Midnight Special (Warner Bros. Pictures) [DVD/Blu-Ray Review]

Midnight Special is the journey of a father on the run to protect his son, who has supernatural powers that no one can quite comprehend. Running from a religious cult and local law enforcement, the chase soon involves the Federal Government, all trying to find out exactly what this child knows, and what all he can do.

From the plot description, this movie sounds intriguing, especially with a cast that includes Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, and Sam Shepard. Unfortunately, for me, this movie fell flat in quite a few areas. First, I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but the audio in most of the film is very uneven so when you turn it up to hear a conversation, you’re sure to be taken aback and/or watch your speakers blow out from a sudden dramatic sound effect or music burst.

Second, there are a lot of plot holes in this movie. Again, I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but the storyline jumped around to a lot, for example, characters suddenly accompanying the main character with no explanation as to why they’re even there (despite being asked by other characters) and many plot points simply didn’t make sense within the rest of the film. However, if you go into the special features on the disk, you get to see the origin stories for all the main characters in the film, and a bit more in-depth into what happens later on in the story.

Despite its interesting moments, Midnight Special missed the mark for me in terms of being touted as a genre-defying, sci-fi thriller. But see it and judge for yourself!

Director: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Jaeden Martell, Sam Shepard
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures (Worldwide), Entertainment One (United Kingdom)
Release Date: February 12, 2016 (Berlin), March 18, 2016 (United States)
Run Time: 112 minutes