SPECTRAL is another Netflix-made movie, this time a sci-fi action flick focusing around a military crew who find themselves battling a war against insurgents in Moldova, of all places. James Badge Dale, who was once a soldier himself in THE PACIFIC, plays an engineer tagging along, eager to test out some new lens technology to battle the titular menace: ghost-like apparitions that kill by touch and are seemingly indestructible.
The first thing that becomes apparent when watching this is how derivative it is ; the military element feels like BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (with ghosts instead of aliens) while there's a debt of inspiration to ALIENS to boot. However, most importantly, this is enjoyable. The action comes thick and fast and the enemy is quite a spooky presence. The heavy use of CGI comes across well and fits with the general look and theme. The characters are a bit underwritten and thus indistinguishable from one another, but for a rollercoaster ride you could do a lot worse these days.
The first thing that becomes apparent when watching this is how derivative it is ; the military element feels like BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (with ghosts instead of aliens) while there's a debt of inspiration to ALIENS to boot. However, most importantly, this is enjoyable. The action comes thick and fast and the enemy is quite a spooky presence. The heavy use of CGI comes across well and fits with the general look and theme. The characters are a bit underwritten and thus indistinguishable from one another, but for a rollercoaster ride you could do a lot worse these days.