The idea is rich, but the signal is weak. The big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Cell’ arrives in UK cinemas this week, but one can expect the reception to be weaker than hoped for…
There’s plenty of times when we quietly wish that the ever-useful cell phone was no more. Yes, they prove their practical worth in everyday life, but a trilling ring-tone or their ability to interfere with more face-to-face communication and ever-held to people’s ears is a 21st century phenomena and an emoji-laden nightmare when relied upon too much. Stephen King’s original novel takes the idea of that technology suddenly being used against us.
Clay Riddell’s (John Cusack) plane has just landed as he heads home to his estranged family with the good news that he’s landed a graphic novel deal after years of struggle. But suddenly chaos erupts… everyone and anyone in the immediate vicinity who’s using a mobile phone is hit by an electronic pulse and Clay finds himself surrounded by people who are now little more than rabid animals, attacking each other and anything that moves. He manages to get away, but quickly learns this isn’t a local problem – something has happened on a national, maybe global scale.
Determined to get back to his wife and son, but unable to contact them for fear of what that call might inflict on him or them, he finds himself accompanied by other ‘survivors’ such as Samuel L Jackson’s distrusting Tom McCourt and a young teenager, Alice (Isabelle Fuhrman). But can they discover what evil has caused the devastation to humanity and defeat it – or is it merely a matter of surviving this new normal?
Beyond an impressively kinetic beginning and a potentially rich premise of a staple of modern technology suddenly being turned against us, the film quickly devolves into sub-Walking Dead territory: essentially a disparate group of people thrown together by a sudden apocalyptic turn of events and trying to find their way through a familiar landscape now twisted with new dangers… and people who will try to rip them apart at a moment’s notice. It takes a raft of familiar tropes and sci-fi cliches and hopes that the direction and star-power will fill in the gaps. But after six years and more of zombie-fighters Rick Grimes and Co, even the likes of the often reliable Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack can’t lift the film beyond its initial basic idea and give it any sense of real direction. It’s the sort of film that would vanish into the bargain-bin of similar low-budget fare if it had been populated by less familiar faces. While the film takes some of its beats from the original and more nuanced Stephen King book, the film (clearly given the greenlight on the back of the undead’s multimedia popularity) doesn’t know how to align them to give any sense of momentum. ‘Where’s this going?‘ thinks the audience. Almost literally around in circles, it appears, by the time the credits roll.
But after such a meandering, the real problem with the film is that – without giving away certain specifics – it suffers from that infamous malady of not having a satisfying third act. Or rather it does… but it takes such a hand-brake, from ‘TWD’ to ‘WTF?’ turn in its closing minutes that there’s a decent chance you will be left staring at the screen and wondering if the director accidentally hit the ‘alternative ending’ option when he got bored. The book’s climax is ambiguous, however the film’s denouement – while visually interesting – makes no sense, trying to be all things and emerging as none. In hindsight it’s really not hard to see why the film, made over two years ago, wasn’t rushed out and is now getting a decidedly limited release.
King’s work on the page remains impressive and interesting – especially when it takes the mundane and makes it magic – however,once again, they fail to make the jump to the screen with the same dark passion – a shame as King was involved in this screenplay. This latest attempt is not wholesale horrible, there are genuine moments when it threatens to get its pulse back, but ultimately it’s all too much of a derivative dirge and a missed messaged opportunity…
6/10
‘Cell’ was released in the US in June and is released by Signature Entertainment in the UK on 26th August.
