Abbreviated Entry...
So most of June has been pretty brutal for me schedule-wise. Big Time Life Events™ of close family members (weddings/funerals/reunions) have conspired to make the movie-every-day thing rather difficult. I've still managed to watch one every day, but the end result of everything life has thrown my way is that I'm as exhausted as I've ever been. So to keep my sanity (and this blog going), I'm going to do things a bit differently for a little while - I watched the movies, but rather than the standard entry, I'll just do a little synopsis, a little imdb research, quote some of the reviews (can you do that?) and bounce off of them. Followed up by my general impressions.
Okay, thanks!
Preservation
Preservation is about three people who head out for a nice camping trip - two brothers (Sean and Mike) and Mike's wife Wit. They are heading out to an old nature preserve where the brothers used to hike-around-at/camp-in when they were kids. Unfortunately, the preserve is now closed. But that doesn't stop our campers! Double unfortunately, the grounds are now being watched over by insane people who like to toy with innocent people and then kill them! Will our campers make it out alive? Tune in to find out!
Lack of clear characterization has a big hand to play here. In any movie of this ilk, there has to be a genuine reason for the audience to fear for the safety of these characters... Compare that with Preservation's near-sociopathic leads; hardly people you want to emotionally invest in. Not to mention the fact that Sean (and to an extent Mike) is praised as being a ninja- like expert on the great outdoors, only for that little nugget of information to fall completely flat later on...
-Thanks "Gulfam Ahmed" via imdb
The main characters in Preservation, especially the two brothers, are extremely unlikable. Mike is typical asshole businessman who can't put down his cell phone and ignores his wife, and Sean is likely suffering from some form of PTSD after his tour in the military. He's just unstable and kind of rude - I actually wouldn't have been surprised if *he* ended up being the killer. But at least he's an expert at surviving in the wild, right? And early on in the film, the brothers reminisce about how they were asshole little kids - I'm not sure why you would put that in there. As it stands, you don't really care that they are being hunted by masked psychos, because you have no reason to be on their side.
Well I thought this was a promising film until I found myself shouting at the screen, "Don't turn your back on him", not once, but twice! Really ridiculous and inexplicable behaviour from the protagonists... if you have a selection of guns at your disposal....just shoot him already! And why didn't she just call the police at the end instead of riding off into town, bloodied and injured, on a kid's bicycle? I did actually find it quite entertaining though and rather liked the anti-gun and video game/tech age theme!
-Thanks "angiedaylewis" via imdb
Preservation is the kind of film where you just question things too much. You are not invested enough in the story to give it any leeway, so you find yourself questioning the actions of the characters rather than just going along for the ride.
---------- BIG TIME SPOILERS ----------
It has so much potential too. Why couldn't they focus on the stalkers, have the film from their point of view? When the revaluation of them being nothing more than teenagers is unveiled, it's pretty shocking, and the phone call to one of the stalkers parents is utter genius, and genuinely unsettling.
So it had lots going for it, but it looks like the makers played it safe, and when down the predictable route instead.
-Thanks "FlashCallahan" via imdb
So Preservation has a claim to fame that the crazed killers turn out to be bored teenagers, that text each other instead of talking and play first-person-shooters in their downtime between trying to kill people. It's a novel idea, but ultimately not executed in a satisfying way. The film wants to have it's cake and eat it too - they go extreme by having the kids be the killers, but then get all soft and PC when it comes to offing the kids. You don't even get to see (most of) it! I'm sorry - as I see it, the death of the Big Bad is a pretty important part of these types of movies - just because you have kids as the killers doesn't mean we don't want to see them die.
Sorry if that makes me sound bloodthirsty. And to be fair, you do see a little gore, but there *should* be more.
---------- END SPOILERS ----------
Overall, I was pretty disappointed with Preservation. I didn't like any of the characters, and the story didn't end in a very satisfactory way. Cool masks on the bad guys though. And a good theme song from the Gentleman Losers.
I would not recommend this film.
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