Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
video © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
The Agent (2017) is a contemporary fantasy action / thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
Original title: Agent / Agent Intelligence
Series: Agent series
Previous entries in the series: -
Setting: contemporary fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: contemporary fantasy action / thriller, Style: sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, contemporary fantasy, action, aliens, super-human abilities
Release: 2017.03.27
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2022.02), first time
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Bad (1 out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Agent, a contemporary fantasy action / thriller movie for the Agent series from 2017. It's about a group of friend running into something strange in the desert. The Agent film is boring, I don't recommend it to anyone.
Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
image © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
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Review (spoiler-free) - Agent, movie (2017)
I've run into the Agent Revelation (2021) movie, it looked interesting, but I've seen that's the second instalment of a series. So, first I've checked if I can find the first one. I didn't watch the trailer, before watching the movie.
The Agent movie is about a group of friend running into something strange in the desert.
The concept of the plot could have been interesting, but the execution of the story was just bad. The dialogue felt forced. There was practically no tension in the action scenes, making them boring. The pacing is mostly consistent, but it is really slow and tedious. There are no character arcs. I didn't find major logical problems.
The cinematography is good. There were some visually interesting shots. The action scenes look good, and they are easy to follow. The computer generated special effects look bad.
The characters are shallow. We get to know some minimal information about them, though. The actors are okay (with the exception of the main protagonist guy), they probably got the most out of the script they've got. Also, the actors are all good looking, so at least you can enjoy the sights while waiting for the movie to end.
The music (by Benjamin Robinson) is not very noticeable, and very quiet.
The only thing that made this movie watchable, were the competent action scenes and the good looking cast.
Agent is a watchable but boring contemporary fantasy action / thriller, that I think even the most dedicated fans of the genre wouldn't enjoy.
My experience
I was not satisfied with Agent (2017). I prefer stories with well-thought, interesting plots, and Agent couldn't deliver that.
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points). Agent is a barely watchable film. If it were shorter, it could have been a Weak (2-) movie.
Enjoyment: Bad (1 out of 3 points). Agent was boring and pointless.
Rewatchability: Very low. I don't think anybody would get attached to the story or the characters.
Chance of watching it again: No. There's nothing in this movie that would require a second viewing.
Chance of watching a sequel: If I weren't already preparing to watch the sequel, Agent Revelation (2021), after watching this, I'm almost sure I wouldn't watch it.
Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
image © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
Will you enjoy this?
If you like mystery or thriller movies, you might like Agent.
If you like action thriller movies, you might like the film, although there are not many action scenes or scary scenes in the Agent movie.
If you can get through the first half hour of the movie still interested, from then on it gets slightly more interesting.
If you enjoyed the Agent Revelation (2021), you might be interested in this story.
If you don't mind illogical elements in your movies, you can enjoy this.
If you prefer visuals over story, you'll be bored to death by this movie.
Do you need to see the second film to enjoy this?
I still plan to watch Agent Revelation (2021), so we'll see.
Update: If you watched Agent (2017) to its ending, and you are interested in the story, Agent Revelation will help you understand better what was happening in this movie.
Watching for plot points
Even if you are really interested in alien invasion stories, I don't think it's worth watching the Agent movie for the plot points. If you must really watch something, watch the beginning and the scenes before the credits - those give enough exposition, if you don't believe our plot summary.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
The visuals probably look better if you watch it in cinema. Or maybe not, depending on the resolution.
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Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
image © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
Review with spoilers - Agent, movie (2017)
I didn't like the Agent movie.
It might have been a mediocre short movie if it were cut down to it's core. However, it's now a long and boring story, with not enough content.
Most of the time I'm against good looking actors, as they take the immersion away, but here, at least some lingering scenes let us watch some good looking people. However, you could just go to the actors' Instagram account, and do it without the distraction of this story.
Cover
The covers of the movie are misleading, it looks like we'll get some action packed mystery / thriller, but we mostly get people walking or driving in the desert.
