The Divide

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

The best part of the film was the pre-credit opening. Once you're trapped in the fallout shelter with these "characters" the film becomes a mess.

I'm a real sucker for nuclear fallout and post-apocolyptic survival films so I just HAD to see this one and while it offers some nice ideas it never attempts to explain or develop any of the ones I actually cared about.

Instead of being worried about the bigger picture things, the nuclear war, who attacked them, what is going on up on the surface, who are the evil dudes in suits, what are these experiments they are doing, why are they kidnapping people, how will the the inevitable final girl survive once she escapes, etc. it instead chooses to focus on the much more budgetary friendly group dynamic and the characters decent into madness. I'm fine with that, in fact I usually really enjoy that and expected it but it just never clicked.

I think the biggest problem is the huge jumps in behaviour that happen. Sure you expect things to fall apart and descend into Lord of the Flies territory but this film has absolutely no grace or subtlety about it. It rushes to get there and then tries to exploit it as much as it can, but unfortunately all this shocking behaviour just comes off as laughable.

You can't really blame the actors, who are obviously giving it their all trying desperately to convince you but never managing to rise above the material.

While it has some nice ideas, overall it's not successful for me. The trailer has pretty much the whole opening, that's all you really need to see.