Review of The Phoenix Incident (2015) by Jean S — 01 Dec 2015

This is an incredibly undervalued, innovative film in a genre that's stagnated in recent years.

First, found-footage style films are prone to drag with extended sequences of shake-and-quake running/hiding/trying not to die. The Phoenix Incident breaks these up via decently compelling interviews, news footage, and narration from after the Incident is said and done.

Secondly, the integration of the Phoenix Lights is relatively unheard of in the genre, and it's pulled off spectacularly. This speaks to the effort of the director to reinvigorate the way we tell stories in an increasingly stagnant genre.

Third, the movement between individual/military timelines is surprisingly fluid, and the special effects are good enough on both fronts to add to the film.

My main criticism is that the exposition leaves very few questions unanswered, stating right off the bat that all 4 protagonists die/disappear. This largely robs the film of suspense as a whole, with all adrenaline coming from action sequences (which are quite good) but never uncertainty. What blows is that this is so unnecessary; I wish the director had taken the hint from basically every other alien found-footage movie out there and only -hinted- at what had happened, while leaving a number of questions & unknowns out there so we could salivate and maybe have a heart attack from time to time...this could have been a revolutionary film across the board had the narrative not shot itself in the foot in spoiling the fate of its rather well-developed characters.

All in all, this is a good watch for fans of the genre, especially those interested in the mechanisms that have largely come to define an increasingly saturated genre.