Saturday, September 18, 2010

DEVIL


"Oh....no....Justin....your first movie review is of a movie called....DEVIL?"

"Yup"

"Oh, ok."

So I believe I was sitting in the movie theater, waiting for Inception to start, when I saw the first trailer for DEVIL.  I remember sitting there watching a group of random strangers get into an elevator as some eerie music was playing.  I am a sucker for scary movies.  Not the blood and guts type, just the ones that kinda scare you and stuff.  So I remember watching this preview thinking, "oh, man, this looks crazy!" A whole movie inside an entire elevator! I liked the movie Red Eye which was all on an airplane so the concept of an entire movie being shot in an elevator intrigued me.  It looked way good.  Anyway, the last 20 second of the trailer is just clips of the scary stuff happening in the elevator as the famous elevator "dinging" noise is going.  Lady screams.  Pitch black theater.  And BAM, the title DEVIL appears on the screen.  I knew right then and there, ok, I am going to be there opening night for sure.

Another thing to add is that during the preview the name M. Night Shymalan appeared.  The entire theater groaned and laughed.  I was one of them.  I had just seen The Last Airbender.  If you've seen that movie, you'll know why I was groaning when I saw this same directors name attached to this new DEVIL movie.

I like M. Night Shymalan movies in general. The Sixth Sense is probably one of the greatest movies of all time.  Unbreakable was pretty good.  I really liked Signs.  And I am also a fan of The Village.  People are always shocked to hear that I liked those movies, but there you go, you know my taste in movies.  I hated Lady in the Water.  Anyways, I knew Shymalan could pull through with this DEVIL movie if we just trusted him.  (And thank goodness DEVIL was only his "idea" and didn't write, direct, and produce it.)

So DEVIL.

The movie doesn't all take place in an elevator.  But the majority of the movie does.  I don't like giving too much away in reviews cuz I think that it defeats the whole purpose of seeing the movie if you know everything before you see it.  But I don't think there is anything wrong with givin some general plot details.

The movie starts with a bang.  That's all I'm gonna say.

From the very beginning I was intrigued with what was going on.  The strangers all get into the elevator and I was way interested as to what was going to happen.  I was thinkin "Ok, the movie is called DEVIL but is it really the " Devil Devil"? Or is it just a name? Or what?

Pretty soon into the movie you find out what you are dealing with.  If you have read any of the plot descriptions you find out that one of the strangers is the Devil, so yeah, they weren't lying.  The whole movie you are pretty much just watching trying to figure out who the Devil is.  Yeah, "the Devil Devil."

I don't like satanic movies, but I didn't feel this one was really satanic.

"But Justin! It is called DEVIL! How is that NOT satanic?"

The whole movie one of the strangers is disguising themselves as the Devil.  So its not like there are holy rituals and stuff to cast devils out and stuff.  No exorcism stuff.  Just your normal, what's-gonna-happen-next scary.

So the movie moves along fast enough to keep your interest.  I was way interested to find out who was the "bad guy" was.

I thought there were some holes in the movie though for sure.  I came home and wikipedia'd the movie cuz I didn't understand all the connections and stuff.  And this is coming from guy who loves the show LOST.  But I left the movie satisfied.  Like all M. Night Shyamalan movies, it has an uplifting message at the end. Overall, I was pleased.  M. Night Shymalan needs to stick to his ideas, and leave the rest to other writers and directors.  If you are an M. Night fan, you will not be disappointed with the movie.  Best movie ever? No.  Glad I saw it? Heck yeah.

P.S. I called it before the movie started who the DEVIL was gonna be.  And yes, I was right.

1 comment:

  1. remember how you tried to get me to go see this with you? yeah i would have gone if you could have gotten my mom to go with...

    ReplyDelete