Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Patient Zero Blu-ray Movie Review

Patience may begin to wear thin as "Patient Zero" fails to live up to its potential.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 30, 2018

Patient Zero's story and, to a lesser extent, its approach to telling that story and shaping its world are teeming with potential, even if the movie is really little more than a hybrid cross between Day of the Dead and 28 Days Later. Director Stefan Ruzowitzky, who is best known for the Medical Horror film Anatomy and its sequel and who has also directed films like The Counterfeiters and Deadfall, cannot quite milk the idea for all it's worth. The film is limited by its cramped physical scope but also hamstrung by an inability, or unwillingness, to push the narrative further, to push the narrative darker, as the material would seem to demand. As it is, Patient Zero is a serviceable Zombie-like film with a good central story twist and a decent endgame twist but little of value beyond a compelling middle stretch when Stanley Tucci does his best to elevate the film from the doldrums.

A super-strain of rabies has gripped the world and is infecting people far and wide. The strain, however, is not killing its victims, known as “The Infected,” but rather altering their brain chemistry to kill others. Survivors are scattered and many are hiding underground. The scientific and military communities have joined forces in the search for a cure, an antivirus that can only be taken from “patient zero,” the individual believed to be the first infected. One soldier, Morgan (Matt Smith), was bitten but was not turned. He is not just a curiosity and a symbol of hope but the attack left him with the unique ability to speak the infected’s language. He is now a go-between, interviewing captured infected and hoping beyond hope to discover a way to return the world to the way it was. Morgan is in an intimate relationship with one of the scientists on his team, Dr. Gina Rose (Natalie Dormer), but still has feelings for his infected wife, Janet (Agyness Deyn).

Patient Zero deals in the usual array of genre tropes. The outbreak has resulted in chaos around the world and bands of survivors are isolated. The military and scientific communities have teamed up and often butt heads in the frantic, and seemingly fruitless, search for answers, never mind a cure. Characters harbor secrets, one of the bigger ones of which is revealed fairly early on but the biggest one is saved for the movie's finale. The picture will likely lose viewers through the first half, though, a first half overflowing with mechanical story machinations and other unimaginative ebbs and flows. The movie takes too long to establish ideas, characters, and the dangers the humans face underground, even in a supposedly secure environment. One "main" character is killed off relatively early on but action is otherwise scarce and, worse, drama wanes with the passage of time as the film attempts to establish the complex relationship between man and whatever it is that man has become on the surface, with special emphasis on Morgan's unique ability to communicate with the infected. Many of the early scenes deal with and follow his conversations with the infected. His personal drama doesn't add much to the movie, and neither does that of the characters around him.

Things turn when Stanley Tucci's character is introduced. It's a much needed shot of adrenaline for a movie, at that point, on life support. Tucci brings not just weight and acting ability to the part but begins the process of bridging the gap between the first-half discovery phase and the second half revelatory phase. The movie shines when Morgan and Tucci's character, known as "The Professor," interact in the secure, isolated chamber. It's a fascinating sequence and juxtaposition, the two speaking of life and death and the evolving world and plans and pasts and futures. It's sort of like those movie scenes when a human first talks to an alien entity, which Tucci's Professor, and all of the infected, in a way almost are. The new perspective, as well as Tucci's ability to sell it verbally and physically and emotionally, brings the sequence to compelling life. The movie largely deteriorates back into a stock picture afterwards, though the action does take on a newfound prominence and sense of urgency and importance given The Professor's revelations and what they means for Morgan's life and those closest to him, living and infected alike.

Patient Zero Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Patient Zero's 1080p transfer satisfies along all fronts. The movie was digitally photographed and yields a high end presentation that boasts exceptional clarity and revelatory detailing across the board. Close-ups are particularly eye-catching. Sweat, blood, pores, stubble, and makeup are clearly visible and at a level of complexity near the top of what the format can reveal. The underground environment is fairly spartan, without much character or visual interest about it, but the presentation reveals odds and ends with very good clarity and distinction, anyway. Colors are stable within a neutral presentation, with special emphasis on the bright yellow infected eyes and intense red blood and gore in a few places. The palette is otherwise a bit limited in the underground facility where utility, not visual delight, defines the location. Black levels are deep and flesh tones appear accurate. Noise is kept to a minimum and no other troublesome areas of note are apparent. This is a top-notch presentation from Sony.

Patient Zero Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For Patient Zero, Sony has delivered a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 encoded lossless soundtrack. Surrounds engage with some good reverb as necessary down in the silo and also in a classroom in chapter 10. Additionally, in-silo overhead speakers deliver realistically engaging sound positioning when in-use in the film. But the track is at home, and at its best, when delivering more prominent and hefty action effects. Some heavier crashes and rattles help set the scene when an "infected" struggles against its restraints. A barrage of gunfire in chapter 12 offers good pop and zoom and shots emanate from all over. Chaos reigns in the closing minutes, and the track doesn't miss an opportunity to create an immersive sense of frenzied sonic chaos all around the listener. Musical delivery is well defined with impressive width and some surround support. Dialogue plays from a natural front-center position with seamless clarity and flawless prioritization above surrounding sounds.

Patient Zero Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sony's Blu-ray release of Patient Zero contains no supplemental content beyond an assortment of trailers for other Sony properties. No DVD or digital copies are included, and the release does not appear to ship with a slipcover.

Patient Zero Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Patient Zero could have been so much more. Brainstorming ideas and envisioning scenes for the concept make for fun exercises before watching, when imagining the possibilities, but ultimately lead to disappointment considering the end movie's limited scope and inability to really break free of genre trope and from familiar settings. The film could stand to breathe, to take its characters on a journey beyond the four underground walls, to explore the world with a go-between rather than just leave most of the story in a transparent cage. Stanley Tucci arrives just in time to salvage the movie, but audiences will ultimately be left wondering how a good idea was largely wasted on such a limited, mediocre cinematic construct. Sony's featureless Blu-ray does deliver top-end 1080p video and 5.1 channel lossless audio. Rent it.