How I see the movie: It's a pretty standard ghost story that goes on through several phases and leaves some rather gaping plot holes. Still an enjoyable horror romp with great visuals and a stunning lead star in Jessica Chastain.
The movie centers around the kids Victoria and Lily who are abandoned by their father in the woods where they also get to meet the mysterious entity known as MAMA. Here's the trailer to give you a better understanding of what the movie is all about:
The movie is actually fairly impressive as it features a lot of great visuals and a nice twist towards the end. Like I said Mama is a pretty standard ghost story complemented with great looking Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
The great thing about 'Mama' is that it'll make you antsy for the first 100 minutes of the film. The musical scoring here was pretty wicked as it really did evoke a sense of dread everything Mama made an appearance. The two major settings in the film was cool particularly the old dilapidated cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Chastain is adorable as rock chick turned budding adoptive mother here. She actually made it look like she was made for the part. Mind you she's no damsel in distress here as her character did show signs of being a determinator.
The visuals here are top notch and I certainly loved the play on the different story telling techniques. One thing that you should look out for is the history of Mama told through a POV (which is also our first look at Mama). Mama as a ghost herself isn't too shabby. In fact in some scenes where this mysterious figure appears, you'll get the shivers run down your spine.
Funny thing I noticed though is that Mama strikes me as a dead ringer for Lilia Cuntapay, the old lady who gets typecast in those old Pinoy horror movies (and star of her own semi-biopic).
There were a few facepalm moments in the movie that I wanted to point out such as why would a guy, a doctor no less, enter a dark, and creepy home knowing that he'll be dealing with something outworldly. Why would a guy just continue to look at a growing dark void on the wall of his home? Wouldn't he be creeped out? I know I would.
One last thing, it was never really clear what the fuck Coster's character was doing in the woods. We know that he was sent there by the ghost of his dead brother but we never did see any resolution for that, it was as if the writers decided they couldn't do anything with him and just decided to send him to a dark forest wandering for god knows what.
There's a couple of plot points that make Mama a headache to watch but if you overlook those bits, the film is actually pretty nice. The biggest pleasant surprise I've found out about Mama is that this actually began life as a short film by director Andres Muschietti before it got picked up by Del Torro. Here's the short film (which managed to make an albeit facelifted form in the feature film).
Verdict: 3.5/5
Special thanks to SOLAR ENTERTAINMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment