The Shadow Effect (2017)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Part of me was intrigued before watching 'The Shadow Effect'. It sounded interesting with a great concept, but it did look like a not very well made, ridiculous and by the numbers film with not particularly good actors so there was a little apprehension. Saw 'The Shadow Effect' anyway out of curiosity, being intrigued by the idea and having been a lot of low-budget films recently (most not very good to put it lightly). ''The Shadow Effect' managed to be worse than expected, even with mixed expectations. It started off pretty well, giving off the sense that maybe the film won't be bad and be better than it seemed. This didn't stay for long though and it is something of a shame. After the opening, the film went down south catastrophically very quickly and never recovered or improved. Actually got pretty much worse as it progressed. On a visual level, 'The Shadow Effect' looked shoddy. Drab and simplistic, with haphazard editing, far from slick photography and very artificial-looking visuals on the whole.The sound/soundtrack are intrusive and obvious with no variation and the direction has no sense of atmosphere or pacing, nothing to be thrilled by and nothing much engaging.Script is awkward-sounding and ponderous, with lines that do make one cringe. A lot of it is gibberish and juvenile, with a stilted improvisatory feel that shouldn't have made it past draft stages. On top of that, the story goes through the motions with no tension, suspense or thrills, a lot of intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, implausibility and pacing so dull that it makes a reasonably short length much longer. It is very derivative and parts also felt incomplete. The action sequences are more preposterous and by the numbers than they are thrilling or fun, a big problem for a film so heavy on this aspect. The terrible way they look also hinder them.Characters are basically every stereotype in the book it seems and are one-dimensional caricatures with no likeability or development and with the inability to behave logically. The acting is very poor all round, particularly from Cam Gigandet, again showing no acting range of any kind. He and anaemic Jonathan Rhys-Meyers have zero chemistry together and their dialogues have no naturalness or believability whatsoever.In summary, bad film in almost every way. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Just horrible, unimaginative. The writing is bad, the directing and producing is bad. I see why the producers now are trying to get into real estate development, because this movie just bombed. Being from NC I always love watching local film and other artistic productions. I actually feel I'm more generous with a review when the producers are from my home state, but I could barely get through this movie. The action I thought would at least be exciting, but I found myself busting out in laughter.

This is probably the best movie I have ever seen, hands down. The acting was terrific, the twist of the plot was great, and the mystery surrounding the ending of the movie was one of the best I have ever experienced. It kept you on the edge of your seat the entire time, and it had the perfect combination of mystery and scary. Must See

The Shadow Effect suffers from a very weak script. Ideas seem plundered wholesale from other movies where they were executed much more effectively, including The 6th Day, The Manchurian Candidate, A Clockwork Orange, Edge of Tomorrow, Total Recall, The Bride and Universal Soldier. The derivative nature of key plot elements could be forgiven, if they were presented with some sort of original twist or insight which is sadly lacking here. The production was clearly limited by a modest budget, estimated at $4MM; however, some very good films have been done with comparably limited budgets, such as Lone Star and Dinner Rush. The difference is creativity. Plot elements that are not shamelessly misappropriated seem contrived. Some elements are simply missing, such as the lack of response by the FBI, DHS and BAFT, motivation, character arcs and theme. The producers assembled a capable cast and secured a wonderfully rustic cabin in the woods as a location for several key scenes. However, one character is heavily tattooed, which makes no sense relative to a key element in the plot, and it's difficult to imagine how the owner-operators of a rural café with only one employee and not many customers can afford such a home. By contrast, a secret laboratory that would seem to require antiseptic conditions is located in a dingy industrial setting. However, a DTV potboiler doesn't need to be cerebral, provided it delivers the genre basics: fight scenes, chases, gunplay, explosions and sex. The gunplay is a bit hit-or-miss with a few good scenes and shots, but a lot of weapons brandished without being fired and not many impacts. CGI explosions are pretty decent. A car chase and crash is done well for a film of this caliber, but a character steals what seems to be a souped-up vehicle but doesn't drive it. The fight choreography is clumsy. The sex and nudity are self-conscious, although integral to the plot. Whereas similar efforts hobble along with very little plot and a lot of eye candy, TSE offers a lot of plot, but very little eye candy. However, the plot is largely incoherent and derivative and not sufficiently engaging to bridge the gaps between the visuals.