Movie Review for The Unborn (2009)

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The Unborn (2009) [PG-13]
W.I.P. Scale™ Rating: $5.00
| Released on: 1/9/2009 | Running Time: 87 minutes |
| official web site | | preview trailer |
| soundtrackRamin Djawadi - The Unborn (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | | spoiler || 2cOrNot2c |
During or After the Credits: There is someing to see! Check the spoiler for details only if you want to.


Directed by: David S. Goyer (The Invisible)
Written by: David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight)
Unsung Member of the Crew: B Dolly Grip–Scott Thiele

Featured Cast: (where you might remember him/her from)
Odette Yustman (Cloverfield) • Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down) • Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) • Idris Elba (This Christmas ) • Jane Alexander (Feast of Love) • Atticus Shaffer (Hancock) • James Remar (Ratatouille) • Carla Gugino (Righteous Kill)

Advertising this film as having been written by the same guy who wrote The Dark Knight probably wasn’t the best idea. Sometimes, the “done by the same people” stuff sets up expectations for a film that the film may not be able to meet. Such is the case here with The Unborn. The film is one part nonsense, one part where’ve I seen that before, and 10 parts spooky stuff that’s there just to be spooky. That’s 12 parts of a pretty awful film-going experience. David S. Goyer wrote and directed, proving himself to be a better director in this case than a writer because the film really falls apart on the story. The directing isn’t half bad neither is the acting. The cast including Odette Yustman, Cam Gigandet, and Gary Oldman in the leading parts does the best it can do with what they’re given. And what they’re given is a story that wants to be The Grudge, The Ring, and The Eye, all rolled into one carbon-copy, Korean or Japanese evil ghost story. Only the perturbingly preposterous part is that, in this case, the ghost of of an unborn twin baby brother. Yeah, not sure how an unborn baby can have a ghost, but Mr. Goyer centers his entire film around the concept even though it semi-contradicts what you would later find out is really going on if you took the time to see this mostly dreadful film.
...wants to be The Grudge, The Ring, and The Eye, all rolled into one carbon-copy, Korean or Japanese evil ghost story.
The story begins as Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) takes her morning jog. She finds a blue mitten and crazy stuff starts to happen. It's becoming clear to everyone around her that she's acting strangely while she questions her sanity with the weird stuff she's seeing and hearing everything from an evil-looking ghost boy to a dog with it's head on upside down. If anyone can figure out what that has to do with anything? All of this centers on her mother's mysterious time in a mental institution, and if you can keep up with this story, it will all trace back to a time in a German Concentration camp and a massively evil German spirit that wants to be born. Only a skeptical Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman) and her helpful boyfriend Mark Hardigan (Cam Gigandet) will be able to save her from becoming the next vessel for this raging, malevolent spirit.
... needlessly far-fetched.
The special effects are quite good and horribly scary, no doubt. If only the story hadn't been so needlessly far-fetched. Don't expect anything close to the excellence of The Dark Knight, not when it comes to characters, story, well, anything really. This is one of those films to which you sometimes just have to say "no" as much as the poster might say "yes".
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