Spiderhead

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Gabriel S Director Joseph Kosinski has a modest directing career, that is in terms of releases: debuting with Gears of War: Mad World (IMDb 8.3), short after, the mostly successful Oblivion (IMDb 7), and, looking at his record, seems like he delivers one banger after another. Until Spiderhead, so it seems. Spiderhead builds a heavy premise around its story with the presence of strong leads like Miles Teller and Chris Hemsworth, the promise of a strong film, I mean, why would such talents, stars accept a low-value entry in the industry. To some degree, I felt this film held its ground, but it definitely missed on some aspects, which is interesting considering that George Saunders, the writer of the short story that this film is based on, was an advisor to the screenwriters. Let’s star on a good note. Spiderhead is thrilling and holds your grip. The central plot is smart enough, keeps us hooked to know what will happen in the end with our protagonist, Jeff. Jeff is a cool guy, but we know he is in this prison facility for something bad, at least bad according to him as he keeps punishing himself mentally about the deed. He just wants to get his redemption and be gone, one way or another. A nice protag to root for. The plot is good, gripping. And, here, I need to address the misleading synopsis on IMDb: Jeff does not start questioning his feelings, he questions the experiment itself. The main plot is about this experiment that Dr. Abnesti runs on volunteered convicts to test drugs that affect emotions. Volunteers get privileges on this remote penitentiary called Spiderhead in trade of taking part into increasingly weird experiments. Jeff is cool with this until he starts wondering how far would Abnesti and the Committee Board go with the experiments to get results on a new drug called N-40. Reads like a suspense thriller, but Director Kosinski reasons unknown decided for a corky sci-fi dark humorous thriller. Lighthearted audience should find it entertaining to see Hemsworth play a funny-wannabe villain, but I'm with the audience that like seriousness for the most part — comedic relief is awesome if done right. Things get pretty bizarre, but the film shrugs it off as like yeah, another day, another experiment, amirite? The trailer makes this even clearer. Endurable, but I would have preferred more seriousness. Another detractor relates to the cliches. After the midpoint revelation, the story gets simpler quickly. The way the subplot will merge with the main plot becomes self-evident fast, and neither performance could improve on this obviousness. One plot point by the middle of the movie hints at either missed opportunities or removed content, a huge shame. I was expecting when that point would culminate into a huge problem, because the film showed me that as a fact, but nope, it just gets dismissed, and that happens mainly due to the simplification of the climax and denouement. So, yeah, Spiderhead entertains, it is unique in its cinematography style, and premise is pretty good. The performance is acceptable and recommendable, nothing wrong with this movie on inadmissible levels, it is just not golden; silver, though. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/15/25 Full Review M E Had an amazing start but a truly awful ending Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/12/25 Full Review Kyle M If an experimental drug is conceptually involved, then the directorial grasp should remain firm to avoid succumbing to the haze. Director Joseph Kosinski adapted what led to believe an interesting experiment regarding drugged-impacted reactive emotions suggestibly aim as coping mechanisms, but the disconnected misalignment starts to build up rather routinely in simmering the supposed thrill, affecting the characterization to an extent, albeit impressive performances with Hemsworth’s accented transformation in particular. (B-) Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/16/25 Full Review Terry T Interesting in the beginning. Then it simply drops you on your head. Boring, not believable. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 10/26/24 Full Review Jeffrey P Reveals too much too soon, and without necessary depth or direction it mostly coasts to a basically predictable conclusion. Improves slightly in the second half, but it’s too reminiscent of Ex Machina so it loses most originality points. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/27/24 Full Review Bernd P It's such an interesting premise and translates to contemporary issues such as self driving cars (progress kills sometimes somebody). However, that was mostly a car crash in directing where the tone went from horror over psychological drama to goofy Austin Powers style comedy. That just drained away all credibility of the film. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/29/24 Full Review Read all reviews

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