MonsieurMS

This movie can't quite decide what it wants to be, so it wraps everything up in mysticism and religious claptrap. The story is bizarre and goes nowhere, while the saving grace is the good cast. I liked the actors and the acting. They are studied and nuanced, and well-directed. But the rest is pretty much useless and difficult to deal with.

This was perhaps foretold by scenes in the beginning in which the daughter-scientist was hardly allowed to leave the house without a religious symbol; and ,of course, the exorcism which ended with a drawn gun. Let's not forget that. This same person who drew the gun makes sure to advise later that the search for aliens is really the search for god. All righty, then. Even the actors have some difficulties selling this.

Despite a somewhat cheesy concept, if you say it out loud in a sentence, this actually works quite well, thanks to some clever ideas and a good cast. It's more a conspiracy movie than what it sounds like when summarized quickly (such as, the equivalent of a werewolf show). The last season is a bit less interesting, as it become complicated, lost some momentum and was set in a different time. The cast takes a hit as well, with the replacement of a fine French actress (Nora Arnezeder) by Gracie Dzienny playing the mature Clementine, in a major role. Her acting mostly consists of simpering. She's just so wrong for the role.

Overall, though, I was still willing and eager to finish this through Season 3, even with some bumps in the road. One thing this show mastered was the video equivalent of a page-turning thriller. The minute one episode ended, I wanted to start the next. It's well paced, and then some.