Call it either false advertising or that I just didn't get 98.5% of the humor, but Infestation is not the Arachnophobia of the beetles.
I admit I chose Infestation due to my love of When Animals Attack/Creature Features, especially tongue in cheek ones. I like this genre that generally doesn't take itself too seriously, is actually funny and never intends to be a Syfy movie of the week – those are the absolute worse and they're never even "so-bad-it's-good." I admit, this one had me at Christopher (or Chris) Marquette whom I've liked (yes, like) since Freddy Vs. Jason. (My bad, even I choose movies at times for good looking actors. Yes, a flaw, but I wouldn't have, in the case of Infestation, if it didn't have all the right advertising associated with it.)
And this is my punishment. A horribly – make that TERRIBLY – edited mess of a low budget B-Movie that yearned to be more, but never had heart. That is, aside from actress Brooke Nevin who had the most drive. I don't want to knock Marquette, and he gave it his all; really, he did try. And I don't think it was his fault. It appeared that he and the writer/director was not on the same page when it came to who his character really was. I can see better coming from him, much like what I saw in Heath Ledger's early films. Also, it was incredibly unfunny. I smirked once. And I recognized where the "humor" was supposed to be, and my suspicion was the shoddy editing job took a lot of the intentions away.
Sure, I wasn't expecting a horror classic, but from the (false) advertising, I was expecting at least a good and fun time with an updated bug B-Movie. I feel sorry for the actors, aside from the rancid acting by Kinsey Packard, who played Cindy, the "pretty blonde & stripping weathergirl." Bleahh. At least the rest of the cast did try and move the story along. They seemed like they believed in the project and writer/director – so Kudos to them.
What starts off as a normal day in Nowhere, USA (but, of course, filmed overseas,) Nobody Cooper (Marquette) heads into work to slack and get fired. Just then, a loud pitching noise causes everyone to be "webbed" for several days. Cooper awakes and frees himself I'll stop here.
#1: They begin with the cocooning shot, I'm guessing for effect of what's to come, but there was no "Several days earlier" statement because following is that same scene is the normal setting in the same room. I could follow what had happened: They begin in the "present" where humans are imprisoned, jump back three or so days to immediately before the bugs initially attack and then continue on as Cooper awakens. You still should give us some indication on where the timeline is. #2: What's not explained, possibly due to budget – but I blame the editing, again, is how or why Cooper is the only person to be able to break free all by himself and awake from the spell the bugs placed on humans. But, I digress it is a B-Movie about giant bugs after all
Cooper is quickly introduced to a giant beetle of sorts, fights, lives and frees a couple of people trapped by bug-webs. Then, he meets his destiny girl, who, in the same scene, loses her mother and gives her a little bit of depth. The following segments fall into the typical scenarios of these types of films: blindsided by extraordinary and catastrophic events, humans try and figure out what's happen, humans fighting amongst themselves and occasionally their advisories and the road trip begins. (By the way, I don't blame the movie for being cliché and obvious. In fact, I love this part of these When Animals Attack movies. Infestation didn't do a bad job here, though it wasn't all that interesting, nonetheless.)
Along the road journey, they continue to break down, fight each other more, fight the winged and ground bug troops and discover more of the bug's vicious plans while developing a master plan of their own to defeat the beasts. The road's rocky involving some incredibly odd ideas, scenes, boring subplots and so-called "depth" – Oh, father, accept me!
Oh, and if I haven't spoiled enough – perhaps, I actually helped you here to avoid this picture – there's not an explanation of the big bad bugs. That said, I'm not upset with them not clarifying the origin of the hive or bugs. It happens in both big budgeted films as well as Near-Zero direct-to-DVD films. Mostly the latter, due to budget restraints. In either case, generally it adds to the tension, mystery or fears. Here, by the end of the film, the thought of where these bugs came from, or why they were here, or how did they suddenly appear without warning, never came to mind. I just wanted it to end.
And when it did end it finishes on such a WTF? final shot, I was forced to listen to some the audio commentary to learn a little more. Hilariously, I haven't heard so many apologies from an audio commentary track since Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Thankfully, the director/writer focused a lot of his regret on the editing process; at least he acknowledged that. Well, that, and his love/lust for beautiful women and breasts. Unfortunately, he didn't elaborate any more on the finale than what I already assumed. It just needed a few more seconds and possibly another buck fifty over-budget on the special effects.
Despite all the efforts – namely the actors and the FX crew didn't do that bad of a job – it's a SKIP. I think all parties will evolve. So, let's wait until then.
