Review of Dreamcatcher (2003) by Michael S — 11 Feb 2011

This movie is a great example of wasted opportunity. First off all, the cast is pretty amazing for this type of film. There is a lot here that they could have done with these guys. Unfortunately, they didn't. Instead, we get four characters that we are given a messy background about them and their special friend, and we are expected to get a ton of information from that alone. Only it doesn't give any clear information. So when these characters [SPOILER ALERT] are killed off, we don't care. Second of all, we are given a story with tons of aliens running around ,but we are supposed to understand that they are bad guys, which they are, but they have a plan of sorts, which is basically quickly given to us in the last part of the film. However, our introduction to these things is horrifyingly nasty. If the idea of "shit weasel" sound scary, in many ways, it is. Thirdly, there is another subplot with one of our heroes who is possessed by one of these aliens, and he runs around in his own head behind a door watching out a window. Weird. Lastly, among other things, is the fact that there is yet another subplot which involves the Military trying to get a control on these aliens. Problem is that we are never given anything new to explain why Morgan Freeman's character acts the way he does. In fact, he seems crazy, but is he? I don't know, the movie didn't tell me much. Tom Sizemore is a solider on his team whose job it is to stand around and listen to tons of exposition, all of which still give us little to go on or give us much needed insights into this mess.

The major issue is that this movie is all over the place. It is about aliens, who are born of shit, who are taking over the world, who meet these 4 people, who have a background with a special kid and get some sort of powers (never really explained), 2 are killed off in dumb or pointless ways, the Military is trying to stop an invasion, they are lead by a crazy man, one of the people is possessed by a British accented alien, and the Special friend saves the day in a sudden and confusing ending.

All in all, I'd skip this. It's beautiful to look at, with some great actors in it. There is just nothing else here.