Flatliners Offers A Flat Plot That Got Lost In The Middle
Remaking an old movie with an expectation to offer a refreshing take is a high risk to take for any filmmakers in the industry. If the original movie was good, then a heap of burden and expectation are already set on your shoulders. However, if the first movie was bad, you got a lot of room for improvement. “Flatliners” first emerged in 1990 starring Kiefer Sutherland as its main star and it’s relatively okay, not too bad but it wasn’t good either. Fast forward to 27 years later, a new movie with the same title came out promising a better take on the sci-fi movie. Some people said that the 2017 version is actually a sequel, rather than a reboot, but it follows the same premise as the old one. It all started out with a medical student named Courtney (Ellen Page) who experienced a near death experience. It leads her to do an experiment that enables her to come back to life after death. Diego Luna (Ray), Nina Dobrev (Marlo), James Norton (Jamie) and Kiersey Clemons (Sophia) one by one underwent this experiment in order to live their lives to the fullest. However, the experiment had a later implication that these five students did not expect, death was looking after them.
Up to this point, this film is on the fence whether they want to be a full blown sci-fi movie or rather horror one. It got confusing since the sci-fi and horror part actually weren’t too strong, so it fell rather flat. Ellen Page’s performance which is usually stunning, could not save the movie from sinking. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who directed a highly successful fantasy movie “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” (2009), he could not give this movie a specific direction. The movie was flat, uninspiring, and did not deliver the intriguing trailer. Moral of the story from this movie is, it gives an opportunity for human to admit their wrongdoings and always know the consequence for the things they have done. Other than that, we recommend you to watch another movie and Rotten Tomatoes is once again being an evil by giving this movie a 5% rating.
Reviewer: Bonifasius Eiji/Editor: Novita Widia
