Awakening the Zodiac

I would go on about the number of stupid things the protagonists do, but even with that, the first half was good and well paced. But the last half, especially the last quarter was so ridiculous you were rooting for the Zodiac killer. Approach this if you want to pass some time but don't expect a masterpiece. And the ending? Don't get me started.

Quite a vacuous film about a trio of scavengers who chance upon footage of the Zodiac killer's crimes decades later and attempt to track him down to claim a reward. It manages to hold the viewer's interest for a while by generating the expectation that something will happen but very little does for most of the film and when the killer finally appears and interacts with the protagonists, this has little logical connection with what has gone on before. Usually, when mysteries introduce only one suspect, it's a cinch that that suspect is the killer, but this film bucks that trend: the killer is some random person who we know nothing about even after the film ends. There are any number of loose ends the narrative doesn't even attempt to tie.

Ever see a character who is just so dumb it hurts. You're torn struggling between stupidity rooting for a protagonist and having the murderer kill her? Well Leslie Bibb pulls this off magnificently. All of the stupidity of trailer park barbie just marches you down a trail while her hillbilly boyfriend is going bringing a shovel to a gun fight. Seriously? All of this dumb contained in one movie. I can deal with things that aren't plausible. I mean it's a movie suspension of disbelief is pretty standard, but when the characters do such nonsensical things it's hard to care. What should have been an average thriller with a decent mystery are buried by the stupidity and just annoying characters.

Over 40 years since the infamous Zodiac killer terrorised inhabitants of San Francisco and surrounds, three people make an amazing discovery. They stumble across homemade films made by the Zodiac Killer, films of some of his murders. In an attempt to claim a large reward, rather than alert the police, they try to track down the killer themselves. This puts them in danger.

Pretty lame B-grade (at best) thriller. When I read the film summary I figured the movie was set in the 1960s, when the Zodiac Killer was at the peak of his infamy, making the danger more tangible. Having seen the excellent David Fincher-directed 2007 movie, Zodiac, I thought this may be something along those lines.

When I discovered it was actually set in 2017, my heart sank. Even if the killer is still alive, he's in their late-60s, at least, so what kind of thriller is this going to be? A dull, implausible, contrived one, I thought, and I was right.

Unoriginal, filled with every thriller/horror cliché, implausible, predictable, unengaging and quite dull. The Zodiac element was just a ploy to suck viewers in.

Avoid.

I'll make this a short review since there is a couple longer ones already.

Basically, a young couple and their friend decide to track down the zodiac killer to receive the $100.000 reward, so they start investigating.

However, their behavior is absolutely ridiculous with no sense for consequences and danger at all. They have the maturity of toddlers and the intelligence you would expect from the average, stereotypical victims in horrormovies.

This is very frustrating since the movie and the basic plot sound really good and could've easily made an 8/10 movie if executed well.

I'd recommend the movie if you're looking for light entertainment and don't get fed up by the protagonists making predictable decisions.

The movie itself is alright but you can't watch it without rooting for the bad guy because the protagonists are absolute morons and poorly written.

Not even mentioning the end which is poor garbage and doesn't wrap up the film at all - pretty fitting for the movie...