Spectral Netflix Movie Review

Spectral (2016)

Spectral - A little bit of Aliens and Ghostbusters.

Watch Spectral on Netflix
Written by: Ian Fried (story), Ian Fried, John Gatins, Jamie Moss, George Nolfi (screenplay)
Directed by: Nic Mathieu
Starring: James Badge Dale, Emily Mortimer, Bruce Greenwood, Clayne Crawford, Max Martini
Rated: PG-13/TV-14

Plot
An engineer and a military team infiltrate a war ravaged city where mysterious phantoms are killing civilians and soldiers.

Verdict
The conclusion leaves a bit to be desired, but it's much better than anticipated. It wraps an action movie with a mystery, creating an enjoyable movie.
Watch it.

Review
It was filmed on location in Budapest, Hungary, relying extensively on practical effects. The trailer gave me an Aliens (1986) vibe, though the ghost aspect could have easily spelled disaster. I approached with cautious anticipation, and this is a solid movie. It owes at least a small debt to Aliens, with a group of soldiers in close quarters fighting a powerful enemy they don't understand. That's the start and stop of the similarities.

The opening scene is a good hook with a spectral anomaly and a death, setting up the mystery and the plot. I don't know why the guy couldn't wait for backup, I guess for the cool factor. This has a few too many slow motion scenes, but it allays my concerns of Netflix movies always being low budget. This has great production values. The spectral beings always looks great and the movie maintains a dark and moody feel.

Soldiers are in a war ravaged city fighting insurgents. We don't get much clarity on that, but it doesn't matter.

Clyne (James Badge Dale) who invented the spectral goggles, in essence a fancy heads up display,  soldiers wear is called to the location to address the "anomaly." While he doesn't understand at first why he had to go to the site, he does once he sees a ghost. Soldiers only see these ghost looking beings with the goggles, and it's not just a glitch. Being the scientist he is, more data is required. He's an outcast, not being a soldier. He's carrying a camera instead of a gun. When he goes into the field, of course the unit gets stranded and has to fight an unseen enemy. These beings are knocking out soldiers left and right, and around every corner are more of them. Don't worry, Clyne MacGyver's some weapons and a spotlight to see the ghosts without goggles because every single pair of goggles was damaged earlier.

Emily Mortimer plays a CIA agent that doesn't seem to have much purpose. She's interested in the ghosts, hoping it's cloaking technology. With what little they've discovered about these spectral beings, Clyne figures out exactly what they are. This science gets more than a little wonky. We're told how these things exist, but it stretches my suspension of disbelief. The ending is almost silly. It's almost a pull a lever and reset everything back to normal type ending. The ending is just too clean and neat. Just like that everything is okay.