This movie had so much potential but in the end, it was nothing but an unfinished, unexplained, mess with no questions answered & a cheesy, stupid ending.
Imagine this: a normal morning in your everyday big city – taxis, cars, people, etc.. all going about their lives when suddenly, with no warning, a wave of darkness washes over the city wiping away all electrical light as well as daylight instantly – the darkness lets up and everyone is gone, nothing but their clothing from where they once stood, remains.
Who survives? A man working at a movie theater who had a battery powered headlight(Leguizamo). A man who was sleeping near lit candles (Christensen). A woman who had just stepped out to take a smoke break & opened the lighter at the exact second it happened (Newton)..people who were near prevailing light sources when the darkness came.
Now there is a fight for survival against the darkness that seems to be quickly taking over any light left – daylight becomes increasingly scarce w/ night lasting longer & daytime lasting shorter. Batteries used for flashlights keep dying, lasting at first hours on end but quickly dying out after minutes. Nearly all cars are dead – batteries drained. The survivors are trapped in a city (specifically 7th street) that is being taken over by night, a darkness that will take you unless you are surrounded by light.
Sounds interesting, right? I know.. this movie had so much promise which makes the execution so frustrating. I wish someone would have told me going into it not to try and figure out what was happening. With most psychological thrillers or horror films like this, creepy/odd things happen & then in the end, an explanation is given for what happened & why. I kept trying to find clues, piece them together & figure out what the initial darkness was, why it was light vs. dark, why the daylight was getting shorter, why light sources were dying at rapid rates, etc.. & how the darkness had a mind of it’s own since it is shown in the movie that the darkness thinks & has the ability to create fake light sources as well as add in loved ones’ voices to draw the survivors out, thinking they are safe and without warning the light goes out and the person is taken instantly.
…but alas nothing is ever explained. The audience is just supposed to accept what happened as an unexplained disappearance & take it for what it is – so beware – don’t bother trying to piece together what is happening, that is too advanced of a concept for this film.
I want to be clear that this is NOT some high concept, brilliant movie that answers some questions in a vague, thought provoking manner that leaves the audience drawing their own conclusions.. movies like that can be quite interesting. Just b/c this film doesn’t answer questions about what is happening & why, doesn’t magically make it ‘brilliant’ or ‘smart’ – this film is straight forward with a disappearance of a population, a light vs. dark scenario and the explanation that it’s just an unexplained disappearance which isn’t any explanation at all.
3/10 Utter failure – anyone can come up with some crazy concept, the true talent is putting all the parts together to explain the truth behind the mystery or what is really happening & this movie doesn’t even bother. Also, I found it hard to sympathize/care about any of the leads. I didn’t really care if they lived or died (do they even really die? Who knows – again.. what happens to those that disappear was never explained) Also, the movie comes to a halt about 30 minutes in when a place called Sonny’s Bar comes into play – and never really get back to where it was going. Finally, expect the usual problem of characters acting stupidly in this movie – when someone is in need of a light source & is desperate, FIRE come to mind especially when surrounded by alcohol in a bar & there is tons of fuel at their disposal from the cars in the streets – too bad no one could take that mental leap.
Just to be clear, the idea that it’s a reboot or some Adam/Eve scenario which I saw some people trying to sell as answers is NOT an explanation – that is just a potential reason for what happened but still doesn’t answer anything about how it happened. If the people turn into the darkness/shadows when they are taken, then what was the darkness made of when it initially came – it was obviously large & powerful enough to take over everything & wipe out ALL electrical light so what was that? Why light vs. dark? What was going on with Leguizamo’s character’s death? etc…
Also – the Adam/Eve idea based on the boy/girl in the end makes NO sense given the ending of the film. If they road off into the sunset w/ daylight shining upon them, then I might buy that (as a reason for what happened, NOT as an actual explanation as to how it happened) BUT that is not the case. As the boy/girl ride off, the shadows/darkness can be seen taking back over the city w/ night fall coming signaling to the audience that whatever is happening is NOT over. If the girl’s magical flashlight dies – then I am assuming she & the boy will be gone just like everyone else. There was no indication in the end that the occurrence was over so clearly the 2 kids are not the chosen ones so that theory doesn’t work.
by PhantomAgony from United States (IMDB)
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The Rite looked like it would be a mixed bag right from the start. The film seemed to suffer the same fate many other films before it fell victim to and that’s giving away too much of the storyline in the trailers. On top of that, it was a film that revolved around exorcism which is a subject that usually leads to disappointing results. Expectations would lead one to believe that The Rite would have enough momentum to reel you in only to drop the ball during its finale similar to last year’s The Last Exorcism (except hopefully without the appearance of a neon red, glow in the dark fetus). Luckily, the film has a few surprises up its sleeve.
