This is a difficult film to review, as it's not particularly terrible or amazing, but it is rather bland.
And there's not a whole lot more to say about bland after “bland”. “Bland” really covers it. We have a fairly generic plot here about a genetically engineered bug species that mutates rapidly into human sized killing machines. The two main characters were pretty well fleshed out, but I'd have preferred the guy to die at the end. Also, the creepy kid was creepy and annoying, and I never really cared about what happened to him (to be honest I was surprised by his continued presence. I'd have just had him as a way of introducing a side of the bugs that we haven't seen yet – namely their clicky language (I thought it would develop, though the boy, into human speech or something), but this whole plot point isn't really followed up on). Oh and I liked that they included a gruesome murder scene for those other two children. I'm surprised that it made it into the movie, but I mean they were poor, so maybe that makes it alright. There was this whole children theme going on (the creatures are initially created to deal with an unnamed disease that kills off children, the two protagonists are trying for a baby, the whole hive thing and having to kill off the only fertile male, and there was quite a lot of weird birth and gestation imagery throughout. Kind of like 'Alien', but less competent) that never really came together for me too, though I suppose becoming a sort of family at the end and finding out that she's pregnant is sort of signalling that they're in the clear, finally.
The creature design was neat, and I liked the practical effects, but for so much build up they weren't all that scary, and I was left a little underwhelmed by them for the rest ofthe film. The CG elements suffered from serious 90s-itis, and should probably have just not been included (or at least kept far more in the dark) but it was all basically fine. I particularly liked the actual mimic element of the bugs, with the creepy human mask. It's a shame we didn't see more of it. I'd have liked them to have cut off the masky bits and worn them themselves in an attempt to evade notice by the bugs, instead of just squirting themselves with insectoid testicle juice, or whatever the hell those things were
Mimic: 35.6