Rating of
2/4
"Midnight Special" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/17/20
A young boy with supernatural powers is abducted by his father and they make a dash for a rendez vu with they-know-not-what based upon nothing but intuition, with the authorities and a cult-like church community in hot pursuit.
Midnight Special is the kind of earnest concept sci-fi that always reminds me very much of cult TV show The X-Files. The set-up is very similar, with a duo of a “believer” partnered with a law enforcement officer who brave adversity in the shape of “The Man” who is desperately trying to stop them. And like The X-Files it is tense, intriguing and compelling during the bulk of the story. And like The X-Files, the “explanation” at the end contains more questions than answers and as such is perplexing, frustrating and rather unsatisfying.
Obviously influenced by John Carpenter’s Starman, Midnight Special does not have the heartfelt “magic” of that film and thanks to its anticlimactic ending left me feeling that it was all a little pointless.
