Review of Circle (2015) by Sin S — 30 Dec 2017

Circle is a mixed bag for me. The premise is amazing and has so much potential, but the film barely dipped a toe into what it could have been. Instead of taking time to analyze the characters and their psychological standings, the movie decides to stock up on expendable characters so pointless to the story that they might as well just be made of cardboard and propped up to look real. Even then, our main characters are incredibly underdeveloped to the point where most of them can be defined by poorly to mediocrely acted clichés and stereotypes like the racist old guy, the cancer survivor, the lesbian, the soldier, the innocent child, the dumb college kid, etc. While these characters can be entertaining, there's never much investment into who lives and who dies. And in a way, I kind of like that. The movie isn't about specific people, but how a group of everyday Americans react to a cruel killing game. I never found myself seriously rooting for anyone to "win" because I don't think I was supposed to. Yes, there are people I wanted to see alive more than others, but the purpose of the film, to me at least, was to sit and watch as an outsider, like the scientist watching a mouse traverse a maze. It's interesting as it happens, but it's nothing that stuck with me after it was over.

In short: a good premise uses a single location setting and a low budget to tell a fun Twilight Zone like story, but falls victim to weak writing, a bloated cast without any standouts, and some shoddy acting.