journal features

movie review - Extinction

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2018.08.07

This is a story of Armageddon; peaceful cities of citizens going through their lives in a near-future setting that seems to be getting on pretty well. One person is plagued by visions of a coming invasion but this is suppressed and all is well (if told in an overly-restrained way).

Then the invasion starts as foretold.

And then the invaders are found to be human, though they're clearly arriving in landing craft dropped from space ships. And the invaders speak of those fleeing the invasion as if they aren't human. Something's up.

The story's good but not great: the dialog is strained in a number of places and some of the actions by the characters are dubious. The direction seems to be the problem here; Michael Peña seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting here (which he can do). At times you can almost feel the actors waiting for instruction and the kids were not handled as well as they could be.

Things sharpen up quite a bit in the last half and the entire lead-up to an including the ending is quite good. The "something" in "something's up" is both clever and well done, but more so there's an interesting thought in there about a potential future for our race. (And it's not that we'll make great pets.)

Recommended. For a light evening's entertainment.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force