directed by:
Adam Werth written by: Robert Thompson genre: Action, Horror |
Let the record show I am always up for a movie about the ol' plane crash/deserted island scenario. Also, let the record show that perhaps the worst method I've ever seen to pick up a date is featured in this film, where a dude full-on sits on a woman's lap as "Bermuda Island" prepares for boarding. I'm trying to imagine a way that would ever work, but in terms of it being a realistic attempt by some dude-bro out there, it certainly seems like something they'd try. The flight manifest is fully loaded with questionable characters, to say the least, but as far as my experience goes, every airplane I've ever been on is packed full of the same kind of strange people. Sometimes I wonder if these folks actually exist and live somewhere, or if they're hopping from plane to plane to give us regular schmoes something to talk about when we finally land. Complete with a convicted felon onboard as well, "Bermuda Island" is already steering its way towards trouble long before it even leaves the tarmac.
What I really liked about this trip is that the twists start coming instantly. "Bermuda Island" is one of those films that should have you wondering about which characters you should try and remain attached to because it quickly starts to take out the people you'd think you'd be following along with, leaving you guessing as to who will remain, if anyone, by the time this is all said and done. Establishing its crash scenario by about twenty minutes into the film, "Bermuda Island" ends up being the nightmare travel experience you never want to be a part of - very quickly. But, on the brightest of sides, it's comforting to know those personal floatation devices actually work a whole lot better than it looks like they would. Karens immediately make themselves known and want to speak to the manager. People blame the pilots. Folks need to be rescued and pulled to shore. It's the chaos you'd imagine a plane crash disaster would be, and "Bermuda Island" does a solid job of hustling this early part of its story along, given that the rest of the film still has much more in store for you. There are excellent scenes with the survivors trying to figure out what they're supposed to do by committee, which definitely takes work, even on the greatest of days. Awesome shots of the beach with pieces of the plane they were on strewn about all over the side of the island as well. All-in-all, if they didn't crash there unintentionally, and there was a fridge around with a couple of cold beers in it, you might just mistake this place for paradise because it's visually that beautiful. I liked how much they realized the limitations of their practical experience and how the majority of anything they felt they knew was probably derived from something they once saw on television. While it's fair to say that there's not a ton of time spent on character names or really getting to know the people we're left on this island with, given that there are still quite a few out of the hundreds that were on the original flight, let's be honest – you still hardly know anyone's name by the end of the first season of "Lost" either, and there are definitely different priorities in terms of what needs to be done in those first days of a plane crash. You need your basics…food, water, shelter…all that takes precedence. Overall, I felt like "Bermuda Island" handled things in a fairly logical order that still gave this fictional film enough realism for us to latch onto, which I appreciated. I do think there's a chance that many of the characters we'll find the most interesting tend to be the ones that perish the quickest, and if anything I suppose that this movie might have missed an opportunity or two in that regard. It becomes chaos en masse as it plays on, and in a situation like that, you realize that names aren't really all that necessary. Especially unnecessary when there are creatures roaming around that could tear you limb from limb. I'll fully admit that the creature aspect of "Bermuda Island" wasn't my favorite part of the film, but I get it. It's what this movie aims at becoming as it twists itself into a more fictional version of horror as it plays on. Where I felt like it suffers a bit isn't so much in the aspect of having the creatures added, it's actually in the absence of them.
When the creatures aren't around causing carnage it's like the characters of "Bermuda Island" have been living their lives without 'em all the time and don't even really address the problem at all. It's like they all seem to assume these creatures are never going to come back and don't think twice about 'em. If you ask me if I'm on an island and something eats someone I just spent an hour or two with, I'm probably gonna talk about that something for quite some time, you feel me? I know we can't spend the entire length of the movie on that, but at least a little bit might have made it more realistic in that regard. As it starts to contort its storyline a bit later on, with dimensions of time being distorted and whatnot, you can feel the stretch of "Bermuda Island" trying to do a bit too much instead of dialing in on what it's doing right. In that respect, you start to wonder if a concept like this would be better off being the start of a series of some kind so that we can spend more time with how the story develops. At the beginning, when everything moves quickly, it's an asset to the intensity, but as the movie progresses, we need the extra details to make something as expansive as this idea totally work. I do like the way that it's shot – director Adam Werth has a real gift for how he chooses to shoot each scene, and generally speaking, despite all the blood and carnage at hand, it looks freakin' beautiful. In my opinion, "Bermuda Island" needs a lot more time to live up to the ideas it has, but it did fairly well with the time it does have…gonna meet this one fairly down the middle at three stars out of five. Wanting more to a story certainly isn't always bad; in fact, it means we're all interested. |
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