We start with a soldier who needs some better acting and original lines as he is separated from his group and finally falls victim to a ghost. The effects are nice if a bit simplist at times, but movements are done best.
We learn the US military is fighting the forces of Moldavia (no Vigo in sight hehe) but an entity only seen by the goggles some scientist made starts killing of dudes. Scientistguy gets flown in and we get a scene very close to the hive scene in aliens, where he monitors a search and rescue and they learn about this new foe.
A big missed opportunity here it just becomes a US vs ghosts thing with the human enemy being non existent. A three way battle with the US and Russians working together after first trying to kill each other would have been much tenser and given the slow middle some more meat and tension as the groups try to work together. Now it's just bland soldier guy#23 and 24 talk angrily.
The biggest problem in this movie is tone, visuals and dialogue. It takes itself super serious, and almost everything is spoken in bleak monotous lines, and it never just pops with the movie filled with brown and grey. The movie should allow itself some more fun or original lines, as the last finale is so much like a videogame it should embrace a bit more flavor. It also heavily borrows from Aliens, with even a Newtlike character, Lost, Black Hawk Down, etcetera.
The fact they cannot see their enemies save certain cameras ( the goggles are dispatched early on for non clear reasons besides some are broke or they need power) makes for a cool idea, but when only one person swings around a beam that makes them visible it becomes a bit unbelievable they never get ambushed from another side he shines. Later on, robot dogs help with this task, but why on earth would the army leap into dangerous territory, and then after landing release the cameradogs to see if there are no ghosts around. You send in the dogs or the guy with the light in first! They do this several times and it really bothered me.
The climax is ok, though it felt very Gear of Wars with two sides just attacking each other without really feeling any stakes. The idea the Ghosts reform after a while was nice, but ultimately nothing is done with it. It would have been a great idea to make the army feel trapped and surrounded. Ultimately, it all boils down to them finding an off switch to destroy them.
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