Color Out of Space (2020) Review

"It's just a color."
-Ezra


The Gardner family move to rural Massachusetts to live a quiet life.  That is disrupted when a meteorite with a strange pink glow lands in their yard.  Soon everything in the area begins to chance, including the Gardner's.


What Works:

This is one of the most bats**t insane movies I have ever seen, but it's also one of the most beautiful. The use of color and the visual effects are otherworldly and striking.  I could watch these visuals all day long.

The score is also breathtaking.  Colin Stetson matches the visuals with his music and takes us to another dimension with his work.  I left the DVD menu playing for awhile after the movie ended so I could listen to more of the score.

I love watching Nicolas Cage go off the deep end.  I'm big fan of Cage and I can't pass up a chance to watch him go full Cage.  We definitely get that here.  While his character isn't likable, he's still very entertaining to watch, especially as we get deeper into the madness.

H.P. Lovecraft's work is not easy to translate to film.  His writing deals with madness and things that are beyond human comprehension.  That is much easier to explore in a written medium.  Color Out of Space manages to nail it.  This movie is insane and beyond human comprehension and I felt that the whole way through.  This movie won't be for everyone simply because of the subject matter, but those that can delve into the madness will be rewarded.

Finally, this movie has one of the best 3rd acts I have ever seen.  It's insane and I can't totally describe what happens, but it's one hell of a ride.  It's beautiful, horrific, and shocking.  It's the perfect way to end the film.


What Sucks:

I do think this movie has a few problems with the main characters and the first act.  From the beginning of the film, the Gardner family is a little weird and not all that likable.  When they start changing, it's not as noticeable because they were already weird to begin with.  I think the characters should have been rewritten to be less weird and more relatable, so that when the changes start to happen, there is more of an impact.  

I mentioned that the Gardner family isn't very likable and that does lessen the stakes.  I really didn't care if any of them survived or not because I didn't like them.  If the first act had done a better job of making me care for the characters, it would have made the rest of the film even more impactful.


Verdict:

Color Out of Space is one of the most insane movies I have ever seen with incredible visuals, an amazing score, a fun performance from Cage, one of the best 3rd acts I've ever seen, and it does a good job of translating the source material.  I just wish the characters had been more relatable and likable, but this movie has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

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