Jeri Jacquin

Currently on Netflix from director Ben Young are dreams that predict nothing short of an EXTINCTION.

Peter (Michael Pena) is a hard-working engineer who takes care of wife Alice (Lizzy Caplan) and two daughters Hannah (Amelia Crouch) and Lucy (Erica Tremblay). Lately he has been having trouble sleeping and its all because of disjointed dreams. Trying to convince Alice that there has to be something to these dreams doesn’t seem to be working.

Having a party to celebrate Alice’s job, Peter gets into a conversation with a neighbor and that’s when familiar lights shine from the sky. Coming from everywhere and in mass everyone must now run for their lives. Something has landed and it is not taking prisoners!

Peter and Alice do what they need to make their home safe, but the intruder has come. The family makes a run for it but must get down from their high-rise apartment to get away. What they do not realize is that the intruder is tracking them to finish what he has started. Peter manages to get his family to the building and captures the intruder where they are told this was to be expected.

What he learns from the intruder, himself and his family will shock them all to the core!

Pena as Peter stretches out in a sci-fi role that has so many twists and turns. His performance is stoic and frightening in believing there are something to his characters dreams. There has always been a believability about Pena’s performances from comedy to drama and in this film his emotions are in check. That adds to his portrayal of a husband/father trying to save his family.

Caplan as Alice does not understand why her husband is having these disturbing dreams. Instead she wants him to see a therapist to stop them all together. Imagine her surprise when it turns out that he knows something she does not. Caplan is a strong actress and she plays to Pena’s character so well. Even when it all breaks down, her goal is the fierce love for her children.

Couch as Hannah and Tremblay as Lucy are daughters who look to their parents to keep the family together. When the time comes when they must separate, they believe that being reunited is everything.

Other cast include Lex Shrapnel as Ray, Emma Booth as Samantha, Lilly Aspell as Megan, Mike Colter as David, Michael Absalom as Phil, Dan Cade as Hoyt, Mina Obradovic as Shelby, Nikola Kent as Luke and Israel Broussard as Miles.

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The high point of the film is definetly the storyline because it never lets you become comfortable with what is happening. Instead it leaves huge question marks in each scene until the story feels it is time for you to know everything. That is what I enjoyed best about the film. The low point for me is another film with kids that are annoying in so many ways. Yes, I am a tad done with films where kids are just plain disrespectful, annoying or don’t understand the meaning of consequences.

That being said, I think the storyline is amazing because I was pretty convinced about a few things only to have it turn out I couldn’t be more wrong. That is what made EXTINCTION fun on a Friday evening with the family. There is something to be said for rolling the dice on a film and being pleasantly surprised. Pena and Caplan together make it work!

In the end – we were not here first!

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