I admit I chose Infestation due to my love of When Animals Attack/Creature Features, especially tongue in cheek ones. I like this genre that generally doesn't take itself too seriously, is actually funny and never intends to be a Syfy movie of the week – those are the absolute worse and they're never even "so-bad-it's-good." I admit, this one had me at Christopher (or Chris) Marquette whom I've liked (yes, like) since Freddy Vs. Jason. (My bad, even I choose movies at times for good looking actors. Yes, a flaw, but I wouldn't have, in the case of Infestation, if it didn't have all the right advertising associated with it.)
And this is my punishment. A horribly – make that TERRIBLY – edited mess of a low budget B-Movie that yearned to be more, but never had heart. That is, aside from actress Brooke Nevin who had the most drive. I don't want to knock Marquette, and he gave it his all; really, he did try. And I don't think it was his fault. It appeared that he and the writer/director was not on the same page when it came to who his character really was. I can see better coming from him, much like what I saw in Heath Ledger's early films. Also, it was incredibly unfunny. I smirked once. And I recognized where the "humor" was supposed to be, and my suspicion was the shoddy editing job took a lot of the intentions away.
Sure, I wasn't expecting a horror classic, but from the (false) advertising, I was expecting at least a good and fun time with an updated bug B-Movie. I feel sorry for the actors, aside from the rancid acting by Kinsey Packard, who played Cindy, the "pretty blonde & stripping weathergirl." Bleahh. At least the rest of the cast did try and move the story along. They seemed like they believed in the project and writer/director – so Kudos to them.
What starts off as a normal day in Nowhere, USA (but, of course, filmed overseas,) Nobody Cooper (Marquette) heads into work to slack and get fired. Just then, a loud pitching noise causes everyone to be "webbed" for several days. Cooper awakes and frees himself I'll stop here.
#1: They begin with the cocooning shot, I'm guessing for effect of what's to come, but there was no "Several days earlier" statement because following is that same scene is the normal setting in the same room. I could follow what had happened: They begin in the "present" where humans are imprisoned, jump back three or so days to immediately before the bugs initially attack and then continue on as Cooper awakens. You still should give us some indication on where the timeline is. #2: What's not explained, possibly due to budget – but I blame the editing, again, is how or why Cooper is the only person to be able to break free all by himself and awake from the spell the bugs placed on humans. But, I digress it is a B-Movie about giant bugs after all
Cooper is quickly introduced to a giant beetle of sorts, fights, lives and frees a couple of people trapped by bug-webs. Then, he meets his destiny girl, who, in the same scene, loses her mother and gives her a little bit of depth. The following segments fall into the typical scenarios of these types of films: blindsided by extraordinary and catastrophic events, humans try and figure out what's happen, humans fighting amongst themselves and occasionally their advisories and the road trip begins. (By the way, I don't blame the movie for being cliché and obvious. In fact, I love this part of these When Animals Attack movies. Infestation didn't do a bad job here, though it wasn't all that interesting, nonetheless.)
Along the road journey, they continue to break down, fight each other more, fight the winged and ground bug troops and discover more of the bug's vicious plans while developing a master plan of their own to defeat the beasts. The road's rocky involving some incredibly odd ideas, scenes, boring subplots and so-called "depth" – Oh, father, accept me!
Oh, and if I haven't spoiled enough – perhaps, I actually helped you here to avoid this picture – there's not an explanation of the big bad bugs. That said, I'm not upset with them not clarifying the origin of the hive or bugs. It happens in both big budgeted films as well as Near-Zero direct-to-DVD films. Mostly the latter, due to budget restraints. In either case, generally it adds to the tension, mystery or fears. Here, by the end of the film, the thought of where these bugs came from, or why they were here, or how did they suddenly appear without warning, never came to mind. I just wanted it to end.
And when it did end it finishes on such a WTF? final shot, I was forced to listen to some the audio commentary to learn a little more. Hilariously, I haven't heard so many apologies from an audio commentary track since Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Thankfully, the director/writer focused a lot of his regret on the editing process; at least he acknowledged that. Well, that, and his love/lust for beautiful women and breasts. Unfortunately, he didn't elaborate any more on the finale than what I already assumed. It just needed a few more seconds and possibly another buck fifty over-budget on the special effects.
Despite all the efforts – namely the actors and the FX crew didn't do that bad of a job – it's a SKIP. I think all parties will evolve. So, let's wait until then.