Reviews by MovieCriticGamer

This movie didn't look like it had too much potential, but it's a flick you'd watch should a case of boredom fall onto your desk if you don't have any other good movies to watch. This is Luke Scott's (son of Ridley Scott) first feature and while it does have a couple of flaws, there are still some good things about the movie that I can't complain about.

Summary: A risk management consultant is hired to investigate an incident involving an artificially intelligent girl who is being experimented on and wants to leave the facility. However, the consultant thinks that Morgan is a potential threat to society based on her behavior and hostile reactions to the people who have created her and believes she must be terminated. 

The Good: 

Cinematography wasn't bad - there were a couple of shots here and there that were similar to Ex Machina with the nature shots and ambiance in certain areas of the film.

Some of the performances in the movie were really good - Anya Taylor-Joy's second movie (her first being The Witch which was released earlier this year) and captures the AI creation / teenager role well. Rose Leslie, Michelle Yeoh and Toby Jones were also good, with Leslie breaking out of that Ygritte character from Game of Thrones as the sympathetic behaviorist and a decent American accent. 

The Mixed:

I really don't know what to say about Kate Mara's acting here. She does okay with her role, but doesn't have much range with some of the other movies I've seen her in (Transendence, The Martian).

The writing is all right, but perhaps what could have made the movie better was if the writing was more focused on Morgan instead of Lee in order to avoid the predictability of the end of [spoiler]Lee being the first and successful creation[/spoiler] and actually develop the other characters, mainly Morgan and the rest of the team while keeping Lee a mystery and making her character shady to the team.

Paul Giamatti's acting was over-the-top [spoiler]in the psych-evaluation scene[/spoiler] and forced. Maybe if he was more calmer and actually not showing that he was building up to be some friendly psychologist to a pissed off man in order to evoke emotions out of Morgan the scene would've played out better.

The marketing for this movie was poor - were the directors and crew aiming for a sci-fi horror or sci-fi thriller? Check out the trailers and you'll see what I mean.

The Bad:

Is it me, or did anybody notice how bad Michael Yare's (the black guy who plays Ted) acting was? No need to comment much on this, but there wasn't a single ounce of emotion on the man when he's face to face with Morgan.

The action sequences are choppy - I HATE scenes in action movies that have so many cuts! I just hope that if Luke Scott makes another action movie that he doesn't follow the footsteps of Paul Greengrass or Olivier Megaton.

I didn't really care for the characters much in this movie. As I said in the mixed section of this movie, if the writing had been a little better then you could really feel for some of the characters. 

TL;DR: Morgan had a promising story despite it being a copy of Ex Machina and Species, but with a great performance from Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular character and some decent cinematography is all let down by some mixed performances, poor marketing and writing without any other originality. 

Verdict: This movie would be something to watch if you're bored or just looking for a popcorn flick and tired of all the superhero action movies out in theaters today. 5/10

Saw this movie a few years ago after hearing many people talk about how the visual effects were amazing, put aside the horror sub-genre. I enjoyed the movie so much that I considered adding it to my favorite sci-fi horror movie collection. But after a second viewing, well...thoughts have changed.

I'd never been really blown away by a psychological thriller that has a surprising twist than a movie like this.

This movie is actually worth watching! I think it's the fact that people complain that the trailer gives away the whole movie is the issue, but the fact that they don't really know what's actually happening in the story.

This sequel had a few creative ideas, but the sub-plot with the detectives looking for the kid while one of them plays the VHS tapes kind of caught me off-guard near the end.

For the segments, well...

Phase 1 - Clinical Trials - Really good novel idea! A man looking at ghosts through a camera implanted on his new eye along with some pretty decent jump-scares. Even though it was a little nasty, I guess the short worked for this anthology.

A Ride In The Park - Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale's short is the highlight of this movie. What's not to like when you see footage being recorded from the protagonist who turns into a zombie about 2 minutes into the segment as he strolls with the other zombies?

Safe Haven - Gareth Evans, after doing his action thriller movie "The Raid", brings a lot of tension and scares to this segment. What made it really frightening in my opinion was the build up of suspense when the Indonesian cult begins to go insane and the amount of gore during the most terrifying scenes, such as the Demon-Child emerging from the female character and insanity of the characters that makes this short so cringe-worthy and hard to watch for the faint-hearted.

Slumber Party Alien Abduction - The aliens looked really, really silly in this last segment. Sure, it had potential to be really compelling in a way of what a bizarre alien encounter would be like from one group's perspective. I can give this a pass for the amount of efforts the writers put in to making this last segment as scary as possible, and the characters weren't that annoying as well. But the dog...c'mon, really?

Overall, this sequel does a lot better with the amount of creativity and scares the people in this movie put in, but still had a few subtle flaws that they could have taken care of.

First expectations were to avoid this as this movie provided really intense, gritty, and disturbing elements to the movie. But after seeing this, the directors and writers did really well with their own segments and the way the terror was executed. Although I enjoyed the last segment the most, I found Amateur Night to be a little more appalling while the segments like "Tuesday the 17th" and "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" weren't that creepy but still violent and a bit conspicuous. I was so and so with Second Honeymoon as it had a pretty good twist to the story, but felt it was a bit predictable. For a found footage movie that's as gruesome and terrifying, V/H/S blows Creepypasta right out of the water for it's own touch in horror and really decent story telling.

Just watched this movie and I'd have to say - I'm pretty mixed about this movie. One moment, I had nothing but bad things to say and then another I just feel that the people working on this movie did pretty good with what they were given.