The trailer
The trailer is okay, although it probably makes watching the first half hour of the movie unnecessary.
Promise of the first scene
The first scene is probably showing a drone. I'd assume this is going to be some kind of military action movie.
In the second scene, there's some exposition about super-human powers. Based on the title, I assume the story will be about special agents who use these powers.
Execution: The plot didn't have much to do with the promise. Yes, there was a military action, but it happened late in the movie, and only for a couple of minutes. The "agent" in the title will become an agent some time after the end of this movie. We got to see some demonstration of those powers, but it was not really central to the story.
Plot summary / Synopsis
We see that drones are searching a desert for something. We see these drone shots throughout the movie.
Present: We get exposition by a scientist (Carole Weyers as Dr. Victoria Jansen), that in the past, there was the swarm-intelligence of people, when they could cooperate mentally to work together.
Past: We see a guy (Derek Ting as Jim Yung) getting laid off because his clumsiness disrupts the work at the factory.
A friend (Eric Keitel as Seth) is visiting there with her girlfriend (Marikah Cunningham as Dr. Angela Porter), and her female friend (Olivia Hultgren as Kara). They invite the guy to go to a camp with them.
They meet with a shooting instructor (Terrance Christopher Jones as John), and go with him to a shooting range in the desert. During shooting practice, the female friend gets covered by some red dust, and gets dizzy. The guy goes to help her, and he gets worse than the girl. Their electronic equipment stop working. They decide to stay there, and camp for the night. At night, the female friend forces herself on the friend, and inhales red dust on him.
Somebody attacks the shooting instructor, and infects him. The shooting instructor approaches the guy, telling him that the guy is malfunctioning, he can't get connected. He attacks the guy after this, forcing the guy to shoot him. The red dust that comes out of the body of the shooting instructor gives some of his memories to the guy. The female friend attacks the girlfriend, but she escapes when the guy arrives.
Soldier arrive, and gather them up. They tell them that they are looking for the source of the electro-magnetic disturbance. The infected friend shows them the rock, infecting two of them, who start to shoot the others. The injured leader of the soldier tells the guy and the girlfriend that the soldiers belong to an anti-alien task force. He sends them to find the scientist. After these two escape, the soldiers all get infected.
When the guy and the girlfriend reach their car, they see the female friend attacking and infecting people. They shoot them all in the liver, killing them. The girlfriend gets in the car, leaving the guy in the desert.
The guy ambushes the infected soldiers and his infected friend, and kills them all.
The girlfriend runs into the scientist who was on her way to the area. They find the guy, and they recruit him.
Present: We see that the scientist introduces the guy to their work.
The setting
Contemporary alternate Earth, probably 2017. In this universe, there are aliens out there.
Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
image © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
The aliens
There are aliens. They've got the pyramids built by humans, using the red dust to make humans work together.
The infection - Chemical 852
It's a red dust, that's a biological substance the aliens have used to control humans. In the historical past, they've used it to create a swarm-intelligence in people, allowing them to cooperate mentally to work together.
Exposure to the red dust infects humans. Some turn immediately. For others, it takes some time. For a select few, they don't get controlled by the aliens, but they get special abilities. The infected are able to share their knowledge.
The infected come back even after receiving deadly wounds. A liver shot permanently takes them out.
The infection makes them a lot stronger than regular humans. They are able to kick a person to fly several meters.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one.
The structure of the story
As we later find it out, some scenes are out of order. There are framing scenes in the present in the beginning and at the end, while most of the movie happens in the past. Except for the drone scenes that I'm not entirely sure where to put in the timeline. The scenes of the Agent film are otherwise mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline. There are some flashbacks during the memory transfer scene.
There is no single viewpoint character.
It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - a very long introduction, action, and a quick resolution.
Plot points of interests
The were a couple of things to mention about the setting and characters.
Forces
The aliens: They want to do something, that involves the use of red dust.
Extra-Terrestrial Special Forces Unit (ESU): They want to stop the aliens, although they have no idea what do the aliens want.
