Alone in the Dark

Having the job as a paranormal investigator seems like a pretty cool way to pay the bills, but as we've all learned from movies, television and video games the decision to follow this profession can come back and bite you on the ass. This movie is another one in a long line of films based on a successful video game by the same name; unfortunately it did not grab the fan base from the game enough to warrant a sequel. Even though Christian Slater in the lead role was half way decent, the film doesn't have enough gusto to keep you completely enthralled and by the time you reach the halfway point your wondering how long this film is going to take.When creatures, which live in the dark, are set loose from a parallel world, a private paranormal investigator and the government's paranormal division, Bureau 713, must fight together to stop them and close the gateway into this world. The action sequences here seem to be dragged out and with the flickering lights in the scenes it gives the impression that they are trying to cover up some bad effects that they don't want you to see. There's not enough character development to really give you a chance to want the characters to survive against the creatures. As the story is going along you begin to wonder just how much of the storyline is truely from the game and how much was developed in the script, because if this is the way the game played out I can't see how it became a success.
There have been some successes over the years with films that have been made out of video games but this isn't one of them. I usually enjoy myself with a movie that has a blend of horror and science fiction in it yet here it seems that the two genres are forced together kicking and screaming and the marriage just doesn't work. So much more could have been done to beef up the story and then in turn expand on the effects that were used, and then maybe, just maybe, the film would have been more enjoyable to watch.