If you’ve been missing bad movies, ‘Awake’ will be a real gift for you.

After the success of ‘Bird Box’ with Sandra Bullock, Netflix has been releasing a new apocalypse film roughly once a year, but nothing even close to that level has emerged. And ‘Awake’ doesn’t break this trend, despite a promising premise…

The Day the Earth Stood Still

One fine day, all electronics on Earth (and beyond) ceased to function: no lights anywhere, most cars became useless hunks of metal, communication devices lost their relevance. But the worst was yet to come — everyone stopped… sleeping. Everyone except the daughter of the protagonist (played by Gina Rodriguez), a girl named Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt). When this becomes known, everyone wants the girl: from scientists to religious fanatics. But they don’t yet know what a mother is capable of when it comes to saving her child.

When a person goes without sleep for a long time, amazing metamorphoses occur in their brain: attention span decreases, mental sharpness fades, paranoia and even mania set in. So it would seem that the creators of ‘Awake’ had an excellent platform for developing a gripping psychological thriller, pitting religion against science and exploring human nature under unusual circumstances. But the story’s potential is barely half-used. One iconic scene with a religious fanatic from Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ outshines all of Netflix’s attempts to tread that ground, so timid and toothless is its portrayal of people abandoning reason for faith when faced with the unknown.

‘Awake’ mostly tries to show a strong mother willing to do anything for her children. But that barely works either. It’s unlikely anyone will be especially moved by scenes where a woman teaches her daughter how to siphon gas from other cars or tells her she needs to read books to understand life. The emotional component, which was clearly the focus, fails to evoke any emotion. And the dialogue, as if written by a middle school student, only makes things worse. All of this points to a confident and total failure for director Mark Raso (‘Kodachrome’).

Technical Impotence

Perhaps the technical aspects could have saved the film; after all, ‘Awake’ is a fairly dynamic movie with frequent changes of location and attempts at suspense. But here too, Raso’s film is plagued by problems: frankly shoddy editing, making it unclear what’s happening on screen, locations shifting at the snap of a finger, terrible lighting (the night scenes are eye-straining), and framing that reeks not just of low budget but of mothballs (no atmosphere, not a single memorable visual solution, NOTHING). The cinematography is so bad it could be put in textbooks as a textbook example of how not to do it.

Should You Watch ‘Awake’?

There is absolutely nothing in this film to latch onto, nothing to highlight or praise. Even the generally decent actress Gina Rodriguez is forced to play such a flat and uninteresting character that you almost feel sorry for her. And we haven’t even mentioned that this mess somehow dragged in Jennifer Jason Leigh as a mad scientist. Well, ‘mad’—she just wants to do something, but neither she nor the viewer knows what. Madness.

‘Awake’ is a failure, and watching it means condemning yourself to an hour and a half of wasted time.

Trailer: