Spectral

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After a series of bizarre field-operation deaths of US infantry in war-torn Moldova, a DARPA researcher, Dr. Mark Cylne, is brought in for consultation regarding certain documented 'anomalies'. A seemingly unstoppable force unrecognizable to the eye is wiping out soldiers en masse, and the Brass desperately requires his expertise. The only situational advantage in the shit storm being certain tech designed by Dr. Clyne, he finds himself immediately integral in the pursuit to understand, and destroy this unknown adversary in this military/sci-fi/monster movie that I consider to be the best original Netflix film I have seen thus far.

I would LOVE to talk more about the plot and how great this story is, and why, but that's not how I roll. I'm not looking to spoil anything, for anyone. Ever.

So, here's what I CAN say...

No bullshit- I thought to myself while watching this flick 'I would totally drop 8~10$ to see this in a theater, and in 3D even', and I reveled in my love and adoration for all that is Netflix as the realization that original out-of-theater release movies were getting really good. I actually watched this as a double-feature in tandem with another Netflix original film that I will talk about very soon...and you're probably waiting for me to elaborate on why I'd enjoy this in 3D/theater presentation, right?

This movie has some really amazing visual elements working very much in its favor; there are a lot of great shots that make wonderful use of depth of field, and there were quite a few times I couldn't help but be SO immersed that I thought aloud 'this would be so sick in 3D on a huge theater screen...'. The way the monsters in the film are rendered alone would ramp up the creepiness factor a lot I believe, as they were multi-layered on screen, and it almost seemed like it had some thrown away ambition to be a large-scale theater/3D release, but was ignorantly discarded.

The cast is aces. Everyone is well-characterized without the cartoonish archetypal 'this is the goofy guy', 'this is the tough girl', 'this I the jock' type stuff you could easily relate a film like Spectral to something like Aliens- which is not entirely incongruous- it's just a touch more down-tempo in terms of character color, and in this movie it works very well.

As for the monster element...that is what made the movie for me. It was fresh, it looked really creepy on screen, and when the curtain drops and you find out...man, I enjoyed every moment of the ride.

So guys, if you enjoy military meets sci-fi with a twist of monster movie and have a Netflix account, you have got to check this one out. I loved it. Hope to see more amazing Netflix originals like this in the future.

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