Written by Oren Peli or Paranormal Activity fame (also a lackluster movie), the film revolves around a group of 20-somethings vacationing in Europe who decide to go to Chernobyl, in Prypiat, Ukraine, where the biggest nuclear plant disaster in the history of man kind happened in 1986. After walking around the abandoned city for a few hours, they find that their van had been tampered with while they are gone.
Now trapped in the abandoned, radioactive city, they do what all stupid characters in horror movies do. They split up. And, of course, they start dying.
I had a problem with this movie before I even went into it. In the trailer, they make it look like what they're doing is illegal and extremely dangerous. They even call it "extreme tourism". It's not illegal, nor is it extremely dangerous or even that "extreme" (depending on your definition of extreme). In fact, it is so not illegal, dangerous or extreme that they have a website to sign up for tours (With a 100% money back guarantee!).
Book your Tour of Chernobyl and Prypiat here! I hope I can get that as a graduation present. (Mom.... Dad.... No? OK! Moving on!)
I am one of the biggest babies when it comes to doing extreme things (I would never go sky diving or bungee jumping. Or even ride a bike one-handed) and this has been the only thing on my bucket list since they've started doing tours.
But, I was willing to push that aside. So I went in to see it, and they still acted like it was a highly illegal tour. But that is not why I didn't care for this movie.
None of the character seemed important to the filmmaker. They all seemed expendable. It felt as if the filmmaker didn't care about any of them, thus making it nearly impossible for me to care about them. I didn't worry about them when they went missing. I didn't care if they were in any real danger. I didn't care what happened to them. All of the characters felt like supporting characters and the acting wasn't impressive or even believable.
The only great thing about this movie was the scenery. I love abandoned buildings. There are a lot near where I live, and there is something so humbling about them that they just give me a great sense of calm. The scenery and locations in this movie were great, but they didn't have to try to hard with that, since the sets were more or less already created for them.
I could see horror fanatics enjoying this a lot. I know a friend of mine who has a terrible taste in movies and loves horror films loved this movie. But for movie-goers who only like GREAT horror movies, such as myself, you could skip this one if you want.
My Rating: C-
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