Closer to God

2014

Action / Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller

32
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 31% · 18 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 31% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 4.6/10 10 1185 1.2K

clone genetic scientist

Plot summary

A man on the cutting edge of science becomes the first to successfully clone a person, but events unravel when the news leaks out before his team could prepare for what's to come.

Director

Billy Senese Photo
Billy Senese

Top cast

Matthew Carlton Photo
Matthew Carlton as News Expert
Joshua Childs Photo
Joshua Childs as David
Jeremy Childs Photo
Jeremy Childs as Victor
David Chattam Photo
David Chattam as Reporter
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
590.54 MB
1280*534
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 21 min
Seeds ...
1.22 GB
1920*800
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 21 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by phenomynouss 4 / 10

Stupid people do stupid things

Indeed this movie looks and feels low budget, no matter how they try to cover it in a thick veneer of gray and darkness, but that is not this movie's biggest flaw. The clinical tone of the film drew me in instantly, with the implication that the "first ever successfully cloned human", Elizabeth, may have some problems before it can be presented to the public. Unfortunately, this is about as far as the movie goes with its actual plot. The entire rest of the film consists of swarms of ugly Christian fanatics crying and whining about how the doctor is EVIL and the child is EVIL because GOD and JESUS. This takes up about 70% of the entire movie. Whether you agree with their idiotic views or not, the way it's strawmanned and put on display here is done with a clear sense of repugnance towards these people, allowing them to swallow up the full scope of the topic at hand while allowing for pretty much nothing else. Arguably it may be a realistic depiction of an ignorant, paranoid, anti-science bunch of people reacting with ugly violence to the unknown, but not only is this done to the detriment of the movie's pacing and overall storytelling, but it also doesn't advance beyond that. We see the anti-cloning Christian protestors, and they're anti-cloning and Christian, and that's literally it. They play no further role other than to be front and center for more than half the movie, while contributing nothing except being a nuisance to the doctor. Meanwhile, an even more interesting story is unfolding inside the doctor's house, with the subtle, never once explicitly stated implication that Elizabeth may not be the "first" cloned human. This branch of the film's story is completely smothered by the Ugly Americans Christian Protest footage that sucks the oxygen out of everything else in the film. Literally every aspect of this film suffers because so much time and attention is devoted to showing these Christian protestors and showing them in as ugly, vulgar, and violent a way as possible, with one bald idiot in particular breaking down sobbing incessantly while squealing "SHE DOESNT HAVE A SOUL! YOU DONT HAVE A SOUL!" in front of the doctor's house, before trying to attack a police officer. The main character of the doctor is one who comes across as being somewhat flat and affect-less, yet as the other plot gradually unfolds, he suddenly becomes highly intriguing as we see him show actual emotion and lose self control at one point towards the end. He gets very little else in terms of character development beyond that. The wife's story, with their kids, and the odd (nonsexual) homelife they have with two other people is one which doesn't need any further elaboration or exploration, but would at least warrant some additional time to see things through the wife's eyes more, rather than having her be just a token housewife who complains about the doctor working too much. There was a solid core of a good, suspenseful sci-fi thriller, with a near perfect tone of clinical detachment and a lack of explaining every little detail to the audience that could've put this in the same type of genre as "Primer", but more than half this film was devoted to being some sort of "Two Minute Hate" spiel against anti-science Christians that ends up swallowing up the whole movie.
Reviewed by kosmasp 4 / 10

Good intentions

Just like the mad man .. sorry I mean our main character in this, the movie itself has very good intentions. I would even aargue that some of the ideas are worth exploring or make the movie even interesting. Not just the premise of the movie. But not just because of the small budget of the movie, but also because it tries and muddles many things together, it probably does not achieve being really good in any of them.So many at least interesting ideas, but a great whole. Certain things almost feel lackluster too. The effects are good and if you don't mind the "let's keep it dark, because we are low budget and can't afford too many special effects" approach, there are some nice things here. The end is ... well predictable, but also I guess in tone with what this is closest (Frankenstein is not mentioned just in passing).What you make of this morally will be up to you. It does raise some questions, but I'm not sure if it does them justice ...
Read more IMDb reviews

8 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment