Kill Switch

This movie has so much potential. Really.

However, more than 70 percent of the film was shot as if you're inside an interactive video game. More than half of those scenes require you to read what's displayed on the graphic user interface as seen by the lead character to know what's going on.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, I'm starting to wonder, could it be that the studio couldn't afford to pay Dan Stevens to appear for the entire 90 minutes of the film that they had to resort to this first-person point of view story telling?

The experimental camera work is almost as bad as the Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Project Almanac (just to name a few). I've known people who've experienced motion sickness for days after watching these movies.

If you're thinking of watching this movie just to catch a glimpse of Dan, please don't. He's barely in it. Avoid this 90-minute of visual misery.

The premise of the story is good, the special effects are good too. The acting isn't even all that bad. The story/plot/dialog is where the film falls down somewhat. The camera work (1st person for most of the film) is where it jumps off a cliff. Best review I saw was "good if you've run out of good SF films to watch". That about sums it up.

Anyone think it's a little silly that most of the reviews here so far seem to mainly consist of "Gee whiz do I hate movies filmed in first person pov, so gee whiz was I shocked to find that I was upset that I also didn't like this movie that was filmed in first person pov!"? If you have an irrational hatred of anything in first person, don't watch this. Problem solved.

That aside, it's a perfectly solid sci-fi action movie. The core concept is clever, though at it's heart it's just a flashy action movie. Don't expect this to be a thought-provoker like The Arrival, but it's not down there in the complete brain dead zone like a Michael Bay movie either. It's somewhere in between, with a decent plot, above average special effects, and the always enjoyable, though perhaps a little underutilized, Dan Stevens.

It's not going to make any top 10 lists or win any major awards, but it succeeds at being entertaining without requiring that you shut down your brain entirely to enjoy it.

This is an okay sci-fi movie, although it does have some imperfections. It's certainly not dull, and the story is original. The acting wasn't bad either.

It should be taken into consideration that it didn't have a high budget, I think they did not too badly with what resources they had.

Yes, that's right, folks. Dan Stevens, the star of the movie, only appears for about ten minutes. He appears as Will Porter at his home, in his office and on the lawn. That's it. The rest of the time he's hidden behind some HUD device so the producers wouldn't have to pay him very much. The director has the screen fade to black while the character is knocked out.

The movie is a real big yawn, except for a couple of moments of intense fighting. As another reviewer put it, it is literally a First Person Shooter where you see everything from the protagonist's point of view. You actually start to hope that because Porter is a PILOT, that he'll take control of one of those fancy flying vehicles. Don't hold your breath.

The Pseudo-science behind the project (that pillar of light that you see in the poster) seems likely enough, but sounds incredibly risky as opposed to more "conventional" sources of energy.

What's the message of the movie? Hope? Desperation? Stupidity? How to make a visually crappy movie?

No, the message of this movie is save your money, save your time, and avoid this "movie". You'll be glad you did!