The Eubanks' "The Signal" plays with its audience in ways acceptable and (mostly) unacceptable. It's dressed up in quite a slick way, with some natural beauty, an interesting-ish "who is the mystery hacker?" start-point, some reasonable looking hi-tech and so on; and it also mixes normal film storytelling with "found footage". But it somehow finds time for an entirely irrelevant first mini-scene, and indeed, though it's not exactly lengthy at 93 minutes including credits, a viewer not possessed with the patience of Job is going to find the fast-forward button a VERY tempting option.
Truly speaking, there is 15 minutes of content here and no amount of special effects or portentous dialogue can disguise the fact that we're left ENDLESSLY hoping for enlightenment and spectacular plot development that does come a little bit in fact ... but by the time it does we've already given up much or most of any hope with which we may have come to or started the film.
Ironically, against that background, we are never fully shown what is going on here, while our characters are forgettable in the extreme. Laurence Fishburne's is the best-known face, but his unwillingness to really help or be nice is EVEN MORE tiresome for the audience than it is for the characters.
No spoilers on plot here at all, and somewhere down the line "The Signal" may indeed have an interesting SHORT story to tell. It might conceivably be described as "cult" sci fi - but to be a member of that cult you're going to need have no more-pressing alternative engagements of any kind whatsoever...
Truly speaking, there is 15 minutes of content here and no amount of special effects or portentous dialogue can disguise the fact that we're left ENDLESSLY hoping for enlightenment and spectacular plot development that does come a little bit in fact ... but by the time it does we've already given up much or most of any hope with which we may have come to or started the film.
Ironically, against that background, we are never fully shown what is going on here, while our characters are forgettable in the extreme. Laurence Fishburne's is the best-known face, but his unwillingness to really help or be nice is EVEN MORE tiresome for the audience than it is for the characters.
No spoilers on plot here at all, and somewhere down the line "The Signal" may indeed have an interesting SHORT story to tell. It might conceivably be described as "cult" sci fi - but to be a member of that cult you're going to need have no more-pressing alternative engagements of any kind whatsoever...