Movie: Pulse
Synopsis:
When their computer hacker friend accidentally channels a mysterious wireless signal, a group of co-eds rally to stop a terrifying evil from taking over the world.
Release Date: August 11, 2006
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Writer: Wes Craven
Ray Wright
Director: Jim Sonzero
Star Cast:
Kristen Bell
Ian Somerhalder
Christina Milian
Rick Gonzalez
Zach Grenier
This movie looks promising from the start when you see Wes Craven had a hand in it. Well don’t run out right this second and buy it just because of that. Pulse that I’m reviewing is the American remake of the Japanese version of the same name. Let’s just say the Japanese version has a 74% on Rotton Tomatoes and the American version is an 11%. Anyways let’s jump into this review as this is about my opinion not Rotten Tomatoes. I will say I have not seen the Japanese version but maybe one day I will.
Like I said before you see Wes Craven and actress Kristen Bell and think this movie has real potential. Which it does but the execution is not there. This movie was made in 2006 back when Facebook first went public and cell phones were on the rise. People still had home phones with voice mail but the first tweet was sent out. The movie uses this rising technology of phones and WiFi to put fear into the viewing audience. In 2006 this probably scared a bunch of people as the technology was newer but in today’s age people get into cars with strangers using an app.
When I started watching the movie I thought oh yeah Kristen Bell is in this and I like her as an actress. Then when Rick Gonzalez’s character came on the screen I thought hey that’s Rene from the Arrow TV show. On top of that when I saw the character Tim I thought he looks familiar and when I looked it up later I realized he’s on the DC Daily show on DC Universe. The acting is not great in this movie though. Even Kristen Bell’s performance is lacking and you know she can do great. The characters feel like they’re there just for a body count and you really know nothing about them. One of the things that confuses me about the kills is one of them a guy gets sucked into a wall and turns into ash and then a girl just turns into ash and they fly away. Different ghost do different things? I don’t know but the kills are boring.
At the end of it all society is rebuilding outside of WiFi and cell phone coverage areas because those are owned by the ghosts. Why don’t you just nuke the cellular towers? Another of this movies flaws is it tells you nothing and just kind of sleep walks through the hour and half length of time. This movie is very dark and gloomy but not scary. Maybe borderline depressing.
Like I said I haven’t see the Japanese version so I don’t have anything to compare it to but I need to go find it. Pulse went on to spawn two sequels but I haven’t see those either. I give this version a two out of five. Thanks for reading!
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