I can understand if some give Arcadian (2024) a lower score than 7 and I would agree that this was probably not a movie for Theaters although for streaming directly, the audience and critics were decided on this movie depending from what point of view you look at it, action, drama, monsters, script but on both sides there are less than 100 votes so for me this was a must watch to figure out what went wrong or if they just pissing on the rating, Nicolas Cage is one of my favorite actors, I just mention it this morning on a thread about the movie The Rock; so it there was no harm if I watch it.
Arcadia (2024) develops on a polluted world, post apocalyptic, every man safe himself situation where a man name Paul takes care of two child, it is assume this are his son but how they got there its unknown to me since there is no back story, I think Arcadia even needs a second movie, a prequel, similar to whats happening with A Quiet Place, I bet people are intrigue to figure out how everything started and why the hell Paul goes out scavenging for supplies and leave two child inside a open garage in the wild to then come running home as fast as he could not only on a race against the sunset before the monsters came out but fast enough to figure out what happen to this two babies.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22939186/
- Platform: Theaters
- Release: April 12, 2024
Arcadian (2024) starts with a man named Paul, as in any other post apocalyptic world he has to go out for supplies, what ever he finds laying around that can suit his needs, medicine, food, wood, tools, even if that means take form others, thats just the way to survive in the wild, at this point in time there is no moral grounds for many, there is not what is wrong or right just to stay alive.
What actually push him the most to this side of the scale, staying alive; he has two kids, two baby he leaves alone, in an open garage on the floor, crying, probably hungry or cold while he go look for supplies, he needs to come back fast enough before something happens to them or the sun goes down and the monsters come out of their caves.
Same as there is no background to how Paul got this two baby, are they really his? found them? were given to him? same thing happens when they grew up, in a couple of scenes now Paul is older so are the once babies. The is Joseph and Paul, from their look same age, still kids, who have grown on the countryside far away from what is left of society, water, earth and air are polluted, at the same time some kind of monsters wonder around only after the sun goes down.
It is unknown to them how this monsters came to be, I didn't want to spoil their looks but did a thread about it this morning, this monsters are something else, look like werewolf but has a horse face with nails over a meter long that they cant extend, when they are ready to attack start clapping their jaws make a very loud noise.
Out of the two brothers Joseph come to be the smart one while Thomas is the brave one, the monsters go out every night so all windows and doors are close and reinforce but that does not mean they wont try to get in until one day Joseph understood they getting smarter, now they would test the door to get in and then attempt a second try but this time for real, based on his analysis I would guess before they would try once but for longer period without understanding the situation or expressing his feeling, a third attempt was just one single bang expressing frustration just as any other human, but does this means this monsters were once humans?
There is farm Thomas visits every day on foot and comes back running before the sun goes down, it was no rocket science to imagine why, women right, always men weak link, young Thomas experience his first love with the daughter of Rose Farm owner, her name is Charlotte a very brave and smart girl. It seems during the day is all calm with no worries like in fact this monsters are hurt by light, my first impression was always that they can go underground with their very long and strong nails like a mole in the wild. There is nothing special about the story but even though it seems very simple I find the acting and script very smooth, Joseph kept saying he is tired of hiding and starts to work on a plan to capture a monster, he wants to study them, I might assume he think this monsters came from humans some how and are evolving.
Young heart Thomas usually takes too many risks, he is in love and its totally normal behavior for men to act like this for a women, irrational. Its here when every goes south for him, Joseph and Paul after one day Thomas and Joseph were send to the river side to scavenge materials to reinforce their house but Thomas decided to split ways and spend time with Charlotte, on his way back he falls into a cave this force his father to go after him while Joseph did not actually stay safe necessarily he throw himself as bait to catch one of this monsters so we got two intense scenes running at the same time that end with Paul heavily hurt after fighting monsters while getting Joseph back, to make things worst young Thomas had to figure out how the world really works when trying to help for his injure father.
As you can tell from the events on this movie its not complicated at all and very predictable but its the actors who made it special for me, Nicolas Cage has this ability to show himself as an old men and in a some way tired probably from all those days running around to bring supplies for the babies always in a race against time. Thomas not so hard to play probably, very naive and excited about life but Joseph in the other hand felt always awkward, he is different than others. A very short movie with only 1 hour 32 minutes of screen time, even though they skip how Paul got the babies and then spiking how they grew up it doesn't felt crunch at all, the entire movie only fit about two to three days of story so its a very short one with very few characters to develop their stories, in fact Thomas story is the one that is develop a bit more than the rest, its like Joseph, Thomas and their father Paul are a single character, I guess this movie will only be appealing for those who like the entire post apocalyptic world and throw monsters in the mix, this is not a movie full of action or a long survivor story, its simple, quick, throws a few jabs with a final big punch.
