Him: el elegido

I will say something positive. There is some really nice cinematography in the film to enjoy as well as some good acting out of Wayans. That's about it. The movie was horrendously disjointed. I think the movie wanted to be a lot of things, but I couldn't tell you exactly what any of those are as they failed miserably to get there. I was bored the vast majority of the movie, almost napped multiple times, and was shocked to hear it's only an hour and a half movie. I was convinced by the end that it was pushing 2-1/2 hours. Don't waste your time. It's so bad it doesn't deserve your time.

'HIM' tries to immerse us in a dark world where winning, being the best, and doing whatever it takes to get there matter most. It shows the hardships, demands, and questionable choices faced by those striving to be the greatest of all time. However, due to its overuse of symbolism, metaphors, and some odd decisions with camera cuts and style, it leaves us feeling indifferent about what happens to any character or the story itself.

The highest praise that we can give this movie is for Marlon Wayans, who delivers a career-best performance. Still, that gets lost in a film that fails to make us care about anything happening on screen, leaving us puzzled rather than moved. There's a good movie in here somewhere, but they fumbled the chance of making it get there.

'HIM' is a rough film, filled with unrelatable characters, a chaotic artistic style, and a story that ultimately doesn't evoke emotion or connection. Marlon Wayans is excellent, but everything else about this film feels forced, pretentious, and heavy-handed.

Brad: 4.5 Josh: 5

Full Review: wbtp.link/youtube.

People aren't giving it a fair shake I don't think. It does have its problems, for one "tense" dramatic scenes feel goofy, whether it be bad directing or writing or acting I can't really tell but that does hurt the movie. However; there also is a lot of good to say, The message is on the nose but its also very worth telling, not many movies will have the guts to do it so I will applaud it for that. The cinematography is amazing, the scenes in the desert look amazing. The plot is a little confusing and I can see how people would think that it's "Fake Deep" or whatever but I can't wait to actually dive into all the symbolism when I can watch it again. On the negative side It's also hard to judge what the characters are about or what they want.

I didn't plan to go see this one, but I got so bored on a Thursday at work. I decided to sneak out and go see it. I figured that I would just walk out if the movie weren't good; I have Regal Unlimited ... In the end, the movie is flawed yet watchable. It's not a good movie; but I was able to make it to the end. It's not as bad as critics say

So I'll start with the good: I like the lead actor Tyriq Withers (he kinda seems like a blend of Paul Walker and Channing Tatum), and Marlon Wayons is credible as the aging quarterback. Marlon Wayons may be 52-53, but he really got in shape here. He looks fantastic physically. The movie has some beautifully-filmed scenes, kinda reminscient of the 2000 movie "The Cell." The X-ray scenes are cool.

The movie also has a good set-up and premise. From the opening scene to Tyriq Withers' arrival at Marlon Wayans' camp, the movie sets up an ominious atmosphere. The scene where a rabid fan shouts "We Don't Want You!" at Tyrik Withers is well-done. The movie really could have been an A+, Longlegs-type of horror with the right execution

Ultimately, too many issues remain. The big one is that I'm just unclear about what the movie is trying to say. The movie has some grandiose, elevated scenes that hint at a message (e.g. There's some religious imagery connecting Marlon Wayan's character to Christ). But I can't really tell what's the message? Is there something about sports? About violence? About masculinity? About race?

The movie's weird scenes are visually aesthetic, but they often seem more random and meaningless than powerful or insightful. My reaction was more in the sense of, "Hey, that looked cool. But what was the point?"

The movie film teases too much the possibility that Tyriq Withers is hallucinating everything because of his head injury. They introduce his brother, mother, and girlfriend early. They all get forgotten to the point where the film could have scrapped all of them without affecting anything

The behavior of Tyriq Withers's character is sometimes eye-rolling. He takes too long to realize that there's something nefarious going on . There's a part where he witnesses an individual brutally take a football to the face. Yet not long afterwards, Tyriq Withers goes on like normal, having buddy-buddy moments with Marlon Wayans. An imbecile would have sensed that something was off with the place

And finally - the conclusion may have some beautiful imagery, but it doesn't work from a storyline perspective. What's supposed to happen to him now? And what Tyriq Withers does at the end seems disconsonant with his character's actions throughout the movie. If the rest of the movie was supposed to build up to this transformation in his character where he's able to do what he does, then the movie failed to convey it

5.5/10.

Start from the positive - this movie is visually beautiful (although quite a few scenes are extremely dark - will be an annoying watch at home), the score is fantastic and the acting is really, really good, especially Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers (and Jim Jeffries, an odd but satisfying choice for his role).

However: nothing really happens. The movie I feel tries to be a lot of things but ends up being a beautifully packaged nothingness- kind of devoid of content in my opinion. It is also NOT horror. There are some horror elements to it, but it is by no means scary. And again, nothing really happens until the last 15 minutes of the movie. I expected a lot more after watching the trailer.

For people who have a hard time with flashes and strobes - there's a strobing scene that I'm not sure there's a warning for!