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Review: Impostor
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.
I actually wasn't knocking it. I liked it.
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
I distinctly remember seeing a trailer for it two years ago and thinking "Wow, that looks good." About a year later I went to the video store, but I could not find Imposter (little did I know that the film never made it to the theater).
The next trailer I saw was just last month, and it said the movie was "Coming Christmas Day".
Christmas Day came and past, and I never saw any theaters with it. Then I saw the trailer on Tuesday that said it was "Coming January 4th".
Well, after pushing back the release date 3 times it is good to see they finally got it in theaters. I can't wait to watch it.
Not to be pedantic here...but aren't most films enjoyable, as long as you don't expect much from it?
The Curse, and Python notwithstanding, obviously.
This was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Every review except this one seems to agree with me (unfortunately, I didn't read them before going to see it.) I don't expect every sci-fi movie I see to have mind-blowing computer effects, but this movie reeks of the mid-80s. Perhaps it would have been better recieved by the critics if it had been released now. As it is, it looks rather dated and I found the plot being pushed to the back in favor of explosions and hollywood flash. In short, if you HAVE to see this movie, take some funny friends, so at least you can be entertained by their MST3K like comments. Otherwise, go see LOTR again.
Okay, I'm done now.
Carousel is a lie!
I just saw the trailer for Minority Report which looks like a better bet for Philip K Dick fans, despite the presence of both Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. Is it just coincidence that both of these are coming out at the same time?
"Luck is the residue of design" --Branch Rickey
Hmmm.... Maybe it would be better if slashdot had a movie review policy that specified that movie reviews must be written in the most fluent language of the reviewer - like Perl or C++ instead of english.
--jeff
ipv6 is my vpn
> Every review except this one seems to agree
> with me (unfortunately, I didn't read them
> before going to see it.)
I went to see this movie about three weeks ago with a friend who had advance tickets. It was probably the first movie i had seen in years without knowing ANYTHING about it(i didn't know it was a sci-fi movie until i saw the space ships). I had absolutely no expectations of the movie and was surprised by how much i liked it. A couple of the characters are a bit cliched(okay, all of the characters are a bit cliched), but still, it's a good story. I really liked the way the protagonist had done nothing wrong so you sympathize with him, but still the audience is left totally in the dark as to his status and doesn't know whether or not to secretly root for the bad guys.
i don't really have anything bad to say about this movie.
lysergically yours
Other than a massive airtime buy on SciFi (which, given that 80% of their commericials are for their own shows, probably cost about $1.89) and a few other minor cable channels, real-world promotion of this film has been zilch.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
The set was huge, and pretty amazing. They built the entire subway inside two sound stages, along with some sci-fi buildings (the hospital).
Apparently they had distribution problems which prevented its release. We also worked on Evolution, which started filming several months AFTER Impostor finished, but obviously was released a while ago.
While I'm too lazy to go look it up, it should also be noted that this story was also adapted to a 1 hour episode of the Outer Limits.
It was thoroughly enjoyable and was extremely well done. Quite frankly, I was rather skeptical about the chances of it making it as a full-on in-theatre movie.
$0.02 (CDN)
I notice that Blade runner was mentioned alongside aliens as reference to "good" Sci Fi. Blade runner was adapted from another P K Dick story "Do androids dream of electric sheep" When I say adapted I mean that Hollywood removed any meaningful content and replaced it with breasts and explosions. Compared to the painfully detailed social commentary and legendary character depth that the book contains, the movie is the worst pile of crap ever to grace the screen.