Okay, it’s really my fault for falling in love too early. It’s not like the previews for The Mist made any promises that it didn’t deliver; and when a director seemingly born to the task delivers the goods for more than half the time, that ought to be enough, right? What sort of percentage am I looking for?. I really, really wanted to come away from this having loved it the way I dine out – without reservations – but such would not be the case. There are just a few things I need to mention, and I’m afraid it’s going to be like a dead guys fridge…with lots of spoilers
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Last chance to turn back
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Okay, the good:
The acting was uniformly great. Thomas Jane gets better with every film, and he really shined in a role that doesn’t offer the usual leading man heroics that these films usually provide for their leading men (especially in horror pictures). Toby Jones, whose Capote I really didn’t enjoy the company of, made what should have been a bizarre casting choice seem natural as can be. And the digital photography was excellent – was this Darabont’s first time shooting like this? – like Zodiac, I think that the slightly bland look worked in favor of the story.**** I also loved the second two creature attack set pieces (inside the market and at the pharmacy).
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Last chance to turn back
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Okay, the good:
The acting was uniformly great. Thomas Jane gets better with every film, and he really shined in a role that doesn’t offer the usual leading man heroics that these films usually provide for their leading men (especially in horror pictures). Toby Jones, whose Capote I really didn’t enjoy the company of, made what should have been a bizarre casting choice seem natural as can be. And the digital photography was excellent – was this Darabont’s first time shooting like this? – like Zodiac, I think that the slightly bland look worked in favor of the story.**** I also loved the second two creature attack set pieces (inside the market and at the pharmacy).
The not so good:
If I remember correctly, the page-to-movie minute ratio is about 1:1, and even with Darabont’s tacked on ending (more on that later) this picture should have been about 20 minutes shorter. "The Mist" was a lean short story and should have been a mean little film – not bloated and slow moving, not even for a few minutes. Take the bit after the group returns from the pharmacy for example; Darabont allows the pace to really go slack at the exact moment in should have shifted to 5th gear straight through to the end. There was also way too much of an emphasis on Mrs. Carmody. After the 12th time the movie has to come to a halt to allow for one of her moments of religious mania, she goes from an annoying character to just plain annoying (and don’t think I didn’t notice the milk bit, Frank – remember what I told you back in October). And with the money they saved on film stock, couldn’t the effects budget have been boosted a bit? I like the Sam Arkoff spirit of the bug attack within the market, but the first creature attack in the loading dock is strictly Sci-Fi Channel Original stuff
The really bad:
Stop explaining everything! I don’t know how big a role Project Arrowhead played in the story (if any) but I really, really didn’t need the origin of the mist explained in such an unexciting, rote way. The more you explain something like this, the less scary it becomes – period. And (deep breath) what a hateful, hateful ending. I can already tell that criticizing this will bring out the “Oh, so you only like happy endings, huh?” reaction, but let me point out several places where it should have ended:
1. As Jane’s car leaves the parking lot. (“So long! Enjoy all that dog food!”)
2. The car just disappearing into the mist on the road after leaving his webbed-in house
3. Right after the huge whatever passes over the highway.
And, if you absolutely, positively need to have some “meaningful” downer of an ending, have Jane close the car door and walk into the mist while still yelling and crying. What comes after that is the most cynical, f*** you, Charlie ending that I’ve seen in a long time. It would have been one thing if this had been King’s ending and Darabont had been stuck with it, but to have made it up from whole cloth?
No sale, Ollie.
**** - It has been brought to my attention (thank you, Jeffrey) that according to Wikipedia, The Mist was intended to be shot on digital video, but switched to a grainy Fuji film stock instead. To me, this film looks more digital than digital; I've seen the kind of grain you get from 35mm and the kind you get from video, and I still say that at least some of this movie (1st loading bay scene, in particular) was digital. Why one would bother spending the time and money that it takes (even for the TV crew that was used here) to shoot on a film stock that will wind up looking like a format that would have been easier and cheaper to shoot on in the first place is lost on me. Maybe my theater had crummy projection, but their print was only a day old.
Kind of makes you go "Hmmmm", right, Arsenio?
