"Us" movie review: Watch it or skip it?
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Where do I start with this review? This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life, and I have watched a lot of movies. I came into this movie excited, and wanting to be scared which isn’t hard to do. The first 20 minutes or so were great. The sets and wardrobe were full of vibrant colors, the soundtrack was good (only in the beginning, more on that later), the acting was great and the jokes seemed organic. The buildup in the beginning was very suspenseful, not relying on cheap jump scares at all. And then things to a turn for the worse…. way worse!
The shadowy figures finally made their appearance in the movie, everything is still suspenseful and the action scenes are playing out beautifully, and then the shadows start talking. I’m thinking what the hell is going on? Is this supposed to be scary? What they’re saying makes no sense and isn’t relevant in the slightest. Scene after scene is happening with no direction, no explanation, and no real purpose. The suspense is gone, and it is replaced with mindless screaming and action scenes which are not scary at all, it just feels stupid. Kind of like the action scenes from “The Purge”, a lot of things happening and people screaming, but at the same time nothing is happening, nothing is moving the story along.
It seems like the villains in the movie can’t make up their mind on what they’re trying to accomplish. Do they want the family dead or not? And then the jokes in which everyone was laughing at in the first 20 minutes in the movie disappeared, and was replaced with dialogue that just kept getting cheesier and cheesier. I just didn’t know what they were trying to do with this movie. I kept waiting for it to get better but it just kept getting worse and worse. The plot was non existent.
The villains would corner their victims, and not kill them when they had the opportunity, they would just act like they’re trying to hurt them, make a few creepy faces and stupid noises and then just let them go. This happened over and over until it got soo tiresome that you just wanted something, anything significant to happen. When people died, you could care less because they felt like expendable characters. And the whole time your watching the film, you’re waiting for the film to give you a clue as to what is happening and why. And then the soundtrack started sounding weird, not scary, just weird. As if they just asked a random five year old off the street to pick what they would think of as creepy music to go with the movie.
Then there were symbols that not only had no meaning but felt stupid, think bunnies and weird wanna be scary but still childish music. You’ll see. The ending of the film reminded me of some of M. Night Shyamalan’s not so good endings. There was a twist, but it just leaves you scratching your head in confusion, and feeling anger because it makes zero sense and doesn’t explain anything about the previous 2 hours you just witnessed. Then we go back to this game of “I wanna kill you, but I don’t wanna kill you!, I just wanna freak you out a little and carelessly give you the upper hand when I didn’t need to”. During these final scenes there were so many WTF moments, that reminded you that you were watching a movie because it was not believable at all.
My conclusion, the beginning was an awesome buildup to what could've been a great movie. Action scenes were happening that kept you interested to see what happens next. Then what happens next is the same tireless cat and mouse game over and over. In the midst of all this you’re still waiting for an explanation that never comes, and witness a twist that doesn’t make sense. The movie is over and you come to the realization that you just wasted 2 hours of your life and that the best thing about the movie was the trailer.
Horror fans won’t like this, drama fan’s won’t like this, and the casual movie goer will definitely not like this.
So should you Watch it or skip it? I say save your money and skip this movie. You couldn’t pay me to watch this movie again. Final Score: 3/10