MovieChat Forums > Communion (1989) Discussion > Changed my rating of Communion - and why...

Changed my rating of Communion - and why...

posted 14 years ago by jabberttp
3 replies | jump to latest

I've been on an "alien movie" kick of late, having recently seen (in no particular order), Fire In The Sky, Night Skies, Altered, The Forgotten, and Fourth Kind.

All as an adult. As a child, alien movies were the few types of movies that would give me nightmares. I wasn't sure if I'd ever seen Communion before.

Turns out I would've NEVER forgotten this movie. As I was watching it, with most movies I start with a 7 (by default) and adjust upward or downward based upon if there's something I actively like or dislike about it.

As I was watching this, I started with a '10' due to impact, atmosphere (I loved the NY ooze of Christopher Walken and Lindsay Crouse and the 1989 vibe as 1989 was a magical year for me - I just never realized it back then), message, blending of genres, and potential for being memorable to me (kinda like impact, lol).

And I immediately deducted 1 point each for a) a slightly meandering plot/very occasional dragging and b) I personally thought the short "grays" looked stupid/comic and the floating aliens too "undetailed" compared to some of the other movies.

And thus "thought" I rated the movie an '8'. Quite respectable. After "sleeping on it", I decided to read what others said about "Communion" on IMDb (reviews and message board threads), and was surprised to realize I actually rated it a '9'.

I decided "b)" above was a bogus deduction as who the hell am I to think the aliens looked silly if this was a movie really based upon a reputable guy who did NOT just cook these things up for intriguing movie effect?

When I came back, as I'm reading IMDb because I'm more eager to read other's thoughts, have searched Google for Whitley Strieber, and now will probably read all Whitley Strieber novels based upon true (to him) encounters.

Then I looked at my own voting history and looked at the few other movies I rated a '10'. All were due to impact and overall "plot" issues to me.

And I finally gave this movie a '10' as although it still is NOT perfect, uh, it's impact on me actually was as memorably great as the others.

For comparison, here's the other movies I rated a '10' (no flames please), will probably discuss more about Communion as I truly grooved to it:

Falling Down (1993) 10
Hard Candy (2005) 10
Mr. Brooks (2007) 10
Taking Lives (2004) 10
Tape (2001) 10
The Butterfly Effect (2004) 10
Vanilla Sky (2001) 10
Babel (2006) 10

(The only movie above that I was truly shocked when I realized I'd rated it in that lofty '10' category was "Taking Lives". As it didn't pass the impact test as I barely remember what that movie was about - how's that for amnesia impact? But changing that to an '8' or '9' for that? Nah, lol)

[–] kurtangle83 14 years ago

What bugged me watching this was the feeling of beeing lost asking myself "WTF is going on?" during the later part of the movie and the home stretch (I finally gave up and just didn't care anymore to make sense of it when the dancing/shaking hands/magician scene happend). I understand now that this might have been intentional to show how the character was losing it/lost it, but that didn't help my enjoyment of the movie.

To the part of the special effects, lets say it was intentionally done this way (especially seeing as the halloween mask of the alien was more realistic looking than the plastic grays) and that they were just in his mind. The bottom line is I couldn't buy the aliens as serious and the movie wanted to have the cake and eat it aswell with a vague open-ended message left the experience flat.

I don't care about Striebers reputation or that this was written by him based on his experiences. My personal opinion of him or of alien abductions does not cloud my judgement when it comes to movies that are based on those grounds. But if i'm to enjoy a movie and to suspend my disbelief which we all do to some extent in serious movies, it has to either take itself seriously or choose not to which you accept and view it differently. It seems like communion ended up doing both and in the progress lost credibility for me as a viewer.

In the end, Walken was the reason I kept on watching and the reason I was entertained. Maybe that is enough but I can't rate a movie just by a single actors performance. 4 out 10. Which is a shame because this movie could have been really good if it took itself seriously.

[–] ang-son 12 years ago

Fargo?

[–] movie_nazi 10 years ago

You give out 10s too liberally my friend. 10s are reserved for masterpieces and mass appeal. You can also based it on rewatchability. None of those films you listed there deserve a 10 IMO.

My Vote history: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1914996/ratings