Characters
Dr. Angela Porter: The girlfriend of Seth. The ex-girlfriend of Jim Yung. She works as a doctor / nurse?.
Jim Yung: A guy, who is unable to concentrate on his jobs, so he gets fired. He gets infected by the red dust, but something stops the infection from allowing him to get to the hive mind. He still gets every positive aspects of the infection.
Kara: The friend of Angela Porter. She gets infected, and gets killed by Jim.
Seth: The friend of Jim Yung. He gets infected, and gets killed by Jim.
Dr. Victoria Jansen: A scientist working for the anti-alien organisation.
Characters killed
Kara: She gets infected, and gets killed by Jim.
Seth: He gets infected, and gets killed by Jim.
Technology
Chemical 852: A red dust that allows the aliens to control humans through a hive mind.
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Things I liked
- Watching Marikah Cunningham and Carole Weyers.
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
I haven't seen any other works of the writer / director ( Derek Ting).
How does it compare to the other films in the series?
We'll see. Hopefully it's a lot worse than its sequel, that I plan to watch.
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Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
image © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
Analysis of the story - Agent, movie (2017)
I didn't liked the story, and I've found plenty of dramatic and logical problems that it prevented me from enjoying Agent.
Problematic elements
No need for money: When Jim gets fired, he leaves the paycheck at the desk of his boss.
Long scenes: Almost all of the scenes are a little longer than necessary.
- At 25 minutes they were still driving to their destination.
- The gun safety and shooting range scenes were too long and boring. The whole thing was pointless, the girl could have find the dust right when they've arrived.
Bad decisions: The characters make bad decisions to further the plot.
- They just leave their car in the middle of the desert. (Yes, they do it so it could take time to reach their car when they want to get away.)
- When the guy gets unwell, instead of getting back to the city, they decide to camp there for the night. (Yes, they do it so there could be an opportunity for the female friend to infect the friend.)
- Why does the girl leave the guy, when they finally get their cars?
No electronics: It seems strange that they just accept that all of their electronic gadgets just stop working. I'm pretty sure a normal human would be worried by this.
Selective effect: Some of their electronic equipment stop working, but others (like lamps) seem to work just fine. In case it was an EMP effect, this would make sense. But then, the car would probably also work, as it was not running at the time.
Not-so special forces: Why did they just let the infected guy infect the soldiers, if they knew that it's a possibility? Why didn't they just used their remote drones we see throughout the movie?
Unanswered questions
- What happened when the shooting instructor was shot? Some red dust came out of him, but it didn't happen with other infected.
- Where did the shooting instructor go? After he was shot, he disappeared.
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Possibilities of improvement
- Cut the factory scene.
- Cut most of the driving scenes.
- Cut the shooting range scenes - when they arrive at the rocks, and the female friend goes missing, just let her find the red dust right there.
- Trim all the scenes to make the whole movie tighter.
- If there's really a need, add dialogue that the guy got the guns from the soldiers.
- Create a better effect for the red dust. It looks terrible.
How it could have been better?
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
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Agent, movie for the Agent series (2017)
image © Inflection Ltd. (company dissolved)
Uses for the film - Agent, movie (2017)
Plot
- Set in a contemporary setting.
- An alien artifact buried for millennia is uncovered.
- People get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (desert)
- Aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
- People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others.
- The infection leaves one person unaffected.
Scenes
- The drone scenes could be used to show drones flying over a desert.
- The driving in the desert scenes could be used to show a car driving in the desert.
Designs
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Secure the area: There's a potentially dangerous thing in the area. There's one side (the defender) that wants to make sure nobody has access to it, the other sides (the attackers) want to acquire it. The players set up the area randomly. Place the objective in the middle. The players choose an edge to be their starting area. If more than one player wants to claim the same area, roll to see who will take it. The other player has to choose another edge. Roll for initiative, the winner deploys their force at the chosen starting area, and takes the first turn. At the beginning of every further turn, roll a d6 for each remaining player. On a 1-3, they can deploy their own forces at their starting area, and they can take part in the action. The defender won't enter into the 10 cm radius around the objective voluntarily, and if they enter, their first action is to leave immediately. The defender wins if they can prevent any attackers from claiming the objective. The attackers win if they claim the objective, and get rid of the defenders.
