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nMaggie (2015)
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nDirector: Henry Hobson
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nCast: Arnold Schwarznegger, Abigail Breslin
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nHere’s a zombie movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger which immediatelynmakes you think you’re going to seenArnold kicking all sorts of zombie ass and what have you, but be advised, thatnis not the type of movie you will get. Maggie is a more somber affair. I wasn’tnexpecting a big zombie actionnextravaganza because I’d read some reviews and seen the trailers, so I wasnexpecting exactly what I got, an artsy-fartsy take on the zombie genre, whichnis fine with me because I’m a zombie nut and I appreciate new and different takesnon the zombie genre. The thing is that movie goers in search of serious,ndramatic performances don’t exactly flock to see zombie movies, and those whonlove zombie movies, don’t want to see over dramatic anything, they want theirngore, they want their zombie mayhem. So, did this film reach a happy medium? Ornwill zombie lovers end up being disappointed?
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nThe story for Maggie is quite simple. A virus is spreadingnacross the land and its turning people into zombies. The government has issuedna quarantine; anyone who’s infected is to be taken away to these concentrationncamps, where they will be treated for their infection. One of these infected isnMaggie, daughter to Wade Vogel, also known as Arnold Schwarzenegger. So Arniesndaughter is infected and now he’s got to protect her from the government whonwants to take her away to their concentration camps. What to do? Wait until shenturns then kill her? Hand her over to the government? Let her live her life asna zombie?
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nThere’s one thing I enjoyed about Maggie and it was thatnfeeling of dread. You get the feeling that society is crumbling, falling apart.nEverything is slightly dilapidated, but not full blown post apocalyptic. It’snall very grey, very dreary looking as if it’s always about to rain. Inappreciate films that can sustain this tone all throughout and Maggie does thatnvery well. The film is absolutely depressing all the way through, you cannexpect something along the lines of The Road (2009), where there’s not a happynmoment in sight. In Maggie characters don’t smile, they don’t kid around,neverybody looks and talks as if they‘re just about to slit their wrists out of depression.n So when you see this just remember thatnit’s a heavy shot of seriousness all the way through. Unfortunately, it also reminded of Stake Land (2010), a boring film within its genre.
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nWhile I can’t bring myself to callnMaggie a bad film; I do have to say that it was rather uneventful. Not muchnhappens that we haven’t seen in other zombie films and this is primarily wherenMaggie fails. It goes step by step through every zombie cliché in the book,nonly in a really slow, boring way. So you know how this movie goes: somebodynyou know gets infected; it isn’t easy to accept that your loved one is turning.nWhat will you do when they transform? Will you shoot your loved one in thenhead? Will you have the strengths to shoot their brains out? And that about as farnas the themes for Maggie go. So in this sense it’s a very predictable film andntherefore boring because it stretches this simple plot all the way through tonthe end, no complications, no twists…you’re basically waiting to see what’sngoing to happen when Maggie finally turns full blown zombie. So while the filmnmight look beautiful, because it does, it’s very well shot, it disappoints becausenit doesn’t deliver. It doesn’t try toncover new ground. It’s simply going over themes and situations we’ve seennplayed out many times before in a million other zombie movies and not in a veryninteresting way.
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nArnold and Abigail do turn in good performances, but don’tnbe expecting Arnold to cry you a river. This is basically Arnold being Arnold,nhe’s just saying every line very seriously that’s all. I thought maybe thendirector might try and make Arnold display a bit more emotion, but the filmnwasted the opportunity to make Arnold stretch his acting skills. I think thenreason why this movie is so banal is that it’s director doesn’t have much experience in filmmaking, Inmean, were talking about a director whose only other directorial effortsninclude the trailers and opening sequences for various video games. Oh and he’snalso directed the Oscars a few times? If you’re a true blue filmmaker, then younshould be able to pull off a good movie no matter what, blamo, you’re dying tonmake a movie and here’s your chance bro! So you go and make this boring zombienmovie? The biggest problem here is these filmmakers have chosen the wrong genrenin which to make their break out film.
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nIf Mr. Henry Hobson wanted to make annartsy fartsy movie, he shouldn’t have chosen the zombie genre cause who thenhell wants’ to be bored to death when watching a zombie movie? Nobody that’s who.nYou have to know your genre, you have to know your target audience. At the verynleast, as a filmmaker, Mr. Hobson and crew should have attempted a way in whichnto balance out the dramatic elements with the horror elements, because as itnis, both sides are disappointed here. Zombie fans will be disappointed because fornone, you don’t see a hell of a lot of zombies. And the ones you see aren’tnrotting decomposing corpses, they are the kind that have little black veins paintednon their pale skins…you know, not really rotting corpses. Also, to my greatndisdain, the gore is kept off camera and to a minimum, which sucks for a zombienmovie. So what we got here ladies and gentlemen is a zombie movie with annemphasis on the drama, but even in that department it disappoints because it doesn’tnoffer up enough complexities or depth, it’s too simple a movie. Maggie needed a little more of what zombies arenalways asking for “brains”.
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nRating: 3 out of 5
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