Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes, and clips and puts it all in perspective.
How would you feel if you were kidnapped by a nefarious group of scientists, then experimented on and given awful-looking CGI wings? I'd be really bummed. All those painful moments trapped in a cage, enduring all sorts of anguish, and for what? You don't even get to look cool at the end of it.
These are some really bad-looking wings. It's probably not easy for an actor to nail the whole “This is really happening to me!” thing when nothing is happening and it's all going to be drawn on you in post production. But imagine doing that, and the CGI is so bad that no amount of pretending to have majestic wings will sell it to the audience.
I'm afraid this is what has happened here. This project should be a showcase for these young actors and their stilted line delivery. But it feels more like something shot on your brother's iPhone and then doodled on with Photoshop. I'm not happy about this. James Patterson, whose book series this movie is based upon, deserves better. We all deserve better. When a mutant character flexes their back muscles, sinewy looking, feathery wings should pop out as organically as the day you were born. It should never look like a cable access television Toast effect.
I raise my fists in anger. So what do do about it? Well, as they say in this trailer: “We fight.”