Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Benjamin Brewer
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, Sadie Soverall
For most of the past two decades we've known what to expect from Nicolas Cage. He's delivered a series of over-the-top performances that suggest no
director can rein him in, if they would even want to. But in the past
couple of years he's reinvented himself, dialling down his trademark
Cageness to remind us just what a good actor he really is in the likes
of Pig and Dream Scenario. His role in sci-fi thriller Arcadian might be his quietest yet, given how he spends most of the movie
literally unconscious. Even in Willy's Wonderland, in which he played a mute, he managed to ham it up more than here. It's
a shame, as Arcadian is so dry it could use some of Cage's signature theatrics to bring
it to life.
The film takes place 15 years after an apocalyptic event that saw most of
humanity wiped out by monsters. Liberally cribbing from Richard Matheson,
said creatures only come out at night and so the few human survivors get
on with their lives during the day and retreat to the safety of fortified
homes at dusk. Cage's Paul lives with his teenage sons Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) in a cottage
surrounded by a few other farms in a small community that has managed to
eke out something approaching normality. Paul's motto - "Are we not
men?" - suggests a connection with HG Wells' 'The Island of Lost Souls'
(or perhaps DEVO?) that never materialises. Disappointingly, the
monsters are not the human-animal hybrid products of a mad
scientist.
After managing to get through 15 years unscathed, everything goes to
shit thanks to the horniness of a teenage boy. Infatuated with
neighbouring teen Charlotte (Sadie Soverall), Thomas loses track
of time and fails to return home before darkness falls. Paul heads out
to find his son, leaving Joseph to defend their home. When the curious
Joseph traps one of the monsters in his family's living room, it sets
off a chain of events that sees the monsters up their game, leaving the
humans fighting for their lives.
With Cage's Paul suffering a wound early on, the film centres on its
three teenage leads and leans heavily into YA territory. As such, the
film's family friendly trappings mean we're denied the sort of gory
monster on human action horror fans will be hoping for. When the
monsters attack the camera cuts away just before things get messy,
rendering their rampage underwhelming once it finally arrives after a
full hour of rather uninspired plot and character development. The movie
spends so much time developing its three teenage leads that you might
wonder if it was originally written as a pilot for a TV series. Despite
so much investment, there's nothing remarkable about any of the
characters here. They're just another group of stock YA teens.
First time director Benjamin Brewer comes from a VFX
background, and he has put some thought into his film's monster
antagonists. He keeps them in the shadows just enough to obscure the
limitations of fashioning such CG creations on a limited budget, but
they do somewhat resemble the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal with their birdlike appearance. A nice touch sees them slam their
jaws open and shut at a rapid pace as they prepare to engulf their
victims in acidic goo, but as the PG-rating denies us the results of
such a tactic, it's all moot. In what looks like a nod to the Critters franchise, the creatures roll themselves into giant balls when
they need to move quickly.
If Arcadian were a TV pilot it would be a perfectly serviceable set-up for a
world to explore over several episodes. But as a movie it just doesn't
get into the meat of its story quickly enough. Spending a full two
thirds of its 90 minute running time fleshing out its characters is
simply a waste of precious time for what is ultimately a rather
unoriginal creature feature.
Arcadian is on UK/ROI VOD now.
