In the Shadow of the Moon (film): It's just OK

This was another one of those films that was basically forced upon those of us that have a Netflix membership because it was constantly featured at the top of the list. I made a promise a year ago that I would watch anything that Netflix recommends to me and seeing as how many of the "recommended" films have been dog crap, this one actually isn't that bad. However, it also isn't that great.

As always I am going to try to avoid spoilers but I may slip up a bit. If you want to watch this movie "blind," you may wish to skip this

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It starts out looking like a cop film as we focus on street cop Thomas Lockhart (played decently by Boyd Holbrook) as he believes he has the key to solving a string over murders where the victims begin to bleed to death seemingly for no reason. Although he is initially ignored by his superiors, one of which he is related to (Dexter,) he is able to convince them that each of the victims has something not-so-obvious in common.

They are able to track down the perpetrator and upon cornering her in a subway tunnel, the assailant knows intimate details of Officer Lockhart that a stranger couldn't possibly know. She then disappears (well, not really but i am trying to not spoil - this is all in the trailer so get off my case about spoilers :P )

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Fast forward 9 years and a now detective Lockhart is investigating a very similar string of murders. Despite the fact that it is obvious we are dealing with the same criminal enterprise, his superiors ignore him and this part of the film is actually kind of dumb. It is just so painfully clear that Lockhart is right and this is something that continues throughout the film that becomes pretty annoying pretty fast.

This is where the film kind of starts to frustrate what I would perceive to be a majority of the potential audience. There are various twists that take place during what is meant to be a 40-year span in the film. The twists aren't really shocking, to be honest they are a bit "meh." Plus it kind of takes a while for them to "get on with it already" and instead we are sentenced to 20 minutes of bickering between police members before something meaningful finally happens.

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_{I'll give credit where it is due - the appearances of the characters over the course of 40 years changes almost perfectly and is believable}

They also resort to "internal monologue" provided by Detective Lockhart (and later other characters) which I would have preferred if they had just shown us. It seems lazy. Also, the fact that science fiction is introduced (and I admit that it is necessary as it is central to the story) results in a lot of the happenings to end up more confusing than they are entertaining.

I think a bigger budget probably could have turned this rather "meh" film into something great. However, I would imagine that most studios are reluctant to gamble on sci-fi since it does seem to carry with it a far greater risk than other genres. Overall, i found it to be a bit of a "my superiors don't believe me but i am right!" cliche of a film and the story jumps so much that it can be a bit difficult to follow... sadly, at the end, even if you did manage to track what the eff is going on, by the time you figure it out it a bit of an eye-rolling experience that isn't really all that surprising.

I suppose if you dig sci-fi that this one is worth watching. I'm not unhappy i watched it, I was just a bit underwhelmed.

My Rating?