maybe this could have been better served as a mini series to build up where the plot was headed. If it was a theater release, I probably would be suckered in and leaving somewhat disappointed. But as a straight to Netflix film, it’s worth watching.
Rating: 2.5/5 - 7/10 - Worth Watching
wow that was a bad movie, back in the 1990s that would have been in the £1 box(bin) in Blockbuster
Hmmm… well, it had Chris Hemsworh in it… It was… meh. An interesting concept but slow and basically, not the best watch.
The soundtrack was fantastic, mostly from the 80s. Entertaining for a cyberpunk watch.
Loved the sci-fi elements and the idea of the drugs also great acting. The story falls flat and the last third of the movie was all over the place going from thriller to romance to comedy to action and pretty much loses it's sci-fi roots. The music doesn't always fit the mood either.
very watchable love to see chris hemsworth continue and push himself into branching out more into the thriller horror genres i want to see him play some really dark and disturbing characters bc this film and bad times hes really proven himself to be a strong dramatic actor as well as comedic i just wanna see more! like some freaky esoteric a24 film but yeah i had fun with this movie fully captivated from beginning to end even if it doesnt end up being as smart as its source material
the film starts well but ends awkwardly. who knows if Netflix will understand that the decline in subscribers is mainly due to the fact that it continues to produce crap like this.
Below average. Could have been a short 25 minute film.
Started off ok but then got kind of dumb.
Some interesting ideas, like how you could apply these drugs which influence your emotions, but ultimately this movie ended up being pretty much... nothing. It's a generic plot without a cohesive message and some interesting aspects to its premise, but not more. I'm easy to thrill so there were 1-2 scenes in the midst of it which were exciting, the third act fell completely flat though so in this regard this is not really it either. They could've gone a lot crazier and delved more into worst-case scenarios with these drugs.
Chris Hemsworth still kinda reminds me of Thor but he played his role well, although it was disappointing how the actual character turned out to be. It would be interesting for example if Steve is unable to feel emotions and tries to somehow "fix" himself with these drugs. Just an idea.
Interesting and different kind of storyline. Unfortunately it's very likely something that could (if it isn't already) happen and none of us would be any wiser about it. Quality acting from pretty much all the frontrunners and the soundtrack was excellent. (I'm a fan of Herb Alpert and Chuck Mangione music, though, so I'm probably a bit biased.) I would give this a watch if you're just (like I was) tired of the "same ol' same ol'" and are looking for something different.
As many have said it starts out promisingly, but as we got past the halfway mark it steadily went downhill. I still enjoyed the acting for the most part and the directing from Kosinski. Soundtrack was also pretty well chosen and the score felt on point. 5.9 w lots of room for improvement, but happy I popped it on. Interesting concept with a fairly mediocre execution.
What there is, I enjoyed. It felt like it needed more depth but despite or maybe because of that it doesn't overstay its welcome.
The concept is a novel one. Certainly worth the effort.
The soundtrack is fantastic. One to pull up on a playlist and savour.
The casting is fine. Miles Teller continues to be himself and the rest of the cast do well with what they are given.
For a film that is a strange mix of The Island, Ex Machina, and something humorous like Zombieland, it is quite good but could have been more.
Points for the originality of the concept and the soundtrack.
7/10
Who knew Chris could act.
Y'all. This movie is based on an excellent short story of the same name by George Saunders. I honestly thought all the complaints about the ending were because the movie actually followed the book's ending (not a happy one), but sadly they weren't. Obviously they had to change/add a bunch in order to turn 38 pages into one and three quarter hours' worth of movie. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Read the story. Much better.
Going into Spiderhead I was not expecting much due to the mixed bag of reviews, but I was really surprised. The concept is really interesting and very deranged, I found myself gasping out loud at scenarios that were presented to the inmates throughout the film. While I do agree that the third act does fall bit short, I still found it enjoyable enough. The acting in this movie was superb. Chris Hemsworth does an excellent job as the "villain," he really makes you believe that he is doing this out of a good heart. It was really nice seeing him play a somewhat demented scientist, which is outside of the comedic role that he has carved himself due to the MCU. Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett do a really good job as well, they have very emotionally invested scenes that bleed over to the audience. Overall, this film starts off strong and slowly fades towards the end but nothing that tremendously hurts the overall product.
