Pulse

The hacker Josh (Jonathan Tucker) invades the computer of Douglas Ziegler (Kel O'Neil), who is developing a powerful wireless signal and accidentally releases a mysterious force that takes the will to live of the human beings, generating a suicide epidemic and increasing the force. His girlfriend and student of psychology Mattie (Kristen Bell) sees each one of their common friends die and the destruction of the modern world, and together with her new acquaintance Dexter (Ian Somerhalder), they try to plant a virus developed by Josh in the network to shutdown the system and save mankind.

The storyline of "Pulse" is very original and has potential, with the concept of wireless signal bringing some evil and lethal entity. However, the screenplay is weak, presenting characters without any previous development and making this interesting theme similar to a pilot of a TV show. The lead actress Kristen Bell is gorgeous and maybe a good actress for romantic comedies, but her face has no expression in the dramatic scenes when her friends die, or in the creepy and scary scenes, when she is attacked by the forces. Anyway, Ian Somerhalder from "Lost' has a good performance and this movie is a good entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Pulse"

I think this movie rocks! I think it's one of the scariest movies of the year. I just don't get why people hate 'Pulse' so much. But I think I know why. I think people watched the preview, and it seemed like it had a pretty good storyline. And then when they watched the movie, it had a totally different storyline than they thought it would have.

I'll admit, when I saw the preview, it did look scarier than the movie. But the preview left a lot of stuff out that the movie didn't have. It's hard to explain, but once you see the movie, you'll know what I mean.

'Pulse' is a very chilling film that is about the dead finding a portal in computers, cell phones, etc., into our world. And because of this plot line, people might get scared of their own computers and cell phones. I think that's a really good way to scare people because instead of 'Pulse' having lots of jump-out-at-you surprises (which by the way, it does), it has a way of scaring people in real life.

I'm just surprised they didn't think of televisions as portals for the dead to get through. The only things mentioned and seen in the movie for the dead to get through from were computers and cell phones.

'Pulse' is full of jump-out-at-you scares and other kinds of surprises that make your mouth fly open in shock. Each scare kept eclipsing the last and each thrill kept eclipsing the last, too.

All in all, 'Pulse' is a very chilling movie that is well...chilling.

Oh, and when you read the back of the DVD, at the end of the summary, it says 'astonishing surprise ending', or something like that, but I know it said surprise ending. Well, the ending isn't really that surprising. But, to see an astonishing ending, read this tips:

1. Go to the special features menu on the 'Pulse' DVD.

2. Go to Deleted/Alternate scenes.

(MINOR SPOILER HERE):

3. Go to the 'Dexter Dies' deleted/alternate scene.

(MINOR SPOILER ENDS)

4. Enjoy the deleted/alternate surprise ending.

I don't know why the filmmakers didn't keep the scene there. The ending would have been so much better.

My MPAA rating: PG-13: Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Terror, Deeply Disturbing Images, Language, Some Brief Sensuality, and Thematic Material

My Canadian rating: 14A: Frightening Scenes, Disturbing Content, Mature Themes

We went to see PULSE yesterday afternoon (got to the theater too late for DESCENT). I have not seen the original KAIRO for comparison. So, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen, and not the best. Yes, it was slow to start and get to the point. But IMO it had a creepy, dark atmosphere (god, if I lived there I'd want to commit suicide in any case), the visuals weren't bad, and it had a few good scares. Unfortunately, it also depended on VOLUME to enhance the scare. If you're more of a gore fan, then it's probably not the movie for you. The movie may not be worth the price of a ticket, but I think it's worth a rental. Eh, I'm just your average moviegoer and don't watch movies to analyze them to death. I even liked The Grudge. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

It's a trend that should have ended with the first one.

This was boring and self-conscious with its artsy pretensions. I was looking all around at the scenery to see if I could tell where it was filmed rather than paying too much attention to the story. Still, I didn't miss anything.

I'm not surprised that this is from producer Wes Craven. It's full of his anti-technology hippie ideals, with plenty of nonsensical "movie science" that teens and pre-teens will take as fact.

Of course, all of the technology being slammed here as detrimental to our existence by removing in-person interactions, are being used fully by all those making this tripe, including Craven himself, and by the blank-minded ones who will love this and not even realize the irony that it comments on their technology addiction.

I'm also sick of all the grays, sickly-looking greens and putrid blues used in these type of films to present the civilized, yet oppressive, society, along with the grungy, unclean characters with pale faces and dark eyes under constant fluorescent lighting. Cities don't look like this, there is color and life all around, even in the poorest areas. This film's view is the misguided angst of rebellious teens with nothing to rebel against.

And then we are treated to Craven's simplistic Waltons-like ending that, once you go rural, you are colorful and clean. Here's a suggestion, Wes Craven, why don't you go rural and give up all your non-personal technology, so that we don't have to see any of your productions again?

I went to see Pulse knowing it was PG13, so I didn't expect much gore, but couldn't the writer of this story at least have done something more with it?

Pulse is a movie about a hacker who releases a strange computer virus which immediately affects computers everywhere as well as cell phones and even TV screens. We soon find out that the virus is really the dead who have found a way to return to the living world. What they want is the life force of every living being. So it is up to our heroes to try and find a way to stop them before they can consume the entire world.

That's the plot which in my opinion was a rather clever idea. Too bad that the story makes very little sense and is filled with implausibilities that go against the very story that the writer and director were trying to get across. I won't explained these because of the spoilers that would be involved. Of course there aren't many spoilers anyway, since the commercials give much of it away.

The acting was decent, and some of the visuals were nice, but there is very little suspense. This is more of a simple shock film like so many other horror movies that have been filling our theaters for about three years. There is one horror movie that is the exception, and that is The Descent which was released last week. If you want to see one of the best horror movies in the past couple years, go see that one instead and forget about Pulse.