Rastros do Além

I watched this at home on DVD from my local library. My wife chose to skip, not her kind of movie.

Bella Thorne is the main character, high schooler Veronica (Ronnie) Calder. Every morning at the breakfast table she witnesses exactly the same thing, her father sitting there, reading a newspaper, smiling and nodding to her, then his image dissolves and disappears. The title is a reference to this.

Some ten years earlier in the Chicago area an incident during experiments with a heavy particle accelerator causes a flash that killed hundreds, including Ronnie's dad, and their images return every day.

But that just sets the story up. The meat of it becomes the search for a person who may be a serial killer, and may be tracking Ronnie so that an "exchange" can be made to bring someone else back from the dead.

It is a pretty interesting take on the ghost theme and I enjoyed watching the movie, although I will not count it among my favorites.

I don't agree with the reviews that say that the script tries to pack too much in, I really don't get that criticism. It's fine. The problem that brought this movie down from a 7:00 to 6:00 for me is a disappointingly common plot development toward the end, such a cliche that it pulls the movie down from good to just fair. I haven't read the novel it's based on but I suspect the same thing happens there. If that's correct you can't blame the script for following the novel.

My own rule of thumb is that a 6 is a decently entertaining movie and a 7 is worth watching more than once. I probably will never watch this movie again but it was an entertaining way to spend 100 minutes.

Really enjoyed this for the following reasons: 1) Mystery aspect, sci-fi aspect, horror aspect.

2) Told a story where I didn't think " man I have seen this plot a hundred times" I couldn't guess the ending right away. Didn't end with some lame or annoying conclusion.

3) The intrigue builds through out 4) Elements are dropped along the way that actually get used in the plot progress.

5) Has a dark feel to the environment, the characters and the main point.

Not sure about the negative reviews, I just think sometimes people enjoy cutting down something that they didn't invest the work to make. Or maybe they expected a Spielberg epic or a Transformers CGI fest.

Give it a try.

I really liked underlying premise of this movie, specifically that the millions of people killed by a cataclysmic event became ghosts, or remnants. In addition to this novel concept, the acting was good, and the characters' motivations and actions were logical and intelligent. In fact, I can't think of a single instance where extremely poor decision-making was used to advance the plot, setting this apart from most horror/thriller movies.

On the minus side, there were a number of plot holes and cheesy bits. Although they weren't bad enough to ruin the movie, there were enough of them that I can only give it a 7/10.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie, and I would recommend it.

Within moments I was oddly gripped, I loved the concept and the whole thing looked sleek, original and fascinating.

Starring the stunning Bella Thorne and underappreciated Dermot Mulroney this is one that is very hard to pigeon hole as it doesn't really fall under one category.

It tells the story of a science experiment gone wrong and a world where ghosts walk among the living frequently, though they are unable to interact nor aware that they're deceased.

The ideas within the movie are remarkably clever but I quickly began to think that they'd be better suited to a television series rather than a movie. By the end, I had that belief confirmed. Don't get me wrong I Still See You is a very enjoyable movie but I think it was perhaps released in the wrong format.

Genuinely clever, interesting and captivating I can't argue that it isn't without its flaws as truth be told it has many BUT the quality of the film outweighs them.

I'd recommend the film to anyone and everyone, sure it has that teen-sci fi vibe about it but thankfully manages to be considerably better than that.

I'd love to see this become a television series, I'd rush to watch that every week. But if this is all we get, then it's enough.

The Good:

Looks great

Bella Thorne and Dermot Mulroney

Some great ideas

The Bad:

Some of the ideas don't feel fully formed

Leaves a lot of unanswered questions

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

There is still life in the ghost sub genre

We need more original movies like this and less reboots