Intrusion

Director: Adam Salky
Starring: Freida Pinto, Logan Marshall-Green, Robert John Burke, Sarah Minnich, Yvette Fazio-Delaney, Clint Obenchain, Mark Silvertstein, Megan Elisabeth Kelly   
Running Time: 92 min.
Rating: NR

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

Netflix's Intrusion features one of those impossibly cool modern houses that you either see exclusively in movies like this or within the pages of Architectural Digest. Cavernous, sleekly sterile and set alone against a vast desert landscape, it's the real star, but won't be mistaken for a "home" so much as an impeccably designed building where two people happen to sleep. In this instance, the lack of a security system could serve as the equivalent of a blinking neon sign reading, "Intruders Welcome." It should take the average viewer less than 15 minutes to figure out things are off since home invasions are rarely ever about home invasions at all, the actual break-in functioning as an inciting plot device for the script to take us somewhere else. 

Director Adam Salky's film is about secrets between spouses and much of its first half is at least partially successful and competent at conveying that, bolstered by some strong acting, a fairly intriguing set-up and a patient groundswell of suspense. Then it shows its cards too early. Way too early. And we're left wondering what's left while awaiting the protagonist to come to conclusions we already arrived at a while earlier. The film's in a tough spot because there's only one explanation to the mystery when no other alternative makes sense. Still, you hope for one because, from a craft standpoint, it's not terrible as far as thrillers like these go. But once everything's all laid out, it's just kind of done.

Married couple Meera (Frieda Pinto) and Henry (Logan Marshall-Green) have just moved from Boston to their new dream house in Coralles, New Mexico, designed and built by architect Henry. A recent breast cancer survivor, Meera is on edge worrying that the disease may return, but her husband's unqualified support provides great comfort, as they share phone-less date nights to go out and relax. After one, they return to discover the house has been burglarized, and at the urging of the local police Detective Morse (Robert John Burke), Henry installs a security system. A few nights later, the electricity goes out and they're awakened when masked men intrude, tying Meera up as Henry uses his hidden gun, shooting them. 

Henry wants to move past all this while Meera is traumatized, only further rattled that one of the men her husband shot could potentially have important information regarding a missing local girl (Megan Elisabeth Kelly). As strange clues pop up about the intruders, Meera does some digging, discovering that Henry may be holding some info back about what these men were really after. Soon she's torn between her loyalty to him and discovering the ugly truth of what happened, as dangerous as that may be. 

The home invasion is merely warm-up for what follows, as screenwriter Chris Sparling sows the seeds of doubt and mistrust between a couple who up to that point seemed to have an ideal marriage. But their far differing reactions to this event bring certain questions to the surface and the script is none too subtle in announcing this is about never really knowing the person you're with. That's made abundantly clear when the rest of the film's running time consists almost entirely of Meera sleuthing around town and in the house to find answers, all while Henry sensitively tries to convince her there's nothing to worry about.

It's a pleasure seeing Freida Pinto anchoring this since she brings more to the role than most would, rarely playing Meera as any kind of damsel in distress, entirely cerebral in her actions and asserting real agency to get answers viewers have already beaten her to. The wheels are always turning, and even if her character has a handful of intelligent, quietly intense moments opposite Henry, it's just not helpful that we know the entire outcome long before her suspicions truly kick in. 

Logan Marshall-Green continues his formidable streak as an acting chameleon, again unrecognizably disappearing deep enough into a part that you'd have trouble picking him out of a lineup. Clean cut, calm and reassuring, it's tough to believe this is even the same bearded, disheveled guy everyone mistook for Tom Hardy in 2015's far superior residential thriller, The Invitation. And yet he finds ways to make Henry just a little too smooth and impossibly supportive enough that we have to stop and consider something's not quite right. 

With each unsurprising turn of the plot, the restraint and nuance Pinto and Green attempt to bring to the material is dampened when the wheels fly off the narrative heading toward the "big reveal." As much as their performances do keep it watchable as it crosses the finish line, the script really pushes the envelope far in terms of predictibility, regardless of whether it even makes logical sense. The acting, some nice photography and admittedly impressive production design become harder to tout as major accomplishments when viewers are yelling at their screens for a the main character to figure it out already. 

While the closing minutes are tension-filled and relatively well directed by Salky, it's hamstrung by the inevitability that Intrusion can only go so far. With a pay off that shares more in common with a random Saw entry than you'd hope, the end result isn't boring, just entirely forgettable, which is a shame considering how the early scenes teased a potential sophistication to the material that could have been built upon. But by patterning itself after other thrillers of the same ilk, it's indistinguishable, wasting an opportunity to present a more deeply disturbing social commentary.         

