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Released by: Lionsgate
Released on: July 7th, 2015.
Director: Henry Hobsen
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson
Year: 2015
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The Movie:
Schwarzenegger in a zombie movie - sounds like fun, right? Hmmm…
Something has happened. The cities lay in waste, shambling hordes of the undead not quite omnipresent but certainly common enough. When people get bitten by the zombies that are roaming around, they turn - but not immediately. A key sign, we're told, that they're about to become dangerous is when they show an increased sense of smell.
A teenage girl named Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has run away from home and by doing so, she's been bitten by one of those zombies, someone who was contaminated by whatever virus it is that's caused this way back when. She knows that she doesn't have a lot of time left. While she's trying to figure out what to do, her father Wade (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is driving around in his truck looking for her. He finds her and brings her back home.
The family members know she's been bitten and that her time is limited. They try to carry on, Maggie even goes out with friends like a normal teenage girl would, but even her stepmother Caroline (Joely Richardson) is aware that things aren't going to last this way much longer. You can't fight what's inevitable.
Maggie is well acted. Arnold emotes here and not only that he emotes rather well. You feel for the guy, his situation is dire and his imminent loss is something that anyone who has ever cared for someone else should be able to latch onto. This gives the movie a purpose. The relationships that exist between his character and Breslin's Maggie and Richardson's Caroline are all believable. Everyone here looks the part and acts it too.
Maggie is kinda-sorta well shot. There is definitely an overuse of shaky-cam here that can be a bit irritating once you start to notice it (and can't unsee it) but the compositions are always fine and occasionally even striking. Heck, a few shots are downright gorgeous. The use of sound is also good. Not just the music and the one or two stingers that make the jump scares jumpy but the effects that can often be detected in the background. The people who put this movie together knew what they were doing on a technical level to be sure.
Unfortunately, Maggie is boring. It tugs at our heart strings instead of trying to create tension and it plods along until the finale, which isn't particularly hard to see coming even if it is at least somewhat appropriate. The movie never grabs you. Granted, this is more of a family drama disguised as a zombie movie rather than a straight up horror picture but something… anything… to help keep our attention from waning after the first half hour would have been very welcome. Instead, we get a lot of talk and a lot of sad looking people going about their business and talking and being sad and talking and being sad. It's interesting at first because it's different and we should applaud filmmakers for trying something different because it happens so infrequently with mainstream pictures starring A-list actors like this one does. But different isn't always good. Maggie's a cinematic does of melatonin.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Maggie arrives on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 2.39.1 widescreen and it looks excellent, though quite obviously a whole lot of the color has been intentionally drained out of the image. Shot digitally the image is as pristine as you'd expect it to be while fine detail is consistently impressive. The colors are flat and drab, but this suits the tone of the storyline well though, with nice inky blacks and plenty of muted earth tones and grays used throughout. Skin tones look great, nice and accurate, and there's never any waxiness or smearing. Contrast is solid and aside from a little bit of shimmering here and there, the image is a very strong one.
The only audio option provided is a DTS-HD 5.1 track in English with removable subtitles offered up in English, English SDH and Spanish. The audio is clean, clear and quite detailed. Sound plays a big part in the effectiveness of this movie so be sure to watch it at a good volume. Levels are nicely balanced and there are no problems at all with any hiss or distortion.
Extras, which are plentiful and well produced, start off with a director's commentary that is unfortunately as full as the film. Hobson is interesting enough when he's talking - he offers up some thoughtful insight into the film's look, the use of music, the characters and the themes and he tells some interesting stories about the production itself - but unfortunately he frequently lapses into quite guy mode and has nothing to say. Maybe having someone else onboard here with him would have helped to keep things more engaging.
From there, we get an eighteen minute long featurette called Making Maggie that doesn't break any new ground as far as supplements go but which does at least show off some footage shot on set and offer up a few interviews. The cast and crew, at least the principal ones, get some solo interviews in a separate section: Henry Hobson for eight minutes, writer John Scott III for seven minutes, Schwarzenegger for almost twenty minutes (his input is interesting and worth sitting through), actress Abigail Breslin for seven minutes and actress Joely Richardson for eight minutes. These separate interviews are a bit more in-depth and revealing than the more promotionally oriented featurette.
Rounding out the extras is a single Deleted Scene that runs two minutes, a trailer for the feature, animated menus and chapter selection. Trailers for a few other Lionsgate properties play before the main menu loads and the disc comes bundled with a download code for a digital HD version of the movie. The Blu-ray case fits inside a cardboard slip with cover identical cover art.
The Final Word:
Well, the team behind Maggie gets bonus points for at least trying something new and Lionsgate have given the film a top shelf Blu-ray release, but the movie itself? ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……..
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
