Ash

Went in without having seen a trailer and only having read a brief synopsis, left confused and disappointed. The film is a jumbled aggregations of themes and concepts that have played out in other prominent sci fi films dating back to 2001: Space Odyssey and there are scenes that are straight ripped from others (looking at robot assisted medical procedures). Aside from some trippy fractal visuals that are never really explained, the sets are basic, special effects pretty minimal, and acting pretty bad across the board. The main character Raya is hot, so there is that. Twists and turns at the end kind of clue one onto what's going on, but it's clunky.

As my viewing mate said to me about ten minutes in "This is a very B movie".

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)

Why is this movie edited so poorly...lts Iike we see the same scene in 4 different ways....they have multiple flash backs for all the same scenes, and by the fourth flashback, you already knew what was going on...this have amazing visuals, and amazing fx, but it just didn't do anything for me...MANDY is a much better film that has depth and visuals to make you invested...this movie just didn't push the needle and by the end, i was bored...the Iast 5 minutes were awesome, everything else besides the visuals were mediocre sadly...Shudder is usually hit or miss so I wasn't shocked to see their name on the opening credits...i went in blind, and left bored.

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.