Extinction

Really good watch, could watch again, and can recommend. A big fan of Michael Peña ("Ant-Man") and Lizzy Caplan ("Mean Girls"), and while both are (more) traditionally comedic actors, this definitely shows off their range. While the production value is actually quite good, some of the choices at least give a nod to older b movies. The invaders' armor, in particular, looks unnecessarily ridiculous. Almost everything that makes this movie really good though is trapped behind spoiler walls as there is a mystery aspect to the movie: even in the premise.

I tend to give westerns and science fiction a bit more slack before giving up on them, because so many films in those genres are so bad, so I stuck with Extinction, barely. For one thing, I had trouble swallowing the idea that Peter, the guy who later risks his life selflessly, constantly and under extreme duress for his family, would also push his family away in such a cavalier fashion early on because of bad dreams. And in exploring his life and job and friends and — whatever — there wasn’t much of particular interest there either. The big draw is the fact that these nightmares are…