Pandemic

This movies is not as bad as people are saying. It isn't a good movie. But it is watchable. It has an interesting, if basic, plot. The acting is actually pretty good for what they were given. Slightly shaky camera work but better than something like Blair Witch which made me so ill to watch that I gave up early on. But in this case, the idea is that the camera is on the helmet and should move with the person. So it makes sense. The frustration with this film is that it is so easy to see that it could be made into a film that is much better. The real problem seems to be the dialogue. Improve that, and the 'zombie' acting, then movie would really step up. Even so, like I said, a bad movie but a very watchable movie.

Acting is good. Story outline is good.

But characters are are so stupid. They should have rational behavior. They don't even use basic protection methods when they are not in safe zone.

If mom use bit brain she can save herself at the end. Just she had to do is wait inside the van until soldiers clean the area and then show her blood test to the soldiers.

Also since there is lots of time after the infection, the government definitely keep a method to identify the infected people and save others at the gate.

I recommend this movie only for those zombie film fans who don't any films left to watch. For others, its a waste of time.

What I don't understand is how can you get a decent cast and a decent budget and make this crap of a film. Rachel Nichols is the main actress, and she kind of carried a TV show for four seasons; Alfie Allen is Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones; remember Mekhi Phifer from when he was the hot black guy that En Vogue were falling for? Paul Guilfoyle played in everything! And what do they do with this? A shaky-cam version of a zombie movie where even the zombies act subpar.

Frankly, it all feels like a collection of bad cinematic sequences in a really dumb game, only acted by real people. A bored programmer in a basement could have made a better film with 3D models.

The plot is the typical "infected people act like zombies", complete with pseudo-scientific categories from 1 to 5, and ridiculous explanations about what happened and what the plan is. As most zombie films it completely ignores the reasons why zombies aren't attacking each other, and since they are only infected people, why it is so difficult to kill them.

But what really pisses me off is how they use the name Pandemic, letting me hope even for a millisecond that once, just once, someone might make a movie about a real pandemic: no zombies, no government conspiracies, no dangerous trip in a car with family or close friends, just a very possible viral outbreak.

We need reality here, else at the first pandemic Americans take out their guns and start shooting each other in the head. God damn it, make a movie about the Spanish Influenza! Tell the story of tens of millions of people dead while governments at war censor the news to keep moral high. Tell the story of the Black Plague, without making it about witches or religion or some other crap like that. Show people what nature is really about and don't make it about people trying to get to their families and improbable villains that get nothing from spreading the disease.

The two glaring flaws to this film are its overuse of first person shaky cam, which while arguably immerses you deeper into the situation and action of the film, also quite simply makes you feel sick, and its appeal to generic audiences, as can be seen in the ridiculously broad title. However, if you can look past these two aspects, as well as the occasionally questionable special effect, then there is a lot of positive things to say.

This film has a great story, it makes sense and is carried out in an organic way, while still ticking all the usual zombie-survival boxes that have become the staple of this genre. The acting is pretty great in my opinion and conveys the right tone for each situation, my only complaint being here that with only four characters for most of the movie there is something lacking in personal interaction and team dynamic, although what there is is good and solidly written. There is also a rich world created within the framework of the film, although it is shown on a small scale, and this could easily be fleshed out more if there is a sequel at some point.

Overall I found myself really liking the simple and solid aspects of this film in the acting and storytelling, although the constant switching of first person views might be enough to put some people off entirely as it does get a bit nauseating after a while. Still there is a lot of good here, especially for fans of the genre, most of us being used to much lower production values and less cohesive plots. For non-fans it might not come across so well.

I've always been a big fan of zombie/outbreak/infection movies in all their guises. This perspective however, I had not experienced before.

To start with I wasn't overly enamored with the cast. The lead actress Rachel Nichols (Lauren), struck me as being someone who should have been playing a supportive role rather than trying to carry the movie. She plays a doctor, Lauren, brought in to help in the fight against any further spread of the disease, which has already infected more than it hasn't. The story revolves around a mission to rescue a previous team of uninfected who have failed to return to base.

As I already said, attachment to the cast wasn't a strong point here. At least not until Alfie Allen who plays 'Wheeler' comes into his own. He plays a very background role until we're more than halfway into the movie, but when he comes to the fore, the movie is much improved.

The main pull of this movie for me and the one thing which makes it interesting is the first person perspective we see during the infected attacks. It definitely makes you feel more involved. Gore is quite full-on and explicit, which is always good in this kind of movie, so special effects definitely did their job well in this respect. Sadly in the case of a lot of background shots, the CGI is lacking. I can recall a bus on fire, which was just plain atrocious!

I would recommend this to fans of zombie movies, just for the change of perspective, but overall, I don't think it's a movie that I would recommend to a casual movie fan.