#2734
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The message is clear, but not compelling.
The movie is trying to tell, that some achievements are not worth forgoing your soul. Understandable, good point, good moral, but... Why am I not buying it? The guy went with all the crazy stuff happening, accepted them all, even though admitting that something was off, and then... What? Grew consciousness? This is not even a spoiler, because this is such an obvious and on-the-nose outcome. Which does not make sense.
A good person would have walked away earlier. A sane person would probably not have gone to that camp in the first place. But even assuming that circumstances got you there... It did not look like the guy had that much thoughts about things. He almost went with the flow. Some walking simulators have add more personality to the character you play as.
Essentially, I think it fails for similar reasons a lot of Stephen King's adaptations to movies failed. It did not have neither the time, nor finesse to properly build-up the atmosphere and psychology of it all, including what's been happening in Cam's head. If you read King (or other authors as well, really), you probably know that his stories can be somewhat of a slow-burn at times, and even when they are not, they do contain paragraphs of characters spiraling into whatever mental state that we see in the end of the story. The "catch" can also come abruptly, but not without hints before that, that cause doubts, foreshadow things or, at least, make it hit harder, because you grew to like the character(s).
We do not see this in a lot of King's adaptations, and we do not see this in "Him", as well. Granted, it's difficult to translate inner dialogues to the screen, but with "Him" there as no attempt even. It is a pure visuals movie. Looks great, won't argue. Edgy, but great nonetheless. Some weird moments and some weird shots do compel to continue watching, but do not make one care for Cam. Or anyone on the screen.
This is a bit sad, to be honest. I think that if this was made like a TV show with some off-screen narration by Cam, perhaps as him telling the story to someone after the events, with some more focus on feelings and emotions, and not just "we are meatheads"... I can see potential there, especially with the style the movie was shot in. As is - 4/10 I guess.
