Maggie certainly boasts a promising premise: A father (Arnold Schwarzenegger) keeps authorities at bay as he deals with the slow death of his daughter (Abigail Breslin)—who is becoming a cannibal zombie.
Unfortunately, director Henry Hobson takes this premise and soft-pedals it, making the movie less of a horror film and more of a disease-of-the-week family drama.
While the leads do some decent work, there’s little in this movie that surprises or—more importantly—scares. I got the sense that the folks putting this movie together went in with one idea, and wound up with something completely different. It’s rated PG-13, and there are scenes that play as if they were re-edited to attain that rating rather than an R rating.
Schwarzenegger can’t really catch a break since coming out of semi-retirement, even though he’s putting in some of his best performances. Breslin did zombies much better when she was in Zombieland. Joely Richardson plays the mom role as if she has no idea what kind of movie she is in.
Hobson’s movie was highly anticipated by genre and Arnie fans—and it’s a bit of a letdown.
Maggie is available on demand and via online sources including Amazon.com and iTunes.