On the basis of the poster and trailer for this movie, I decided to give it a try when it showed up in my Amazon Prime feed. But after 20 minutes of slogging character development and movie of the week melodrama, I came over to IMdB to check its rating: no surprise, about a three-star score (which is more than I would have given it at that point.) Several of the reviewers admitted they had not even been able to finish it (again, not a surprise.)
But I was surprised to see that there were actually a couple of positive reviews, both of which said the best part of the movie was the final 30 minutes.
So I jumped to the 60 minute mark. And they were right: the last half hour or so is pretty decent. Virtually everything you see in the trailer comes past the one hour mark. All you miss is the family melodrama (do you really care about the man and his wife finding out there expe ting? No, I didn't think so) and a tiny bit of back story.
And I'm going to give you that. OK, there's a General Lucian somewhere (Russia, maybe? It doesn't matter) who's threatening to attack the United States. Tensions are rising. And if things aren't bad enough, now some huge ship has appeared in the sky.
That's it, that's all you need. Now fast- forward to the 60 minute mark, and let the games begin. (You won't know anyone's names (as if you care) or why we care about the drama in their lives (we don't) but none of that is needed. From this point on is where you'll get all the action, some reasonably decent effects, and even a nice little plot twist. And you'll be done and on to the next show in about 30 minutes. Of course it'll be more like 36 if you watch the credits, but if you skipped the first hour, are you really going to do that? Of course you aren't.
You're welcome.
But I was surprised to see that there were actually a couple of positive reviews, both of which said the best part of the movie was the final 30 minutes.
So I jumped to the 60 minute mark. And they were right: the last half hour or so is pretty decent. Virtually everything you see in the trailer comes past the one hour mark. All you miss is the family melodrama (do you really care about the man and his wife finding out there expe ting? No, I didn't think so) and a tiny bit of back story.
And I'm going to give you that. OK, there's a General Lucian somewhere (Russia, maybe? It doesn't matter) who's threatening to attack the United States. Tensions are rising. And if things aren't bad enough, now some huge ship has appeared in the sky.
That's it, that's all you need. Now fast- forward to the 60 minute mark, and let the games begin. (You won't know anyone's names (as if you care) or why we care about the drama in their lives (we don't) but none of that is needed. From this point on is where you'll get all the action, some reasonably decent effects, and even a nice little plot twist. And you'll be done and on to the next show in about 30 minutes. Of course it'll be more like 36 if you watch the credits, but if you skipped the first hour, are you really going to do that? Of course you aren't.
You're welcome.