Stop me if you've heard this one before: a group of strangers wake up in a strange place with no memory of who they are. They go through the usual motions where characters discover special skills and everyone's feeling each other out. Generally strange and grim things pop up as they explore their surroundings and elements are introduced that couldn't possibly begin to be fully explained.
Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego delivers some wonderfully macabre visuals and scenarios that he sprinkles throughout and the cast holds up as well as one could hope, but much of this plays like cut scenes from a more interesting video game. While still a marked improvement on his previous effort, Apollo 18, this film attempts to pack in so much as it unfolds that it overwhelms the original conceit, making it more annoying than mysterious.
Once the picture has finished with its big reveal, one immediately wonders why we wasted all that time fumbling around figuring out who was who and how many languages people spoke when we could have been exploring something much more interesting. It seems for that, we'll have to wait for the sequel.
Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego delivers some wonderfully macabre visuals and scenarios that he sprinkles throughout and the cast holds up as well as one could hope, but much of this plays like cut scenes from a more interesting video game. While still a marked improvement on his previous effort, Apollo 18, this film attempts to pack in so much as it unfolds that it overwhelms the original conceit, making it more annoying than mysterious.
Once the picture has finished with its big reveal, one immediately wonders why we wasted all that time fumbling around figuring out who was who and how many languages people spoke when we could have been exploring something much more interesting. It seems for that, we'll have to wait for the sequel.