Studio: RLJE Films/Shudder
Director: Benjamin Brewer
Writer: Mike Nilon
Producer: Braxton Pope, Nicolas Cage, Mike Nilon, Arianne Fraser, Delphine Perrier, David M. Wulf
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, Sadie Soverall
Review Score:
Summary:
In a post-apocalyptic setting overrun by deadly creatures that thrive in darkness, fraternal twin brothers must reconcile their differences to save their father's life.
Review:
Now that he's past the peak of more down-to-earth parts in prestige films that attract the eyes of award show voters, Nicolas Cage has hit the second slope in his eclectic career where the offbeat persona he's built both onscreen and off best suits him for weirdo roles in weirdo movies. At this point, fans who lap up the crazy carnage left in the wake of his scenery-swallowing performances would probably prefer to see Cage continue creating kooks like an outrageously over-the-top Dracula or a mute janitor battling demonic robots than a dramatically depressed alcoholic ever again.
That's why it's strange that producers offered, and Cage accepted, the plainly pedestrian part he plays in "Arcadian." In the movie, Cage features (he may be top-billed, but it'd be misleading to say he "stars" since he has less screentime than the names that appear after his) as Paul, an ordinary single father struggling to survive with his teenage sons Joseph and Thomas in a post-apocalyptic landscape whose budget limits it to looking like a dairy farm you'd find on any road trip in just about any country. Paul's meager minutes and white bread characterization don't afford Cage any opportunities to do anything extraordinary, or to do anything anyone with a SAG card couldn't do just as sufficiently, making it a truly baffling choice to cast Cage for any reason other than some fleeting name recognition.
In "Arcadian's" world, it's been 15 years since an undisclosed and apparently unknown event caused chaos by releasing deadly creatures that come out at night. Various characters float various theories regarding what happened. Joseph wonders if pollution made monsters to cleanse the world by making humans extinct. Thomas half-seriously speculates that a purple haze turned people into feral wolves. Thomas's girlfriend, um, Charlotte (never a good sign when I have to look up a forgotten character name even though the TV screen is still warm), thinks insects spread an infection and machines took over.
This is the film telling the audience that the background isn't important, only the backdrop matters. And against that backdrop, we get a "day in the life" of post-doomsday activities that illustrate the most mundane everyday events imaginable.
Paul mostly reminds his boys not to bicker. When he's not tinkering with his mechanical inventions, Joseph passes the time replaying historic chess matches by himself. Thomas puts in work at the ranch run by Charlotte's parents. That's where we see sheep in the fields, water pumped into buckets, and other yawn-worthy clips of B-roll that make viewers wonder if they're still watching a supposed thriller, or if they've somehow stumbled upon a Travel Channel show about countryside living.
This is also roughly the time when Cage's character goes on ice for most of the movie's remaining duration, and viewers realize the hook of Nic Cage fighting terrifying beasts in a Walking Dead wasteland was merely a lure to pin people into a routine indie that's really a stripped-down drama about two brothers reconciling their differences. Even when they face dire circumstances, such as having to rush their gravely wounded father to safety, the melancholy piano accompaniment sounds like something out of an arthouse romance rather than music meant to heighten the tension of a suspenseful situation.
By the time "Arcadian" arrives at its frantic finale, there's been too little intrigue and too much focus on familial interactions to invest any excitement in the animalistic action or firefights. Neither scary enough to qualify as a full fight film, nor original enough to engage with anything more than passive attention, "Arcadian" is a filler movie few people are likely to remember in 10 years. Maybe even in 10 minutes.
Review Score: 50
“Kraven the Hunter” might as well be renamed “Kraven the Explainer,” as it’s much more of an unnecessarily tedious origin story than an action-intensive adventure.