MAJIC is an okay thriller in the style of the TV show The X-Files that is somewhat successful in what I think was its aim: to create a reality-bending movie. Kind of. To be completely honest, I had to start this one twice I wasn’t hooked by the opening, which is a bit like an extended version of the X scene from JFK (after a short Vlog from the main character). The actors are fine, but I couldn’t help thinking of the scene from Oliver Stone’s movie while watching it. The movie reminded me of a lot of things that I liked a lot better. On the positive side, Richard Fitzpatrick as Anderson was particularly good and worked well with the character Bernwood played by Paula Brancati. As the movie continued, they had some nice moments together as actors and characters which is the strongest point of the film.
One distracting point of the movie is that the lead character is presented as a hard-headed skeptic and atheist who is fairly easily drawn into a conspiracy theory with all the standard bells and space whistles. Grey aliens! Reptilian aliens! Alien abductions! Roswell, New Mexico! After a tiny bit of scoffing, the assumedly intrepid investigator is already on board after a few google searches and a microfiche dive. I didn’t really buy her swift conversion after the presentation of her as a skeptic from a story and character standpoint which is a large flaw.
While I do give the filmmakers credit, they do achieve a nice effect of distorted reality with a sequence in the end that finally makes an ongoing gag with a pen worthwhile, but it’s small in comparison to the amount of time you have given to get to this conclusion. MAJIC is like a retro-fitted TV-style reboot of the X-Files, with a more chipper host of a VLog getting involved in a reality tripping mystery with a subplot about the world’s most annoying agent tacked on. Ibogaine figures into this quantum of annoyance, go figure.
I can’t get suitably worked up or brassed off about the quality of the film to really start throwing punches, so I will just say that you would probably not be terribly angry that you sat through it, but you also won’t feel like you made a cinematic discovery either. It is merely mediocre, not worthy of flaming ire.
MAJIC is directed by Erin Barry, written by Barry and David Pluscauskas and starring Paula Brancati, Richard Fitzpatrick, Debra McGrath, Michael Seater, and Paulino Nunez.
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