‘Arcadian’ Capsule Review: A Solid, Yet Fairly Forgettable Monster Film
From RLJE Films
Capsule Reviews feature a collection of thoughts from Sean Phillips (Math Teacher Movies) on films from recent days, as well as the past year, decade, and beyond.
From Sean Phillips
Arcadian has all of the fundamentals of a stunning monster movie, but then occasionally falters when it tries to be anything but that. There was great suspense in many of the scenes, but the disorientation was often a hindrance more than anything else.
Nic Cage shows off his best moves as an action star, going from strict father to out-of-commission to an ultimate badass that comes in clutch at the end.
Arcadian does a great job showing the various aspects of brotherhood and family with all that responsibility it entails through the backdrop of something more fantastical.
When the film didn’t show its hand by making the monsters a mystery, it was a great way to keep the levels of horror up, but then once the monsters are shown it seems to let the premise of the film down.
Even though the monsters being shown lost a bit of its magic, the actual design of the monsters was absolutely stellar, creative, and never stopped being eye-catching.
There needed to be more from the human element of the story as not much was established with the characters; when they tried to squeeze out emotion it always felt dry.
There were some choices within the plot that were strange and lacked a certain level of reasoning; the film itself suffered a lack of clarity. The story has great potential and will be one that many fans of monster movies will enjoy, but otherwise it was fairly forgettable.
Rating: 3/5
This film is currently available to stream on AMC+.
