Ash

It is indeed visually alluring, and I admire their passionate experimentations with the colour palette. Not the visual effects, though, I mean the CGI, as they certainly came off cheap and underdeveloped in some places.

However, if we keep all these flashy technicalities on one side and start judging the movie from a cinematic standpoint, shortcomings begin to emerge to the surface.

First and foremost, there is limited time allotted to explore the 'reason' behind the mysterious circumstances on the ship. Although there are a couple of scenes to depict the 'otherworldly' beings, they fail to meet the inherent necessities of the script.

Secondly, the majority of the characters are merely used as fillers, with Eisa and Aaron shouldering the burden for the most part.

And could someone please tell me why and how they managed to convince Iko Uwais to play such a trivial character?

Was it just to indulge him in a hand-to-hand fight scene that lasted for like two minutes?

Criminal!

Solid 6.5 to be honest.

The story arc had great potential but it was not executed as well as it could have been. Some scenes just seemed out of place and made no sense, the alien reveal was not impressive nor was it presented well. The editing was not great with too many quick cuts that took away from the scene. I'm trying not to give anything away in spoilers, but I do disagree with another review that the acting was not as bad as they stated it was. I think for what she was going through that Eiza's performance was fine in representing the character's situation and journey.

All in all it was just not what I was hoping for. Not enough sci-fi and the horror was not all that horrific.

Otherwise, the movie is tension free and not enough of a plot for a feature. I was looking forward to this based on the mysterious description. After watching it, the movie is an extremely basic sci fi action thriller with robotic horror thriller events that don't work. It's formatted with a plot device that delays the inevitable reveal while establishing atmosphere without any dialogue for large portions of the film.

As such, I found the film relaxing and the script had the quality of a wandering mind. No, I don't think the explanation makes up for it and it feels inappropriate for the film.

Ash (2025) starring Eiza Gonzales and Aaron Paul, is a low budget horror / sci-fi film directed by Flying Lotus. In his debut directoral effort, Flying Lotus delivers a film that is as innovative as a mouldy bologna sandwich. Everything you see here has already been done better, with a much larger budget and crew. I was shocked at the quality of the film, which hearkens back to cheap, Saturday afternoon, B- movie television fare.

If you're looking for film school quality - as in Cinematography 101 - the movie easily hits its mark. There is something very polished about the delivery if you're not expecting professional results. If you're expecting a great, thematically developed, theater-ready and technically excellent feature movie, you're in for a disappointment.

The actors don't have much to do in this film, other than deliver the basics of happiness, anger, confusion and rage. There was likely a bit of time in the makeup chair to create a semblance of Body-horror - but the layers here aren't deep at all.

Post production actually does a passable job with trippy, acid-inspired flashbacks and special effects. The color palette is very Nicolas Winding Refin-inspired. If you need an out-of-body experience, a matinee of Ash might serve you well.

Though I could not enjoy this film, I am definitely interested to see the next project Flying Lotus undertakes - the creative potential is there, once you trundle past the tired, overused tropes, and I saw a fair number of fans in my theater's audience.

If you're looking for blockbuster, transcendental acting, directing and cinematography, skip this movie. If you enjoy tropes exploding from the screen in sloppy, gory, messy and predictable fashion, you may enjoy Ash. I, unfortunately, did not.

5 out of 10 stars.

• Chipper F. Xavier, Esq.

Is an interesting idea, some cool concepts, stunning imagery, lot of great pratical effects and stunts, but it just drags on.

Elza Gonzales and Aron Paul are great actors, but they have no chemistry or charisma in this, specially to drag a whole movie, and the dialogues doesn't help at all, Iko Uwais is straight up wasted. It just feels like they got this concept for a short or something, and some executives made then stretch it into a movie... So this is what we got, but hey, at least they did the right thing about the expositions, which is to show stuff, instead of telling through narration.