Verdict: Good
I liked this movie very much!
I can’t decide what is the worse thing about this movie. It’s depressing. It’s wordy. Chris Hemsworth is a villain. On the other hand, the acting is very good. I give this movie a 6 (fair) out of 10. [SciFi Dark Drama]
Interesting concept but they missed the mark. The climax took too long to get to and then the film was over. They tried to be clever with foretelling throughout, but most of the time it didn't make sense. Acting was ok, but again the film got lost in itself trying to be clever.
It was an interesting plot, very quite self contained. I don't think I'd watch it again though, there was a slight twist that I think was supposed to be bigger than it felt.
3rd act didn’t seem to match the build up, but starting to be par for the course for the Suspense movies Netflix produces.
Cast really tried. Chris Hemsworth is good at being unlikable too.
Interesting but nothing special. Felt like a less serious Black Mirror episode.
Laughing, extreme drugs, lots of unethical stuff, even torture (Darkenfloxx), etc.
I found the open door policy very interesting/surprising at first but it seems like B-6 (O-B-D-X) works quite well so few trust is required.
Steve is so manipulative while Mark is somewhat of a nice guy but not nice enough to stand up / do something against Steve.
Steve also seems very impulsive - he was so enraged when Jeff said no at the end.
Anyway, I didn't really feel much for any of the characters (Jeff, Lizzy, and Mark seem nice but I still don't feel that much for them) and the story was meh. The idea is interesting but watching this wasn't that satisfying.
I feel like they could have gone further with the plot , and it was a little bit predictable for me at times. It wasn’t terrible though
The movie peaks at mid at 7/10 max but at the third act and finale it crushed and burned to a lazy, cliche lame ending, finishing at 4/10.
I'd recommend NOT watching it.
I thought this was superb. Hemsworth and Teller are both excellent actors and work really well here, Hemsworth's progression through the duration is superb. Smollett rounds things out nicely, but feels a bit underused at the beginning.
I really found little to complain about here. I get the ending was a bit too... idealised. I'd kind of preferred a more tragic or enigmatic closer, but beyond that, great.
Like a broken arm, the cast makes this bearable.
Spiderhead's story stalls in the first act while the writers hold off sharing the characters' goals, and once they finally do, we understand their hesitation.
Fortunately for us it looks nice and the actors are fun to watch, even if what they say becomes less and less interesting as the story devolves.
Premise - 16/20 - The trailer and the premise got me in the door. Prisoners being used as pharmaceutical guinea pigs? OK, I'll bite.
Cast/characters - 11/20 - Miles Teller offered a layered performance. Chris Hemsworth was strange, and I never really felt I understood him. Other characters were often glossed over, but I was disappointed that Mark was not explained more.
Story - 18/20 - I had no idea how it would end, and many different endings would have worked. The plot moved along well and made sense, except for what I-16 actually did.
Dialogue - 11/20 - The dialogue between some characters was decent, but Chris Hemsworth was often frantic for no real reason and his dialogue made it clear that he might have been on his own drugs more than it showed.
World-building - 16/20 - The setting was very important, as the prison was in most every scene. The lab and the rooms set a good tone for how sterile and yet unpredictable their lives all were.
72/100 - 3.5/5 stars - I want some of that N-40.
[Netflix] A prison film with a touch of science fiction and a pharmacist that would delight anti-vaccines, wrap up a story that lengthens a short story with little effectiveness. Joseph Kosinski has enough of a craft to hold attention, but he doesn't seem to balance the tone between the moral about false free will and a touch of humor that unfolds in the 80s soundtrack and some absurd scenes.
Yeah the plot was rushed and don’t think it new where it was going but I enjoyed it, all cast did well and loved the drug effects.
The actors are good but the story isn't as interesting as it could have been. At least Kosinki has Top Gun on his resume for this year.
Shout by Gabriel NetoBlockedParent2022-06-30T17:54:57Z
I confess that I had all the best expectations to see this film, which had a very good cast and an excellent theme. The beginning was good, the presentation of the cast and the plot, but in the middle it lost its meaning, the climax was not well approached. From that point on, he lost breath and speed, with a lukewarm end and no conclusion.