“Red Lights” has a lot of star power but not a lot of script power. Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy, and Robert De Niro team up for a psychic thriller. The script caters to each actors trademark personality (Weaver as a strong-willed skeptic, Murphy as an emotionally-driven hero, and De Niro as an arrogant jerk), but the story doesn’t flow. The idea of trying to disprove a money-grabbing psychic has great potential and the film gets off to a good start. The real issue lies in spending enough time with each character to help us connect to them and properly pacing each character’s piece of the story with the others. The characters come off as static in spite of the great actors who play them. My favorite part of the story was the media machine behind De Niro's success. This was another missed opportunity where they could have strengthened De Niro's role as the villain by fleshing out some additional characters and exploring this aspect of the story. The single reason to watch this film is the twist at the end. I saw the first twist coming a mile away but the second twist was very clever; unfortunately, the presentation of the latter twist was clunky and ineffective, ruining the effect of the big reveal. I like all of the actors in “Red Lights” but its script issues make this another easily forgettable thriller.
[Pictured: "Red Lights" has the concept and actors that typically results in a great film, but the script got in the way]
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