Also, the theme is cyber bullying and the effects it can have on not only the victims but also the tormentors responsible. It's a very serious issue today, and this film does a pretty good job representing the issue. (minus the supernatural antagonist added)

The premise of this movie seemed cliched to me, but later after watching the trailer back in 2014 (Was titled "Cybernatural" at the time) I had plenty of expectations for it.

The premise of this movie is Laura Barns, a teenager who was driven to suicide after a group of friends played a sadistic prank on her, and plenty of cyber-bullying is involved. One year later, the friends are confronted by a mysterious individual while video chatting, who is using Laura's account to get the attention of the teenagers. Thinking it is another sick prank, the hacker on Laura's account threatens to kill off anyone who leaves the video chat if they hang up. Whilst being terrorized by the ghost, there are some deadly secrets that the friends share that will break their friendships and reveal them as backstabbers.

It was a great idea that Nelson Greaves had developed, along with his other rewrites (look on the IMDB trivia section of the movie) and Timur Bekmambetov also had some creativity and serious thinking with developing this story. Sure, there was a moment where the movie felt like a knock-off of The Den (another movie with the same style as this movie, but actually more brutalizing) but the writer differentiated it around a little bit.

The story, while it had some flaws, such as Laura's backstory as a bully, with not too much detail about her past and what made her become a bully. and Laura and Blaire's history as childhood friends. I felt that they did okay with the subplots, but didn't reveal too much with these two stories.

The characters, while they were a bunch of arrogant and nasty assholes for what they did to Laura, I really felt sympathetic for Laura and one of the friends involved in the prank against Laura.

For instance, Mitch. Why? Because,near the end of the movie, Blaire screws Mitch over by "admitting" that he was the one who posted the video, but I completely remembered through the whole movie that it looked like he never did anything bad aside from having negative opinions of Laura, making out with her for a few seconds, and ratting out Adam for selling weed. What I'm saying here is that I interpret Mitch as being one of the innocent friends, since he didn't really post the video in my opinion.

The acting in this movie was between okay and good, with newcomers like Will Peltz and Moses Jacob Storm really giving out their emotions in the movie. Jacob Wysocki was really funny and gave comic relief at the right timing. Renee Olstead, Shelley Hennig, and Courtney Halverson were great as well, but I felt that Shelley's character was too whiny. Heather Sossaman is intimidating as Laura Barns, before and after she becomes a cyber ghost.

For the fantastic editing in the movie (glitches, visuals, etc.), please give the Editors an Oscar Nomination! Sure, it sounds exaggerated, but this is what a teen using a computer looks like - checking websites and going back and forth in checking their own personal applications and the way they chat. As for the Skype video chat, it was realistic, because if it was all based on keeping clear instead of having flaws, I'd question why they'd do it.

Leo Gabriadze does great in his directional debut, even when Shelly Hennig suggested that the whole movie be shot in one take without interruptions.

The suspense was okay, as some parts seemed predictable like hints of one of the characters about to be attacked.

Overall, the movie isn't so great, but it isn't so bad as well. It was actually entertaining for it's idea, the computer horror genre, and I would like to see what the people behind Unfriended will do with the sequel.

Remember back in 2007 when Transformers came out, there was a preview for this movie that only showed a brief clip of a party going on and then came the attack and the Statue of Liberty's head being tossed across the street, and no name was given for the movie AT ALL? Now that's how you advertise for a found footage movie - you don't give anything away. All of us who watched this preview literally went crazy trying to figure out the premise of this movie and what JJ Abrams and the others were doing.

Plot: A big party is planned for Robert "Rob" Hawkins, who is leaving NYC to go to Japan as Vice-President until it is erupted with unusual but ground shaking roars as a creature attacks the city and is caught on tape as Rob and his friends try to escape Manhattan. Also, let's not forget the subplot where Rob also goes on a rescue mission to save his girlfriend who is trapped inside her home after the monster makes it's grand appearance.

Though it looks a little cliched with what they used in the story, the people behind this movie make it a little more interesting by adding the found footage style and leaving out any details about Clover's (the monster) origins.

Acting: I really didn't care so much for the acting, but I feel pretty mixed towards TJ Miller's character, Hud. Sure, he's the dude you turn to for comic relief in the worst case scenarios, but he kind of gets on my nerves sometimes. Michael Stahl-David should be in more movies like this, but I feel he's more comfortable with working on independent movies. Lizzy Caplan also did great as well, especially the scene where she is brought into quarantine. Really terrifying moment. So, I'd have to say the acting was so-so to good.

Cinematography: Looking at the movie a couple of times, it looked like a cinematic Hollywood movie more than found footage at first, but later became more fond of it when the camera keeps cutting away from the action, adding a more realistic look, as if you were watching through the perspective of a survivor.

VFX: I'm surprised nobody complained about the CGI in this movie. Excellent work with Clover, the parasites, and the destruction throughout this movie. Maybe up and coming directors who have an interest in making sci-fi movies like this or Transformers can learn from something like Cloverfield or The Matrix and so forth.

Directing: Matt Reeves actually did well in directing the movie. He really put a lot of hard work (JJ Abrams as well) into keeping Cloverfield a mystery and brought out genuine terror and real human emotion from the cast. Matt Reeves then went on to make Let Me In and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Excellent job, Matt!

Overall: This is one of the found footage movies I've actually enjoyed. I really wish that there was a sequel to this movie, showing it through the perspective of the military or how the monster was found. I also wish more found footage movies were marketed the way Cloverfield was, since it actually gives people plenty of thrills and curiosity for a long time rather than making it temporary and they get bored afterwards.

9/10!