Ash: Cenere mortale

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.

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.

As a self-proclaimed sci-fi junkie, I was ecstatic with the start of this movie. The tone is dark and unnerving. It's visually mesmerizing, filled with beautiful sci-fi imagery, even trippy at times. The sci-fi elements are creative and unique. And it has some great music.

All of those positives stay true through the end of the movie. Everything is set up for success. Except... the story is useless, the acting ranges from mediocre to terrible, the dialogue is as basic as it gets. That's how you take a great setup and result in a completely forgettable movie.

I always love SEEING Eiza Gonzalez, but it does not seem like she is lead role material. This movie is not terrible and has a lot of good, it just doesn't come together anywhere near the way it should.

(1 viewing, 4/22/2025)

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.

The production value is high, the actors are solid, the sets are fine. But this is has got to be the most overused clichéd script I have ever seen.

The scifi elements are just enough to create a coherent plot and unify all the elements. But it is incredibly boring slog fest, which they have tried to make more intelligent by the most overused trope of the main character losing their memory.

I think this is the wave of AI generated scripts. This simply has no value, there are so many better movies who have almost the identical plot.

It only requires two movie they stole from, and I cant really call it influenced. I have no idea how something can simply rip off the idea from "The thing", mix it with a bit of "Alien" to pad out the scenes, and actually manage to get it made.

These are two of the most most influential movies in the genre, didn't someone notice how it was such as blatent and poor ripoff.