A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This film is bleak and ultimately pretty boring. Unfortunately. Because I like the premise and the take on the zombie genre.The premise is simple: Arnie plays Wade, a farmer/father just trying to look after his daughter after she gets bitten by a zombie and begins the multiple week transformation into a zombie. This creates the chance for the nuance of the zombie genre to really flex its metaphorical undertones and really have a slow paced and personal look at the ramifications of dehumanising someone into a monster. I dig the hell out of that. Zombies are more than just flesh eating creatures and this takes a dig at trying to explore how transformations destroy relationships, the community, and even the person dealing with their inevitable loss of personhood. It becomes a story analogous to knowing your loved one will die of a terminal illness in two weeks and the hardship that causes.Unfortunately this brilliant idea gets bogged down in utterly dull banality. It's. Just. So. Dull. It took me I think 15 minutes before the thought occurred to me: this must be a first time director. And it is! The pacing is so off. I decided to watch it because it was only an hour and a half (and not including credits it's less than that) so figured hey, nice quick movie to enjoy at the end of the day. Nah. What ensues is a director more focused on silent inconsistently shaky shots of characters (mostly Arnie) brooding and having some kind of internal struggle over some super important element of the story but after the hundredth artsy cut away shot or silent 20 second scene it feels like this just didn't have enough content for a full length film. It's soooo sllooowwww. I checked MULTIPLE TIMES to see how much time I had left until the end because I just wanted this to be over but I'd invested too much time to give up on it. I wanted it to redeem itself. I wanted it to lift itself up out of the bland drudge through the slow decay of Abigail Breslin's character (the titular Maggie) into something more poignant, or at least... interesting. But it doesn't. Any tension by the end and replaced with frustration. You know where this is going the moment it starts.The characters aren't interesting. Arnie plays a father figure. That's... about it. What does he like? He likes keeping his daughter around. There's a scene where they actually seem to bond with each other and are a proper father/daughter duo. The rest I don't care. All the other characters? Well I have the cast list open in a separate tab in case I feel like checking names because I don't know a single one. I can't think of any defining traits about these people besides the archetypes they're meant to fit into for the sake of narrative elements. There's the... (switches tab) step-mother? Oh I thought she was her aunt. Caroline. Who... is just present for someone to be uncomfortable about the whole situation. There's the two cops (who Arnie clumsily reveals he is close friends with through heavy handed expositionary dialogue) who warn Arnie that they'll intervene if Maggie goes too far. They're interchangeable nobodies who exist to serve a single purpose and I feel no reason why who they are affects the plot in any way.The cinematography, much like my experience for an hour and a half, is bleak. The colour grading is overdone. It doesn't so much set the tone as demand you feel sad. We get it dude, you were a scene kid when a teenager. You're very excited to show us your latest film school project. It genuinely just feels like if someone slowed down a heavy metal music video but then removed all the music, sporadically added dialogue, then slowed it down way too much. It hurts me. It hurts me so bad.This movie is meant to have a soul. It really should and I know it wants to be a deep examination of a little girl losing her humanity before her eyes and the pain it's causing her father but he just comes off as distant and flat. This was a good draft that just never got rewritten to really hit the nail of all the ideas it was going for on the head.

Picking this movie, I was thinking "oh here's the Terminator fighting zombies". Figured it to be a silly action movie. And it wasn't! As said by one reviewer, this is "a unique voice in a crowded genre". Make no mistake, it's a zombie movie... But not the sort we're used to. And it makes a very good mark simply by treating the zombies as people. This turn of events may sound silly to readers, but the movie is worth it, in every way. We dread the necroambulants, as much as we care for them. Kudos to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who displays a fine range of fine acting here. This might be his greatest role yet, very distant from his one liners packed with action. He shows a sensibility that was unknown to me until this movie. Congratulations. Abigail Breslin shows herself very far from Little Miss Sunshine and gives a soaring performance. As Maggie, she conveyed both the horror and dread of being a zombie AND the pain of being terminally ill. The cinematography is sharp, and it rolls smoothly with the soundtrack to deliver an atmosphere of both pain and fear throughout the movie. I enjoyed this very much and was fairly surprised by it.

Freshman director Henry Hobson and "Terminator" star Arnold Schwarzenegger have made what qualifies as literally the most interesting but least violent zombie movie in cinematic history. Usually, when you think of a zombie thriller with a star of Schwarzenegger's stature, you imagine lots of blood, gore, and flesh-feasting with Arnie decimating the opposition. Such is not the case with "Maggie," a low-budget but high-minded meditation on zombies from the perspective of a grieving middle-aged father whose daughter has become infected with the Necroambulis Virus Epidemic ravaging the country. The Department of Agriculture warns farmers that they must burn their crops because the crops may be infected with the virus. Refreshing is the adjective that best describes this offbeat, 95-minute, PG-13 rated opus. Essentially, "Maggie" deals with an America caught up in zombie apocalypse. Nobody knows exactly how to treat the infected, but they sure don't waste time obliterating those that have turned. Bearded farmer Wade Vogel (Arnold Schwarzenegger) searches for his missing 16-year old daughter, Maggie (Abigail Breslin of "Zombieland"), and finds her in an urban hospital where she is being treated for an infection. Indeed, a zombie bit her, but the time that it takes for zombie victims to transform into flesh-eater has been changed for dramatic purposes. After he reunites with his daughter, Vogel is allowed to take her home. A doctor warns Wade that he can take his daughter home, but he must take her in for examination if any changes occur. Not long after Wade brings Maggie back home to his wife, Caroline (Joely Richardson of "Snowden"), so they can spend time with her.One of the problems working against "Maggie" is its predictable plot. Wade does everything that he can to shield his daughter from the authorities. If anybody is going to kill her, Wade wants to be the one to delivers the fatal blow. Gradually, Maggie disintegrates. At one point, she chops off a broken finger on a cutting board and throws the digit into the garbage disposal to be ground up. Maggie visits a high school friend who is suffering from an infection. Once humans change, they have to be put in quarantine and a lethal drug must be administered to kill them. Basically, we know that nothing short of a miracle will save Maggie, and "Maggie" turns into a tragic film with no relief in sight. Brawny Arnold cannot save his daughter from her fate, but he protects her up to her end. "Maggie" shows Arnold Schwarzenegger as we have never seen him. He emerges as a flesh and blood individual who has no power over his daughter's illness and eventual transformation into a zombie. Nevertheless, if zombie movies turn you off because of all their blood and gore, "Maggie" may change your mind about this sub-genre.

OK, to make a long Story short, I actually didn't expect any Thing from this film. It sounded like a really fuc.... B-Movie.... but....No, it is not!!! Arnie Acts in this film like never seen before, yeah, it is quite unusual, but hell yeah, I like that. Of Course, nothing to do here, the film is more quiet and about the relationship between him and the Family, but hell yeah, Arnie managed it real good. I was very impressed seeing him as a loving Father without seeing him killing all the bad guys at once. No, I actually has been very impressed, Arnie Acts like a real father and I saw tears... yes, unbelievable, but it really fits into it This film is like a B-Movie, but I really like the way how it goes and wow, Arnie is great in the role of an old loving Father.Like this very very much! Not to see every night, but I think it is a real good one.Sorry for my English, I'm from Germany! Many Greetings!