by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer
Arcadian begins with a long, handheld one-shot which puts you right into the thick of it. You can feel the tension, as you never leave the back of Paul (Nicolas Cage). Almost like a third-person point of view in a video game. We are not given any indication of what he is running from, but we get glimpses of barbed wire fences and manned guard towers as sirens blare in the distance. Something awful is going on in the city and Paul is frantically trying to get out. He finally returns to a shelter, where we find he fought through a dredged city for supplies to take care of his baby twin sons.
We then fast forward 15 years, and the world hasn’t gotten any friendlier. Paul and his teenage sons, brooding romantic Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and analytical expert Joseph (Jaeden Martell) get to work boarding up the house for the evening to keep out whatever creature was taking over the city in the opening. The boys argue and fight before Paul’s commanding presence puts them back in their seats. They all seem to have a mantra: “Are we not men?” which provides us all the history we need to know. The father rules the land and they make sure to respect his rules.
As the evening goes on, we learn that Joseph keeps data on the creatures, for instance how they try to break in, while Thomas makes fun of him. But fret not, Thomas gets a little bit of a character too: He seems obsessed with going to a neighboring farm just to be around his love interest, Charlotte (Sadie Soverall). Sadly, their romance is not fleshed out, so the chemistry is a bit off.
It doesn’t take long for Thomas’ heart to lead him to make bad choices. He finds himself abandoning orders, which causes him to get stuck in a cavern as he is running home. Once Paul learns from Joseph that Thomas is missing, we can see exactly why the boys respect Paul so much. In a lesser movie, this has a chance to let the character show anger at the wrong person, but that’s not what Paul does. It is refreshing to see characters act like humans. Even when he finally finds Thomas, Paul doesn’t yell or berate his son; he checks up on him and gets right to work.
The music choice towards the beginning is more whimsical and inviting, maybe even uplifting. It kind of lulled me into thinking this movie was using the creature invasion as more of a backdrop to tell the story. I was not expecting the climax to turn into a survival flick with edge-of-your-seat horror. In the early stages of the film, it seems that these creatures are going to just be something the characters have to work around to live their lives. Maybe the sudden change of story is on purpose, but if so, it didn’t hit me right.
I am also left questioning the world more than I would like. I understand that this movie isn’t a full full-fledged monster movie, but I do need to know a bit more about the world. These things (they aren’t given a name, which also feels lazy) are easily killed with a shotgun. How did they take over major cities? Surely any structured military can eliminate this threat before they cause an apocalypse.
The cinematography is the real selling point of Arcadian. Long shots and minimal cuts help keep the viewers invested. But other than some really pretty shots, it is hard to give this movie any real praise. And almost as bad, there is not a to to knock it for either. It is just a movie through and through.
Arcadian offers some intrigue and tension with some fine performances and great cinematography. But its story is full of inconsistencies that distract from the themes of letting go and growing up. The world is underdeveloped, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the story stayed focused on the characters, rather than turning to action the last 20 minutes. I didn’t exactly have a bad time watching it, but I’m left scratching my head about what genre it’s aiming for.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
Arcadian is currently available on VOD
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