Prometheus

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall
Running Time: 124 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

The term "meet your maker" is interpreted literally in Ridley Scott's polarizing Prometheus, his quasi-prequel to Alien that has both less and more in common with that series than you'd imagine. From the get-go it's clear exactly what kind of science fiction this will be. The smart kind, with big ideas. Whether all the ideas presented are fully explored is a separate issue, but at least enough are, even as I lost count of how many movies those ideas seemed to reference. It's territory we've been in before and there's never much doubt where the story's going, but fortunately this still manages to be effective on its own terms. The film looks great, employing practical style special effects and set design that goes a step further than we're used to seeing in most big budget sci-fi blockbusters. Even just the opening title sequence confirms that. But the story exists in this weird gray area between being presented directly as an Alien prequel and setting up its own philosophical mythology that draws heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's sequel, 2010, and even something like Mission To Mars. Anyone approaching this looking for extremely deep insights into human existence might be disappointed, but as far as relentless sci-fi, horror adventures go, it ranks high.

The year is 2089 and archeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) have discovered an ancient map in Scotland that connects many cultures and is interpreted by them as an invitation by humanity's "Engineers," or creators, to travel to their distant moon. The mission's  funded by the late Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce in old age make-up), the Weyland Corporation's founder and CEO. After traveling in a state of suspended stasis, Shaw, Holloway and the rest of their Prometheus crew led by Captain Janek (Idris Elba) awaken at their destination in 2093. They meet the mission's director, the emotionally vacant Dr. Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and its monitor, an android named David (Fassbender) who allegedly has no feelings, but  whose behavior and appearance is patterned after Peter O' Toole's T.E. Lawrence from Lawrence of Arabia. During their investigation they get get much more than they bargained for, with a discovery that puts not only their lives in jeopardy, but could potentially threatens the survival of the entire human race. They wanted answers and get them, but it don't come without a price.  

If there's an issue it's in the film's inability to completely break free from the Alien franchise and fully establish itself as its own standalone entity. Of course the pressure was on (at least from a studio marketing perspective) to push this as a "prequel to Alien." In a sense it is, without Scott going so far as to completely acknowledge that. Basically he wants to have his cake and eat it too, which is problematic only when certain Alien elements are jammed into the second and third acts of the film, giving it a different feel than it started with. Scott would have just been better off severing all ties and influence to that franchise, saving the audience some confusion and making for a cleaner finished product. Even the very last shot of the film feels more like a shout-out to fans than anything that organically sprung from the narrative. But if that's the worst problem the film has, I'd still say it's in pretty good shape, especially considering the number of ways this could have gone wrong and come off indistinguishable from the usual big budget sc-fi devoid of ideas. It definitely doesn't deserve to be lumped into that category and nothing about the story or its presentation seems at any point to be unsophisticated, or worse yet, dumbed down to make it more accessible.

The idea of future explorers searching for the human race's origins makes for an engaging start point and it's held together by a couple of really strong performances and fantastic effects work (not to mention a cool 80's throwback sci-fi miniseries-style score from Marc Streitenfeld). Fassbender's performance as David the android already starts as something interesting but only becomes more fascinating when the other characters start pushing him and his true motivations boil to the surface. Jealousy, paranoia and even a certain level of arrogance start to seep through his robotic facade. This is the most obvious homage to 2001's HAL, as a computer begins to show obvious signs of a soul and personality, but with disastrous results for the rest of the crew. Fassbender's meticulousness keeps you wondering whether there is more to this android than just circuits while also making it subtly clear he could just be programmed to follow order and preserve the mission. Either option seems equally disturbing whenever he's on screen. The real emotional android just might be Theron's Dr.Vickers whom she plays as detached ice queen and non-believer to her core, backing the mission strictly as a business decision and nothing more. The faith and belief is supplied by the protagonist, Noomi Rapace's Shaw, who can hang with Sigourney Weaver's Ripley only in so far as the amount of physical punishment she endures. While it isn't fair, the movie seems to want to invite a comparison between the two, making Rapace's performance seem more underwhelming than it actually is. If nothing else, she endures the grossest C-Section you've ever seen performed on film. Idris Elba could have been given more to do as the ships captain, but he's memorable in his few big scenes opposite Theron.

You have to wonder how the public would have reacted to this film had they not known it was in any way tied to the Alien franchise or co-written by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Given how some have still inexplicably not gotten over how he ended that series, it's likely many were foaming at the mouth to blame him for any perceived problems with this project. That his script balances issues of faith and science thematically similar to the show's controversial, unfairly maligned finale only gives fans more ammunition to complain, no matter how off-base they are. While the script does definitely lag behind the directing and visual effects, it's only problem is the "been there, done that feel of its premise" and its inability to step out of Alien's shadow despite the film's initial ideas suggesting it could have possibly surpassed it. The jaw-dropping visuals and performances from Fassbender and Theron really stand out as the biggest reasons why it's a success. At the very least, Prometheus is Ridley Scott's best effort in ages and seems more than a worthy of a sequel that can hopefully deviate even more from the original material it's inspired by.