‘The Fourth Kind’ is Saved only by the Source Material it’s Based On
-----‘The Fourth Kind’ seemed kind of scary…save the fact that star Milla Jovovich addressed the audience in one of the trailer’s. What’s worse, she does the same in the actual film! Oh no! What follows is a terribly acted, terribly executed, even self-parodying film. And yet, the fact remains; the “actual footage” the film is based on is downright eerie, and certainly more frightening than most of today’s attempts at horror.
-----‘The Fourth Kind’ takes place in Nome, Alaska. After the death of her husband, psychiatrist Abigail Tyler is just trying to get back to work. That’s when she starts to realize a disturbing trend among her patients, who all seem to be having similar experiences. She decides to put them under hypnosis and tape their reactions, which include screamed recollections of alien abductions.
-----Milla Jovovich, an action star I loved in ‘The Fifth Element,’ and even liked in the original ‘Resident Evil,’ is terrible here. Part of this is Director Olatunde Osunsanmi’s fault, putting her face (with agreeably less emotion) next to the face of the real Abigail Tyler…who is naturally much better, seeing as she’s actually feeling these things. Every scene with Jovovich is basically boring and-or ridiculous, like watching an Elvis impersonator trying (and evidently not very hard) to out-sing the real Elvis on the same stage. This is pretty much the case for all of the actors at the hands of the very confused Osunsanmi. Many scenes have the footage right next to each other, and the actors don’t even physically replicate what is happening in the actual footage. For instance, if someone is sitting with their legs crossed in the real footage, the actor will likely have his legs spread eagle. You know you’re in trouble when you can’t even copy what you’ve got right in front of you; it’s like a child failing a spelling test with the words listed right on his desk. Worse yet is the goofy voiceovers that make everyone look bad, or when Osunsanmi cuts the screen into four sections mixed with actual and “dramatized” footage, all the while having the black barriers dividing the sections wriggling around the screen, giving the effect of a kid needing a restroom. Why would you do that?!
-----Osunsanmi, who also conducted the actual interviews with Tyler…doesn’t really seem to know how to make a movie. There are a number of time lapses that seem out of place and grow tiresome, along with numerous other flaws. Every time the real Abigail Tyler comes on screen, the subtitle “Abigail Tyler” comes joins her. This happens about 12 times, and pretty soon the audience is pleading, “Ok, we know who she is, we get it already!” And when Jovovich and Osunsanmi address the audience, they both act only to remove you completely from the movie. It’s just a poor production.
-----The aforementioned technical woes rule ‘The Fourth Kind.’ With poor voiceovers, laughable dramatizations, and quivering screen dividers, there is basically nothing to like from behind the camera. Often a subtitle is put up to note “actual footage” or “actual recording” along with time and place, and the screen is hectic with all of the notations and divisions that act only to take you out of the moment. The musical score is about as generic as they come, and scenes like the aforementioned Jovovich addressing the audience can’t even be taken on an informational basis because Osunsanmi has decided to do silly things like having the background move behind her as if she was spinning. There are many of these conflicting styles and tones that make ‘The Fourth Kind’ one of the most unbalanced movies of the year.
-----At some point you need to choose; do we want a dramatization or a documentary? And as much as I personally despise documentaries, this would have been much more effective as one. I originally thought that the recent release of the handheld horror thriller ‘Paranormal Activity’ would hurt ‘The Fourth Kind’ in the Box Office, seeing as ‘Activity’ is still hanging around in cinemas. In fact it seems to have been quite the opposite; thrill-seeking audiences headed right back into cinemas for what they no doubt hoped would be just as fun a film. And in fact the films share many similarities. The bottom line is, ‘The Fourth kind’ is 80% joke, but 20% wickedly scary supposed “real footage.” There is no admittance of the footage being fictional at the end of the credits, and some disturbing-if-true facts are presented as such, including the notion of 2,000+ FBI visits to Nome, as opposed to the Alaska’s second most visits from the FBI; 354 in the much larger city of Anchorage. Regardless, one has to wonder about the capitalization on these events if they are indeed true, seeing as they involve a filmed suicide and a missing girl from only six years ago. I suppose one could assume the film was doing those in it justice, but it’s shocking stuff nonetheless. Ultimately, all dramatized scenes clock in at about One Star, but the actual footage rivals if not surpasses the best scenes in last month’s ‘Paranormal Activity.’ Decide if it’s worth the trade for you, and if you answer yes, give this one a rent with the solace that you can fast-forward or laugh aloud at the dramatized parts.
|
