With all the hype surrounding the big release of Star Trek this week I was very interested in seeing Chris ‘Captain Kirk’ Pine’s next role in ‘Carriers’ and it was a strange film, fascinatingly apocalyptical but drowning in it’s own idea.
Looking into the history of the film it was interesting to see that it was written and directed by Alex and David Pastor and completed and screened way back in 2007 but Paramount put it on the shelf and it’s likely that the rise in fame of Chris Pine is the reason why it’s been finally given it’s release, and worryingly I entered the screening apprehensive that it was shelved due to being rubbish. But fortunately it wasn’t it was an ok film.
The story is of a world devastated by an unknown disease and the survivors struggle to stay alive by trying to avoid it, our heroes of the film brothers Brian (Pine) and Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and two girls Bobby (Piper Perabo) the girlfriend of Brian and Kate (Emily Vancamp) travel together avoiding contact with anyone they come across where possible.
The brothers aim is to reach a beach that they use to visit as kids which is shown in old film footage of the brothers to give a sense of a goal as they try to survive, nothing is going to stop them and they will do anything to get there.
On route they pass an SUV where a father begs for petrol for him and his sick daughter but they flee seeing the disease is evident on the girl, they eventually come to a stop as their car breaks down and knowing they have petrol and the SUV doesn’t they venture back to the SUV and take it, sealing the father and daughter in the rear with plastic sheeting and duct tape as morals dictate you can’t leave a child behind to die. can you.
The film then follows the story of survival and huge moral dilemma’s as situations escalate more and more leaving our characters to have to choose survival or risk putting everyone in jeopardy and it’s the movies strong point asking the characters to make these decisions is harsh and asks you the viewer what would you do in there situation, it’s a brutal lesson of human behaviour.
What I liked about the film apart from the horrific ethical choices that are made are the people our characters meet, all trying to survive or find/believe in a cure and the ones that come to terms with what’s going on are the ones that make the decisions that are completely wrong in a normal world but are justified when in a world like this and where immense pain and suffering are the only alternative to a quick death, but not everyone can except these choices.
The film does seem to forget it’s own rules of how the disease transmits from person to person, at the start of the movie there are rules they follow, no contact with infected, clean everything that was touched by infected and avoid the breath of infected and they do this religiously but later on they seem to forget these rules with no consequence so you lose any fear of the disease which annoyed me.
But there is a great scene of a golf course hotel where they come across a band of guys who are suited in hazmat outfits and have stockpiled supplies and the paranoia and circumstances of this face off is splendid and shows self preservation of the human mind which is what these apocalypse films should be about.
The tense finale at the golf course is gripping and brutally character building that leads to later choices that affect the traveling companions.
I’m currently reading Stephen King’s “The Stand” and it follows the same basic idea of a disease that wipes out most of humanity so this story really struck me, I love these end of world movies where there are few survivors hanging onto the hope of salvation and there has been a few recently with Zombieland and The Road and it’s the Road this has more in common with. No explanation of why or how, it just is and that’s more terrifying than knowing some times.
Overall a reasonably good watch, the moral choices are fascinating but the plot seems to stumble along, it’s best to go in with no expectations and just enjoy the moral choices everyone has to make throughout. It’s a film obviously groping for the “Captain Kirks in it” crowd but it will definitely appeal to a larger audience. It has some nice scares and mentally challenging scenarios and well worth a trip to the cinema.
Overall 6.5 out of 10.
Carriers is out on 11th December.
