Mimic: Sentinel (2003 Video)
2/10
Feeble sequel
11 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I won't labour the details since I think most of the points I would make have already been made by others. The acting is pedestrian at best. The plot is as thin as clingfilm and is a rather poor homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window (Please note: regarded as something of a masterpiece by many).

Rear window works because we see everything from the main character's (Jimmy Stewart) perspective, namely the wheelchair, in his bedroom. Everything the audience sees is from that vantage point. Jimmy Stewart's character is a helpless observer who plays no part in any activity outside his bedroom. This creates an atmosphere of claustrophobia and racks up the tension continuously. This reaches an unbearable point when he sees the murderer returning home to his apartment, which his girlfriend has just broken into, looking for evidence. This tension is created by the knowledge that Stewart is powerless to warn or help her.

The same scene is recreated in Mimic: Sentinel but is completely flat and offers us absolutely no tension whatsoever. There are various other nods to Rear Window which immediately tells us that the writers didn't really have anything new or novel to say in this film. There are various plot elements that seem to do little other than fill in time (in a film which seems overly long at 78 minutes). For example when he attempts to report the danger to the police, his mother starts an intimate affair with the officer whom she had met briefly once before several years ago? Then there is the kooky, doped up sister, who walks around flapping her arms all the time. The main character is too active to be the impotent character Stewart plays but he's also too feeble to be a real hero character.

Leaving the Rear Window connection, there's very little rhyme or reason to the rest of the plot. No explanation is provided for many plot elements and very little motivation is given to any of the characters. It's all just an excuse for some atmospheric shots of not very scary giant insects dragging people off into the dark and some occasional shots of blood splatter. No attempt if made to create a feeling of impending dread as any real person would have in such a situation. None of the characters are in any way sympathetic and it's hard to get worked up enough to care about the film when we don't care about any of the characters.

We're left with a film which lacks the substance of Rear Window and which fails to provide any substance of it's own. I wouldn't bother spending money to rent it but if it's on TV and you're a completist who liked the other two Mimic films, then go ahead.
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