Infection (harder for the players): When an attacker claims the objective, every model in the 10 cm radius of the objective turn into rage zombies, who attack mindlessly, using only their close combat weapons. You can put a marker on the models, or exchange them for appropriate models. They use Random aggressive movement, and attack any other side. The game only ends after the rage zombies are defeated, or the player sides are killed.
Intelligent rage zombies (harder for the players): The rage zombies retain their intelligence and skills, so they use their ranged weapons.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Civilians: Human-sized (S3) modern (advanced) human female / male civilian.
Infected civilians: Human-sized modern human civilians. I'd add some red dust on their clothes, or swirling around the model.
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Similar stories - Agent, movie (2017)
Novels
Alan Dean Foster: The Thing (1982): In a contemporary setting, people get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (arctic station). People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others. Based on the The Thing movie.
John W. Campbell: Who Goes There? (1938): In a contemporary setting, people get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (arctic station). People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others.
Stephenie Meyer: The Host (2008): In a post-apocalyptic setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
Movies
Breach (2020): In a futuristic setting, people get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (spaceship). People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others. Breach is a similar quality movie.
Sea Fever (2019): In a contemporary setting, a creature infects people in a remote location (ship). People have to fight the the creature.
The Thing (1982): In a contemporary setting, an alien creature buried for millennia is uncovered. People get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (arctic station). People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others. Based on the Who Goes There? novel. The Thing is a much better movie.
The Thing Inside Us (2021): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
The Tomorrow War (2021): In a near future setting, an alien artifact buried for millennia is uncovered, threatening to destroy humanity.
Zvozdnyy razum / Project Gemini, movie (2022): In a futuristic setting, an alien creature buried for millennia is uncovered. People get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (spaceship). People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others. Project Gemini is a similar quality movie.
Computer games
Dead Space (2008): In a futuristic setting, people get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (spaceship). People has to fight the infected.
The Thing (2002): In a contemporary setting, people get affected by an alien infection in a remote location (arctic station). People has to fight the infected, who turn on the others. Based on The Thing (1982).
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Frequently asked questions - Agent, movie (2017)
Is the Agent film based on a book or comics?
No, Agent is not based on either books or comics.
Is the Agent film a remake or reboot?
No, the Agent film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in Agent? Does Agent have end credit scenes?
Yes, there's a post credit scene in Agent.
Where can I see Agent? Where can I watch Agent online? Is Agent available on Netflix? Is Agent on Amazon?
As of 2022.02.06, Agent is Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft Movies, Vudu, YouTube.
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Resources - Agent, movie (2017)
Official
Agent (on Archive.org): Official website.
Agent Revelation: Official website.
Random Art Workshop: Agent: Official article.
Kickstarter: AGENT THE MOVIE: A SCI-FI ACTION THRILLER FEATURE FILM: Crowdfunding page of the movie.
http://twitter.com/rawdoodles
http://instagram.com/randomartworkshop
http://instagram.com/agentthemovie
http://www.vimeo.com/ondemand/agent
http://facebook.com/randomartworkshop
https://www.facebook.com/agentthefilm
Information
IMDB: Agent (I) (2017) : Database article.
Letterboxd: Agent 2017: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Agent 2017: Database article.
Creation
: Concept art article.¤
Reviews with no spoilers - Agent film (2017)
: Review video about the Agent film with no spoilers.¤
Reviews with spoilers - Agent film (2017)
: Review article of the Agent movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤
Analysis - Agent movie (2017)
: Analysis video, explaining the finale of Agent.¤
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Buying the product - Agent, movie (2017)
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Have you seen the Agent film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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