Everybody is really sweaty and strung out, but that eventually starts to feel perfectly reasonable under these conditions.
Early on I was worried that all attention to the narrative would fall out of focus and this would turn into a wild spectacle of grisly imagery in the name of experimentation, but there's plenty of plot development packed into the shortened runtime. Along the same lines, I was unsure of how the practical effects would turn out for a low-budget movie…
I like that this was a very faithful adaptation of the book: a lot of the scenery and set pieces looked exactly as I had imagined them. The unrelenting greyness of the world and ashy coating over everything in sight make for unsettling visuals, but it's more so the eerie sense of quiet and isolation that cause anxiety.
But for me, the main detriment to the screenplay was the pacing and the decreased clarity around the timeline of their journey.…
Independent of the themes this movie was apparently trying to tackle, there's hardly anything that sets the film making apart or makes it an effective story. There isn't anything notable about the production and the screenplay is significantly underdeveloped. Most scenes offer no character or plot progression, and are instead just a blunt transition to another scene that needs to happen because the disjointed storyboard demanded it. This sort of Disney-channel storyline would be fine for a kids movie, but…
Despite taking place in the heat of Texas and southern California this movie gives off a lot of cool, contemplative energy. Through Travis' journey the characters take the good with the bad and roll with a lot of changes in a very thoughtful way; everyone matures at least a little bit over the period of time we get to know them. The expansive cinematography gives everyone room to wander, and the reds/blues/greens do even more to calm down any tension, especially in the moody nighttime scenes.
