Social media has taken over the world, it seems. Everything our friends do, what they eat for lunch (and every other meal) where they go, everything, it's all posted online for us to track and comment on. I don't mind this as much as some people do. I like to know when my friends are eating delicious breakfasts, having good days at work, seeing cute dogs in the park. I remember the days when photographs were rare and difficult to obtain, and I don't have many pictures from my childhood, so I like easily seeing pictures of all my friends and family and their kids and pets. It helps me feel connected to them. Movies like this explore the dark side to social media, though. How easy it is for people to stalk and find us. I liked "Unfriended" too, which is a movie similar to this one, so I hoped to like this movie as well.
In this movie, a college sophomore befriends a strange girl in her class who is a loner, but the girl becomes obsessed with her until it becomes so creepy she tries to break off the friendship, which winds up having disastrous consequences.
The imagery in this movie is creepy. The art and photographs and videos made by the creepy girl are dark and scary, which adds to the creep factor of the movie. It's also cool how the girl seems to be able to alter reality and manipulate computer codes in order to project her thoughts and desires onto the world. It's cheesy, but I like it. The characters in this movie, not so much. They're not very likeable. The main character is ok, but her friends seem kind of shallow and catty, and her boyfriend is kind of a possessive jerk. When contrasted with Marina, the creepy girl, they come off as not having much depth. At least she has a personality.
Once the main events start happening, things get better. Once the characters get scared, they at least start acting like they care about something and someone other than themselves. I also like how Marina's ability to alter computer code mirrors her ability to alter reality itself, to get inside people's minds and make them think and dream what she wants them to.
In recent weeks, there have been a lot of posts popping up on Facebook about people's profiles being hacked and people posting videos and other content without their knowledge. This movie feeds on that fear, with this girl being able to take control of someone's profile and post things without her being able to stop it. In the past, people accused witches of mind control and dark magic, and this is a more modern version of that.
There are little things, though, small annoyances that wouldn't normally bother me too much, but they keep building up, and then the plot tries to base twists on these ridiculous things that aren't even physically possible (and I don't care if the girl supposedly has magical powers, because some of this crap happens before she is born) so it just gets annoying. I do like some of the more mean spirited twists that happen along the way, but the fact that the movie could have been a lot better with just some minimal effort on the part of the filmmakers leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.
No comments:
Post a Comment