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WHITE NOISE 2: THE
LIGHT
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Take heart though, the movie gets better. About forty-five minutes in, things start picking up again as Fillion races around trying to save people from dying, finds a new love interest, and begins to suspect something sinister about the man who shot and killed his wife and son a few years earlier. The mystery becomes intense and thrilling. Then the movie starts to verge into hokeyland again with a bunch of religion babbling and numerology explaining that Jesus rose on the third day and thus the third day is the Devil's signature (????) and thus saving people's lives is wrong because Satan uses it to turn those who have been saved into minions to do evil. Or something like that. Right-o. Shut up you out there, I can hear you screaming and I get it, I understand that it's not just saving people's lives that is wrong, it's using your super-duper NDE power to see white lights and use those to save people's lives that's wrong. I know. That I can get behind. It's the hokey religious nonsense that's just there for window dressing that I don't get. It just doesn't make much sense. Anyway, after our brief venture into hokeyland for a second time, the movie starts to get good again... I think the problem here is focus. The filmmakers have some good ideas and they certainly have a grasp of how to hook the viewer because we find ourselves caring about the mystery even when we realize it's all a bunch of ridiculous crap. Fillion is always sure of himself and we want to believe him even when he's spouting a bunch of stupid dialogue, and Katee Sackhoff is likable as his love interest. I think this love carries the movie through its more ridiculous diversions because we care enough about the characters to feel empathy for them even when they're in extreme situations. It's too bad that care and concern doesn't really pay off in plot elements, because this movie had the emotional pull to carry off a great ending if only the screenwriters had been able to cook up a good explanation for events.
Why can those who've had a NDE suddenly see ghosts? Why do the people they save start doing evil things on the third day after their lives are spared? Yes, yes, the third day is the Devil's signature, we heard you the first time, but that still doesn't EXPLAIN anything, it's just there to make everything sound very biblical and ancient and cool without having any real substance. When I'm sitting watching a movie my mind often wanders and I imagine several possible scenarios that explain the events of the film, and with this movie, every explanation I cooked up was better than the one the filmmakers used. I should get on board screenwriting for White Noise 3. I could make a lot of money. And I'm not saying the stupidity of the plot twists render the movie unwatchable, because the acting is good enough to make me care in spite of that... it's just that it makes me sad when a movie is only so-so when it could have been so much better with a little tweaking and a stronger plot. If you're going to offer an explanation for the events of your movie, you have to follow through and this movie follows through much better than the original (you almost have to admire it for sticking to its guns and taking its plot seriously even when it became really stupid) but it also helps if your explanation makes sense and this one just didn't.
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My direct-to-video sequel rampage continues with this, another
in-name-only sequel, this time to the flick "White Noise" with Michael
Keaton. Let me start off by saying that Nathan Fillion is eminently more
watchable that Keaton, and he carries this movie even through sometimes
rocky and hokey terrain. Instead of a man using EVP (Electronic Voice
Phenomena) to communicate with ghosts through the "white noise" static
of his television and radio, the lead character in this movie returns
from a near-death experience with the supernatural ability to see a
white light or aura around people that signals when those people are
about to die. Once he figures out the purpose of the aura he decides to
start trying to save people. Those of you snickering in the back might
notice the similarity between this plot and the plot of a recent music
video by the band Nickelback.
The worst thing about the original "White Noise" was that there was
no real explanation given for what was going on. After a few lame
attempts the filmmakers gave up and treated us to a bunch of CGI
ghost effects and then boom! It was over. It was a shame too,
because the original movie had potential; I cared about the lead
character, I cared about his plight, I wanted to find out what was
going on with the spirits. I was with him every step of the way
until the promise of some huge twist ending revealed itself to be a
cock tease and everything just kind of fizzled and went limp. I
didn't appreciate that. Here at least the filmmakers want to offer
an explanation for the events of the movie... the problem is that
their explanation is really stupid. I mean, it starts off ok with
the idea that having an NDE enables you to know when people are
going to die, and the hint that using that power to change the
course of history is a bad idea, and from there the plot could have
gone in some cool directions, but instead of exploring any of this
they opted for pseudo religious babbling
and a bunch of drawings of Satan falling from the sky (because hey,
people eat up that biblical bullshit, right?) and really it doesn't
go anywhere because it still doesn't explain WHY anything is
happening.
Maybe it's stupid of me to be complaining that this movie gave an
explanation for the supernatural events when my biggest complaint about
the original was that it DIDN'T give an explanation, but that's the
situation in which I find myself. This movie is better than the original
and it's worth a watch, but its flaws keep me from being able to wholly
recommend it as much as I'd hoped.