A remarkable whisper of a movie as well, for something that deals with a subject as alarming as campus violence.
There is no need for a scene in which your hero loses touch with reality via cockeyed camera trickery and thumping techno music.
It is easy to see the film as two movies crammed together, neither of them being very good.
Liu Ye is too inexpressive for his role's demands, and the movie doesn't build to his downfall: It just zaps itself there.
While imperfect, the high caliber of acting as well as these lucid moments in the earlier part of the film are strong and memorable highlights with which to leave the theatre.
Written by Billy Shebar and directed by opera director Chen Shi-Zheng, this visually sophisticated film has been criticized for turning a deeply disturbed individual into a "hero," but nothing could be further from the truth.
There's little in Billy Shebar's script, the rambling direction by theater and opera helmer Chen Shi-Zheng - or Liu Ye's impassive performance as the student.
Director Chen Shi-Zheng's film has a graceful energy, and three strong performances help make this serene drama - and its shocking conclusion - quietly moving.
Don't be fooled by the presence of Meryl Streep in the cast. This glum, inert psychological drama features little of her presence and could have used much more.
An unsuccessful mix of drama and social warning. Post-Virginia Tech,Dark Matter seems merely naïve.
Dark Matter, with its view of cutthroat politics and competing egos inside a university, is also laudable in its refusal to soft-pedal the viciously petty side of the academic fishbowl.
A sharp and engaging study of the yearning for academic success; unfortunately, its impact is thrown out the window with a shocking and depressing finale.
...an interesting study of Chinese students trying to assimilate into the American educational system that fails to lay the groundwork for its violent ending.
You could charge Streep with stealing the movie but there's not much to take.
It's an inelegant experiment that captures many intriguing moments as they pass, but ends up utterly baffled by the question of how its delightful central character becomes a tabloid-ready monster.
Dark Matter is certainly interesting, and easy to sit through, but not as compelling as it wants to be.
It concludes in a way that will have you asking whether the ending was misguided, or maybe it was just the rest of the movie.
A seriously misguided effort in attempting to explore what might lead a normally quiet and intelligent university student to lose control and go on a shooting spree.
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