Flatliners (2017) Wasn't Terrible

Dear Visitor,

I finally went to go see FLATLINERS (2017) a couple of weeks ago and I must say that I didn't hate it. Critics have been giving some nasty ratings, even Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 0% rating.

Here's what it's about. Courtney (Ellen Page) is a med student who wants to know what happens to a person after they die. She enlists the help of her classmates Jamie (James Norton) and Sophia (Kiersey Clemons) to stop her heart, record what happens to her brain, and revive her. Fellow classmates Ray (Diego Luna) and Marlo (Nina Dobrev) stumble on what going on and help out. For the ones that actually flatline, they unknowingly bring back past sins that haunted them.

There were some nice jump scares to it, the story wasn't bad, but there was just something missing from it. Here's where I think they dropped the ball on it.

1) The Characters: I didn't care about Courtney, Jamie, or Sophia. The only ones I liked were Ray and Marlo because I liked how they were competitive with each other. I thought they had good chemistry and I would've liked to have seen a more developed love story. The others needed to be fleshed out besides stereotypes like "sheltered bookworm", "man-whore", and "mad scientist driven by dead relative". Also what kind of med students don't know how to resuscitate a person? And what med students have the time and energy to go to raves every night and NOT be hung over the next morning? It's like this was written by a group of old men thinking "What do these damn college kids do nowadays? Party! Well, just make them sloppy drunks!"

2) Kiefer Sutherland: It wasn't his role that bothered me, it was that they didn't do anything with him. This movie wasn't a remake, it was supposed to be a sequel with Kiefer Sutherland's character as the med students' teacher. Instead of making him really part of the plot, he was more of a cameo. You'd think they would tie in his story to the current one. Maybe they could've had him get suspicious about what they were doing and try to stop them or maybe he would've been the one that put the idea in Courtney's head. The point is they had an opportunity and they waved at it as it passed by.

3) Advertising it as a Horror Film: To me this was more of a sci-fi drama. While it had some decent jump scares and some suspense, it wasn't anything close to a horror movie.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this movie. I recommend it, especially when hanging out with friends. I took my niece to go see it, and it was more fun having her sitting next to me. It was also a plus that I got to see Diego Luna shirtless. Ai Papi! That man is gorgeous....

With Love,

M.G.