Friday after work film time peoples woohoo & something other than Downton or Doctor Strange in the Cinema yaya for that. Altho i could have seen another film today as well (& nowhere near me is showing father stu which im gutted as as i thought we would get it, darn being so good at football that i miss the advance preview).

Id say there was about 40 people in screen 5 with me for this. Lots of people my parents aged which was a bit odd. When it comes to horror films i tend to put myself in a chair that i know when i have a freak out there arent many people around me. So i was intrigued when another millennial couple came & sat down 2 seats away from me… & that when the entertainment started… hehe

So since the pandemic Cineworld for all films do allocated seating. On the app or online you can pick your seat exactly & im sure when you go to the machines that does that for you too & at the kiosk they clear away the menu & you can click on where you want to sit there. So this couple can & sat down & the girlfriend moaned straight away & asked why they were sitting here which he explained, then she moaned her popcorn wasnt sweet enough & why he hadnt got her a coffee (i was sitting there with my triple espresso iced coffee think she was jealous {look it had been a long week i needed the coffee}) & then she moaned that the chairs moved & then she went on her app during the trailers, dropped her phone which she blamed on her boyfirend & then made him get up & move seats to 2 rows further forward. Bless that guy. Im usually all for sisters doing it for themselves but not one thing he had done was right at all. Felt sorry for him.

Any how trailers Elvis (yes) the black phone(maybe) good luck leo grand (yes sisters up for that) Maverick (yes) & then Men (looks really freaky but i am so up for that).

& then the film started… what is it with films not hitting their potential at the moment argh this is the second one in a row thats not done it. Darn you cinema.

So im not asking for a level of villain as Ben Mendelsohn here, but the film needed a better villain. No offence to Gloria, maybe it was the way it was written & the lack of time we got to know about “the shop” but i didnt care when it came to the finale or the reasoning or the showdown. It felt like a let down & i think a more hard hitting villain would have made me care more about the ending, but i just didnt i knew how it was going to go down after about 30mins into the film & was like oh okay then, so when i did go down i was like really your that predictable. urgh.

Zac Efron was good, very good, considering its not normally what he does for a role. HE had a lot of heavy lifting, but we didnt get to care as the father of the movie, i cared more about the mum & that was pointless to do that.

The kid was good, but considering most of her time was screaming or staring at stuff & then the effects department sorting stuff out to make her scary or cool or whatever you want to say about her, it felt a little disjointed. Maybe casting an older kid to play her would have made it a bit more believable, but there was points where she did hit her mark & then do her move & it was like oh okay then & now comes the power.

I love the idea of super hero films being horror films & twisted on their heads a bit, but this needed to go one step further. IT just lacked the balls to do it.

The Shop isnt explained enough for me if im honest. I want to know why they did it, why they were the ones that got away & how they were so crap it took them so long to track them down. & as to why they had the same drugs but different powers. It needed an extra 5 maybe 10mins of exposition. When we learnt about the powers they were as standard if you get me & they also rushed into explaining them & the consequences they have in all of 5mins mid plot. They just expected you accept it & go along with it. Nah film i need more.

There were random people along the way & stuff that was going on which was just there as a distraction, did we really need it. I knew they werent important in the grand scheme of it all.

& then after the final show down, i was like ahh are we going to get something epic or something more, but no. I mean i know a beach clears the cobwebs as i do each sunday, but still nah shouldnt have ended like that.

So much promise for this film to be properly scary & graphic & horrific, but it just didnt have the guts to do it. Stop disappointing me Cinema, deliver on what we want. Hit the right buttons & it will make the peoples go to the movies. I mean i am the converted i will go to almost anything but things like this where theres original source material & fans could have been so so soooooooooo much better.