Review: Impostor

Slashdot author Chris DiBona took the afternoon off to watch the lightly promoted new Sci-Fi movie "Impostor," which was based on the Philip K. Dick story of the same name. In short, it's a nice bon-bon of a film with solid effects so long as you don't expect too much from it.

Before I get started, it should be pointed out that managing expectations is very important when going to see a movie. If you go into this movie expecting a "Blade Runner" or an "Alien" you probably won't be so happy. If you go into this expecting a "Screamers" or "Pitch Black" however, then you'll probably enjoy the hell out of it.

"Imposter" stars Gary Sinise as an Oppenheimer-like weapons researcher named Spencer Olham. He's working on creating a superweapon to unleash upon an alien menace originating from Alpha Centauri. Frankly, watching the movie, we're getting our asses kicked, with human society devolving into a fascist state huddled under energy domes for protection.

The aliens, however, really aren't the focus of the film, which is neither good nor bad, as they aren't really central to the plot. Sinise's character Olham is picked up by the government as he is suspected of being an alien replicant instead of the real Olham, with the additional feature of a bomb in his chest designed to go off when he meets with the Chancellor of Earth. After being picked up and taken to an ominous interrogation center to be killed, he manages to escape to the dead zone between city-domes, a dystopic scene of poverty and the overlooked. Within the zone, Spencer convinces the streetwise Cale to sneak him back into the city to meet up with his wife, Maya.

I don't want to go much further into the actual plot of the film, as it doesn't really matter that much. It's fairly predictable but enjoyable. The IMDB entry for "Impostor" notes that this was originally one part of a three-part movie that was expanded to fill the full length of this film. There does seem to be a bit of padding going on, like the exploration of Cale's motivation for helping Olham sneak back into the city where Olham's wife Maya (played by Madeline Stowe) works. In the end you don't mind because the padding is well done and entertaining.

The effects are enjoyable in a "look it's a cool city with ships flying around all over it" way and the cast is much stronger than you'd expect in this kind of movie, but not too much. I did feel that Vincent D'Onofrio was probably not very well cast in his role as Major Hathaway. Mr. D'Onofrio is the kind of actor that when he has the right role really shines (his work on Law and Order, for instance). But still, even ill-placed, he's enjoyable to watch.

To wrap up, "Impostor" is a decent flick worth your $5.75 matinee price while elongating your lunch hour and definitely worth taking the time to watch on cable, although the effects would not be as enjoyable.

Comments

Re:New foe system does NOT work

[Enigma2175]

AFAIK, if you have a -1 assigned to a certain class of comments (foe, too short, etc.) and the comment is rated -1, it will be demoted to -2, and therefore be invisible.

Re:Kids, don't learn English from reading this rev

[mlk]

alsotake
You missed a space :)

Reused footage (aka Starship Troopers prequel ;) )

[Anonymous Coward]

Seen this movie and it was average. I didn't hate the movie but I didn't like it much either.

Visual FX wise, I was disapointed with the recycled starship troopers FEDNET footage during the begining half of the movie and that most of the government troopers were using starship troopers uniforms. LAMEO... I guess they had to cut corners on the budget seeing its released under the Dimension Films banner instead of New Line :).

The other effects ranged from piss poor to above average.I'm guessing Netter Digital did alot of the space sequences which looks a bit cheesy.

Some of the city shots/buildings looked good.. but the space/airship design and animation was odd except for mayable one or two scenes.

I'm still trying to figure out ILM's contribution to the film.

The editing was poor. The sequence with the implant removal was jaring timing wise. Alot of action sequences were not clear.. as the action was heavy post processed with lots of moving camera work with shots that were often out of focus or where the action was slightly off camera.

And Plot holes...

Well, if the government agents simply just did the "operation" while Olham was sedated there wouldn't be a movie :). I mean why strap him into one chair.. wake him up, then place him over into a second device. Silly.

Also the idea that the government told Olham that they knew the Centauri ship landed in the forest. Why didn't they search the ship?

These guys had technology to allow their troops to see through whole buildings but yet they couldn't find what Mr. And Mrs. Olham found by running through the woods in pitch darkness.

Oh boy.

Oh well it could have been worse.. I guess.

The short story is good but it looked like it didn't provide enough material for a feature.. so basically most of the moive is a chase sequence which really added nothing to the overall story.

But overall I'm glad... good or bad I'm glad theres more sci fi stuff out there. With a bit more work this movie would have been better.

Re:New foe system does NOT work

[terpia]

Actually, you have just described how it works at the Other Site - a comment gets a -2 and gets moderated to oblivion. Not at Slashdot though. No comment will go below -1. Try it. Set all your modifiers to -6 and see how many comments show up. This assumes your threshold is set to -1.