Spectral (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Nic Mathieu
	Actors: Emily Mortimer (Match Point, Harry Brown, Shutter Island), Clayne Crawford, James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3, World War Z), Max Martini (Pacific Rim), Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek 1-2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Action. War
	Conditions of visioning: 09.12.2016, VOD, 32" TV.
Synopsis: Clyne (Dale) has created multi-spectral goggles for the Army. When they reveal some ghost-like images during a conflict in Macedonia, he is called on the field to study the apparitions.
Review: Netflix is not only producing TV-series and Documentaries, now also full-length features like this one. Like for its other productions, I could feel the equations ruling the story. Among the TV-series you feel that Jessica Jones is customized for a female audience, Luke Cage for an Afro-American one... In Spectral you can feel the borrowings from box-office successes: a bit of Edge of Tomorrow, some Aliens, Battle Los Angeles, The Darkest Hour, Final Fantasy, ... and a bunch of actors that you have liked in supporting roles but that don't cost as much as more famous ones. Fortunately the equation is better used than in SyFy productions for example. The budget may be at a different level as well. And good AF / Alien Invasion / War movies are pretty rare, so this one is in fact pleasant to watch. The special effects are very good on the video streamed by Netflix in HD. The story and characters reactions are sometimes far-fetched, which is the main criticism I can tell about Spectral and which may show you that Netflix is young at this exercise, but they hired the right crew. Let's see what they will come up with next.
Rating: 6 /10