Almost great

I wonder if Darabont’s enthusiasm to make a ‘B-movie’ explains why some things in this otherwise well-crafted film are jarringly weak.

Various characters not believing David and his claims to hearing banging noises and witnessing tentacles was daft. They’re in a survival situation surrounded by a strange mist, the military are gearing up, someone has already run into the store claiming something ‘took’ his friend, and everyone is panicked - so why in the hell would anyone with half a brain call David a ‘liar’ or make out that he and others - including other clearly reasonable people - are playing a prank..?

Secondly, the effects are choppy. Sometimes they’re OK and occasionally impressive but for the most part this is very mediocre CGI which hasn’t been composited well into the live action. I would have taken a more retrained approach - things like reeling back a blood covered rope attached to a severed waist was really effective, as was the giant skyscraper sized ‘bug’ at the end, but close up monsters in manic action scenes didn’t convince. I’d have had fewer bug scenes and spent more on getting them to look perfect.

Finally, the ending. It’s a great idea but just doesn’t convince. Those characters would not have given up like that - they’re clear headed survivors who had already escaped against the odds, it doesn’t make sense for them to do anything other than drive to the nearest gas station, fill up, and keep going until they clear the mist.

Instead, they run out of gas - a problem any mong could have foreseen - then they give up and opt for suicide before they’d even made an effort. This would be fine had these characters been set up as low IQ defeatists but they were the exact opposite of that, so it didn’t ring true.

Again, in a cheap old B-movie you can forgive stupidity like this because the whole thing is almost a comedy - but The Mist has very good actors playing serious and believable characters who the audience identify with, so having them suddenly all become retarded together doesn’t work.

This isn’t helped by Thomas Jane’s acting in the final scene. It looks like Darabont is off to the side saying ‘OK now move your eyes around a bit, now wail, now breathe, put the gun in your mouth and pull the trigger several times, now look around again...’ I really like TJ as an actor but he clearly wasn’t up to scratch for portraying extreme emotional states.

Maybe Darabont’s just too good to be making B-movies.