Jordan Peele has made a couple of good horror movies. His first movie, a brilliant comedy (Keanu) is often overlooked. Now he’s pivoted to Sci-Fi with this film. And since it feels like a Sci-Fi western, I thought about the criminally underrated Cowboys & Aliens (the Jon Favreau movie with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig). You’ll also watch this thinking of Close Encounters and Signs. When I heard the annoying Spaghetti Western score, I also thought of Tarantino. When you finally see the flying saucer, you’ll think of the cheesy 50s B-movies that had space ships. It’s a shame, because there’s no denying that Peele is talented. But is this movie any good? Nope.
It is disjointed, and feels like it’s a lot of filler. You might have a jump scare or two. You might like a few of the set designs. Certainly the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Tenet), is solid. Even the sound design works well. It’s also great that he’s using Daniel Kaluuya again. He has a great look of bewilderment, but many times I felt he was acting a bit too cavalier when things around him were getting so crazy. And his sister (Keke Palmer) was hard to understand sometimes, and annoying most of the other times. More character development was needed with these folks. Steve Yeun was given a rather interesting backstory, and when we see flashbacks to the sitcom he was on as a child actor, it’s interesting and disturbing (I may never like monkeys again).
It was great seeing Keith David in the beginning of the film. He plays the father. His son Otis Haywood Jr. (the audience will laugh that he’s called OJ) helps Pops run the horse farm, which makes money providing their steeds for movie productions. Near their farm is a Wild West style theme park called Jupiter’s Claim. Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun) runs it, and often buys horses from Otis when they need the cash. Later in the movie, he expresses interest in buying his entire farm.
When power starts cutting out, horses start acting weird, and things keep falling out of the sky…the Haywood siblings go to Fry’s to buy some cameras. That’s where we meet Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), who’s an annoying character that seems intrigued by their UFO pursuits. His first annoying rant reminded me of one of the crazy rants Brad Pitt went on in 12 Monkeys. My wife pointed out how odd it was that they seem so concerned with getting rich capturing a UFO on film, and not as interested in how horses and family members died.
Halfway through the movie, you start to wonder why characters do the things they do, when they see how dangerous these aliens are. This just becomes an incohesive mess of a story.
There are some great visuals, and Peele can create haunting atmosphere and imagery. It’s just a shame he didn’t include more humorous elements. He’s the perfect guy to provide them (remember how funny his show Key & Peele was?).
Things just got too repetitive, and at two hours and 15 minutes, I was actually bored during some of the film.
It gets credit for working in the 1878 piece “The Horse in Motion” which was considered the first motion picture. It reminded me of Scorse’s underrated movie Hugo using the 1902 “A Trip to the Moon.”
I saw that three critics said that this movie will make you think of the clouds, the way Spielberg made you think of the ocean after Jaws. Yeah, well…the only problem is, we were afraid to go into the water after Jaws. We’re not afraid to look up at the clouds after this (we weren’t even after we found out the aliens were in the rain in Invasion of the Body Snatchers).
I’m guessing most people that go to see this will enjoy it. If you go in with high expectations because it’s Jordan Peele – Nope.
2 stars out of 5.