Pros:
1.) By the beginning of the film, the tension and suspense are already strong. An invisible man stalking this woman is scary enough, but how they executed it is great. The sound is emphasized since you cannot see him, you might be able to hear him if possible; it also indicates that any sound creates suspense since it is mostly quiet (kind of reminds me of another certain horror film that emphasizes sound). The cinematography has a few shots where you see no one in a room for a few seconds until someone enters the scene, indicating that the Invisible Man is right in this room. The film executed an Invisible Man stalking a woman flawlessly, and it is scary.
2.) While I may not have read The Invisible Man book nor seen the 1933 film, I do know some things about the original Invisible Man, Dr. Griffin (feel free to correct me if I am wrong). Through some scientific discovery, Dr. Griffin manages to turn himself invisible but is unable to reverse the process, and he becomes insane as a result.
I should really watch this film. This 2020 version of the Invisible Man or Adrian Griffin (played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen) may not be the same, but he becomes creepy with how obsessive he is on how he goes after his girlfriend, Cecilia (played by Elisabeth Moss), and ruins her life bit by bit. He watches her wherever she goes, and Cecilia notices something is off to the point where she thought she was going crazy. It is effective in this horror/thriller film, and how he manages to become invisible works well in this current time.
3.) One big thing that really helps is the main character, Cecilia. By the very beginning of the film, you can already sympathize and care with her, especially when she talks about her abusive relationship with Adrian Griffin to her friends. One big contributing factor is her actor. Elisabeth Moss does look like she has been through an abusive relationship, and when she tries to move on from her life, her fears start to get to her. As she is about to her recover, she suddenly feels like she is not alone. Moss turning from scared to calm to cautious to paranoid to miserable is great to watch, and her transformation throughout the film is believable (for the most part).
Cons:
1.) While this is unfortunately necessary, I am a little tired of the “nobody believes me” cliche. It is par for the course considering that Adrian is trying to get Cecilia’s friends to distrust her, but it is a bit of a tiring cliche to watch since this has been done so many times in films about a monster (in this case, an invisible person) that appears only to the main character in convenient areas. It is not really that big of a problem, I am just tired of seeing it personally.
2.) What is a bit of an issue for me is the third act. The first two acts were great with its suspense and thrilling tension of the Invisible Man slowly ruining Cecilia’s life. However, the third act changes from tense to slight action. I kind of expected this since it is the last act, but it kind of ruins the tone of the film when it starts to rely on the action for a bit, resulting in the suspense being a little lackluster. I wish that the film did something to keep that tension from the first two acts while making it exciting in the last, but what we got just did not work tonally speaking.
3.) The biggest problem I had with the film is the twist. No spoilers on what it is, but when it is revealed, I was confused. After thinking about it for a while, I do not think it makes sense, or at the very least, it was not set up properly. It was mentioned briefly in one scene as a setup, but it does not feel earned. It should have been shown, not told. As a result, it kind of ruined the film somewhat, but not as a whole. If it was done better, it would have been one best horror/thriller films ever, but instead, it drags it down.
Overall:
Do you know one Universal Movie Monster that does not get much attention these days? The Invisible Man. Considering the age, we live in with superheroes that can turn invisible. He seems to be irrelevant at this point, but I always want to see an Invisible Man film in the current year considering the other Universal Movie Monsters already have different iterations. With Leigh Whannel (the director, the writer, and the star of the first Saw) writing and directing this film, I could not wait to see what he can do with it, and he does not disappoint for the most part. For the first two acts, the film is fantastic with great tension, acting from the main lead, cinematography, and sound. However, the third act and its twist did not work well since it was not earned. Despite that, this is a tense thrilling film to watch about the Invisible Man stalking this woman by ruining her life. If you like that idea, then you will enjoy this film.
7/10
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