Phoenix Forgotten

Phoenix Forgotten

Starring Florence Hartigan, Luke Spencer Roberts, Chelsea Lopez, Justin Matthews

Directed by Justin Barber

What is the movie about?
March 13, 1997, Phoenix, Arizona.  A series of bizarre lights light up the night sky, something thousands of people witnessed and recorded.  To this date there's been no real proof about what happened...was it a government experiment?  Flares?  Or something other-worldly?

For Josh (Luke Spencer Roberts), the mystery was too alluring, so he decides to film a documentary where he and his friends Ashley (Chelsea Lopez) and Mark (Justin Matthews) choose to investigate on their own.  Of course, they're never seen again.

Twenty years later, his younger sister Sophie (Florence Hartigan) returns home to film her own documentary about what happened to her brother, and discover the real truth behind the Phoenix Lights.

Who is involved in the movie?
The film features a bunch of rather no-name actors that help drive the found footage motif, but they are also so blue in their acting that they don't do anything particularly memorable.  The standout names have to do with the behind-the-scenes aspects, as the film is co-written by T.S. Nowlin - best known for his work in "The Maze Runner" - and produced by "Alien" maestro Ridley Scott.

Why should you see this movie?
If you're still a fan of the stale found footage subgenre, then "Phoenix Forgotten" is right up your alley.  Much like pretty much every other FF film before it, the movie consists of 90% filler and 10% actual scares, and of course the 10% is at the end.  So you could take a bathroom break, get some snacks, run a marathon, go hiking and rescue endangered beavers and return to the film in time to see the little good that it had in it.

The found footage franchise began with "The Blair Witch Project," and it was a revolutionary film during its time, mostly because it was something that really hadn't been done before.  People believed that the footage found was actually from missing hikers, but once it turned out to be fake, no one else has ever fallen for the gimmick, and this is no exception.  Obviously the people on the screen are actors who have never had a run-in with UFOs in the Phoenix desert, so it detracts greatly from any real sense of dread or fear, but instead we sit restlessly waiting for the good stuff to happen.

When the good stuff happens, it's pretty neat, but not worth the price of admission.  At a scant 80 minutes, the movie felt like it dragged on longer than the fourth "Transformers" film, only to lead to the most obvious conclusion.  Not to mention there was a framing device that was totally scrapped at the end.  The entire film focused on Sophie documenting what happened to her brother, but reaching a dead end when his tape ends abruptly.  Then she finds a second tape, and as she sits in the car while her boyfriend asks what to do with it, she just asks, "WWJD?"  No, not THAT "J", but "What would Josh do?"  Then we see the secret video, and never return to her again.  We don't know what she did with the tape, what outcomes might've came from it, what she had for dinner that night, nothing.

Not that I particularly cared.  Nor did I care about the three teenagers who, as far as teenagers go, are as nondescript as anything.  The geeky ginger kid has a crush on his not-so-appealing friend, who might like his other, more athletic, friend, but we never really find that out either.  Once again, it wasn't something I cared to know.

The main drawing point to the film is the mystery behind the Phoenix Lights.  I remember hearing about it when it happened since I was sixteen at the time and always had a fascination with the unexplained.  After doing my own non-scientific study, I feel that the actual lights were either UFOs or secret government tests, but I don't have any definitive proof either way.   And I'm not about to go to the Phoenix desert to find out either.

When should you see this movie?
When you and your friends decide to hold a terrible found footage marathon.

Where does the movie fall on the grading scale?
C-