I Think I Got My Signals Crossed: A Look And Review Into The Signal

This movie is about three college students that are trying to expose a hacker named Nomad. The main character Nic Eastman (Brenton Thwaites) is accompanied by his girlfriend Haley Peterson (Olivia Cook) and best friend Jonah Breck (Beau Knapp). The movie starts out that they are on their way to drop off Haley in California, and on a side mission they're going to expose this hacker that almost got them expelled at MIT. Needless to say they find him and a bunch of strange things start to occur. This is when Nic wakes up in a government research facility where he meets Dr. Wallace Damon (Laurence Fishburne). They start a set of interviews to figure out what happened to him and his friends.

This movie does a few things very well. It does keep you interested while putting you in a dumbfounded state. I found myself yelling at the TV screen "where is this going?" It also has some amazing shots the cinematography is excellent. The film does enchant with the scenery displays and the great use of slow-motion. The performance from Laurence Fishburne is great; he always can do mysterious man with a secret with a high level of intensity. As far as a Sci Fi thriller I think it comes through. A few goose bumps showed up right on time during the investigation of the house. They definitely hit the creepy quota with some real nerve-wrecking characters. The house scene which they borrow a little artistic style from Blair Witch has the scariest scene of the movie. Overall i enjoyed the premise and I found this exciting at times, but I think this is where i get my signals crossed

Now the things that hold this back for me is the film doesn't know the direction it wants to go, so instead it goes everywhere for a little bit. The first 20 minutes feels like it doesn't need to be in there. Everything before waking up in the research facility could be removed and you would get the same feel from the movie. Nic and Haley are together, but there breaking up, but then there good again i guess. The whole relationship never grabs your heart strings. Jonah is great, but don't see a whole lot of him. You never feel the cohesiveness of these three best friends, they never sold me their camaraderie and loyalty. My biggest issue was the intelligence tests that they display when it comes to Nic. They have these scenes where they are trying to establish how smart he is. We know he went to MIT and was in some IT field, but they never tell us what, instead they have him writing gibberish underneath a bed. The best part is he always needs Jonah to help him solve everything including plot points. Now Nic has flashbacks of him running through the woods and a river before he had crutches. They never tell you what happened to him, but somehow he can't use his legs and he knows he is wheelchair bound. The whole beginning is full of kernels, but no strings to attach them all. The third act starts to feel like a whole new movie, with great slow motion shots and robot arms. This to me is the best part, but again I cant figure out where the film is headed. Then the underwhelming conclusion comes with weird space techno music that made it feel silly instead of climatic.

I give this movie 2 stars mainly because there is so much content and information that doesn't connect to the overall movie plot. The film sets things up, then moves on, and this is frustrating to me. I want to know more about the history of these characters so I could feel more and connect to their struggle and peril. I would still say it is worth watching, even if it was just for the visuals, and it is thrilling and exciting at times.

I will shortly run through three moments that were baffling confusing and all around crazy.

1. We start the movie at a gas station where Nic see's a boy playing a crane game. He asks the boy what item he is trying to get out of the crane game, then he proceeds to draw on the machine with a marker showing him where to move it. This is the silliest intelligence test ever. First of all, you cant write on things that is not cool, second this doesn't prove you're a genius. Could you imagine writing on your MIT application I excel at the crane game any prize... I can get it.

2. As they are on their way to California Jonah starts making a fuss because the fish tank in the back seat is leaking. You heard correctly, there is a literal fish tank in the back seat with water and fish. This is not how to properly transport fish and it is leaking everywhere. Needless to say these fish did not survive the story.

3. Warning this could be a spoiler. When it is revealed that Nic has robot legs, he is wearing New Balance shoes. This is amazing, so the aliens not only gave him state of the art legs, they thought they better give him some shoes with great ankle support. Might have been the best product placement ever, New balance Aliens number one choice.