Flatliners falls short of substantial storyline

LACKLUSTER REBOOT CRITICALLY PANNED

Flatliners, is a remake of the 1990 film of the same title, starring Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton, and Kiersey Clemons. The film is about a group of medical students who want to know what happens after death, so they stop their hearts for a few minutes at a time and are then resuscitated by their peers to share their experiences. Unfortunately, this film fails to deliver in every way.

First of all, no one was clamoring for a Flatliners remake. While the original was already not well-received, it still had something to offer that was enjoyable, mostly because of its all-star cast consisting of Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, and Oliver Platt.

Following in the footsteps of the original, this remake is terrible. Upon release, the film had a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes because there was no initial critics-screening, so few critics saw it. Maybe the percentage will go up as time goes on, but it won’t go up by much.

The plot is almost exactly the same as the original, but has none of the original’s charm. The first film at least had interesting characters with actual problems that the audience could get emotionally connected with This remake tries to turn into a horror movie towards the end, but fails miserably because it is just dull.

The third act is filled with jump scares that will surprise many people but are ultimately unimpressive and unoriginal. All of the characters are two-dimensional and uninteresting. Nothing that happens during their near-death experiences is entertaining and everything that happens after they come back is not worth watching either.

All of the actors in this movie perform just fine, but none of them are used well. It seemed as if everyone knew what kind of movie they were making and just decided to phone it in.

Flatliners is an awful movie that no one will enjoy. The directing isn’t bad, but the writing is. It is just a dull, lifeless movie that no one should see.