Review of The Lazarus Effect (2015) by Preston L — 07 Nov 2015

The Lazarus effect is the story of a group of scientists who have discovered a serum that can restart and dead brain and effectively bring things back from the dead. They are working on animal trials when a lab accident kills Zoe (Olivia Wilde). The team resorts to using the serum on her but when she comes back, they realize that there is something wrong with her.

Things I Liked:

The Cast. This movie has a strong cast and they are the best thing about it. Olivia Wilde has a great series of changes both before and after she returns from the dead. Mark Duplass plays her fiance in ways that really show his determination to make his experiment work. Donald Glover and Evan Peters play the remainders of the team and they both bring charm and personality as well as different points of view to the table to balance out the two leads. And Sarah Bolger plays the woman hired to record their experiments and holds her own with both a sense of fear but also strength to stay alive once things go south. All 5 really work well together an strengthen the movie.

Things I Didn't Like:

The Story. The movie introduces a number of themes and ideas early on and then drops them once the mid movie twist activates the main plot. The story also has some themes about whether the serum was a scientific breakthrough or an act of god vs the devil. All of this gets muddled and confusing and really drags the movie down and it seems like the production was rushed together and not entirely thought out. Ultimately it makes the movie hard to follow and turns your interests off.

The Tone. Along with the confusing story themes the tone is very all over the place and confused. The tone has an air of creepy to it but it isn't entirely there until the very end and then it really works against itself with these scientists performing theoretical biology vs religion work when you just want them to be running for their lives. Again this all feels like the movie was rushed and a lot was left out that shouldn't have been.

Overall:

Overall, the movie is confused. It has a lot of great and interesting ideas but it gets lost as it goes along. The cast does a solid job with what they have and you have a great dynamic between the 5 leads but they can't fix the story problems that are present. The movie sets up a lot and then throws it away in the middle of the movie. And the parts that remain are split in focus and make the movie more complicated and less interesting than it should be. The movie is ultimately a confused mess that feels like it was rushed to get made and not taken care of the way it should be.