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Parents' Guide to

Spectral

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Frequent battle violence in war-themed ghost story.

Movie NR 2016 108 minutes
Spectral Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 10+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Rajeev M.
Rajeev M. Parent of 7 and 17-year-old
July 22, 2023
age 10+

Superb movie

Criticus
Criticus Adult
December 11, 2018
age 10+

Spectral Review: The Greatness is Invisible

Spectral makes for a nearly perfect instance of standard Netflix B-movie fare - hardly anything more than a library-building stunt on the part of the folks running said establishment. If it happens that killing an hour and forty seven minutes watching a military operation attempt to contain a horde of supposedly supernatural militia in a dystopian world full of all the typical tropes you could reasonably expect from such, nicely fits with the day's agenda - by all means, go ahead! But ask precious little from Spectral, as the most you'll get is a dull and meaningless sci fi whose character and world building feel closer knit to a video game than a movie, which it may one day be learned must have heart, meaning, and creativity before it attains to any proportionate success. There really is very little that is redeeming in Spectral - cast, music, effects, script, costumes, design, blocking all feel entirely sub-par. It almost feels a waste of time and effort to analyse it. There is no significant sexual content (a woman changing outfit can briefly be seen in underwear, and a soldier claps another soldier's crotch), and violence is fairly mild, with plenty of casualties, though the movie rarely lingers on them, and most are not very hard-hitting or moving, save one (when a central character dies). Language is listed below, time-stamped to the approximate moment: 5:35 - sh** 20:00 - b*lls 30:44 - piece of sh** 36:29 - sh** 1:11:50 - G**_da** 1:27:33 - G** 1:33:40 - he**
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Dr. Mark Clyne (James Badge Dale) is flown to a US military base near Chisinau, Moldova, where a civil war is taking place. Clyne is the inventor of highly advanced imaging goggles that the troops have been wearing in battle. He meets with US military and intelligence officers, who show him video footage transmitted by a soldier who appears to have been killed by a fast-moving translucent humanoid apparition. With state-of-the-art, cutting-edge camera tracking devices, he is sent with Delta Force soldiers to locate a squad of soldiers who went missing the day before and suspected to have confronted these mysterious apparitions. Upon discovering the bodies of the missing squad, Clyne and the troops are ambushed by the apparitions, and find refuge in an abandoned factory, where they discover that the apparitions, after not being stopped by all the ammunition at the Delta Force's disposal, are stopped by iron shavings. Upon this discovery, and the discovery of two children hiding out in the factory, Clyne and the soldiers must find a way to develop weaponry that utilizes iron shavings, get back to base, and stop these beings that seem to have some relation to the ghosts of wars past.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (3 ):

Once the action gets going, SPECTRALl is nonstop action. The battle scenes are frenzied with edge-of-your-seat excitement, and unlike so many other war-themed movies, no clear-cut direction pointing to just how this movie will end. It's an interesting concept explored as fully as the technological details of much of the equipment used to fight the battle.

Where it falls short are the scenes before the action takes hold. The pacing gets bogged down with unnecessary interpersonal conflicts, overexplanations of character backstory, the technology on hand to fight the war, the reasons for the civil war in Moldova, and a debate about technology being used to better humankind or to line the pockets of defense contractors. All of this is presented with intrusive direction -- cameras constantly move, hop, and spin, almost as if the cameras themselves are as eager to get to real conflicts as the audience. Such aspects make this best for fans of sci-fi military movies.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about war and battle-themed sci-fi movies. How are these movies different from war movies in general? How are they similar?

  • How did the movie convey soldiers in the thick of battle? Despite the sci-fi/otherworldly connotations, did the battle scenes seem realistic? Why or why not?

  • Why do you think war and warmongers are an endless source of fascination for some? Why, for instance, are there always numerous documentaries on Hitler and Stalin, but fewer about, say, Gandhi or Mother Teresa?

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