Director: Lennart Ruff
Writers: Max Hurwitz (screenplay by), Arash Amel (story by)
Stars: Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling, Tom Wilkinson
Plot: A military family takes part in a ground-breaking experiment of genetic evolution and space exploration.
Running Time: 97 Minutes
IMDB Score: 4.9
Why I Watched It: I’m a genre fan which includes Sci-Fi and I’m always looking for a cool Sci-Fi movie.
Random Thoughts: I have to say didn’t hear too much about this film, did see a trailer on Netflix for it, not a shock as it’s a Netflix original movie. It looked fine I find the Sci-Fi genre is in a bit of a rut, sure we’ve had some decent bigger films but as far as smaller more original films it’s been not great and it’s too bad I think there’s so much to do with the genre but most filmmakers go with world building and big sets and huge production designs and they forget character and story.
Also let’s get this out of the way, I’m not a fan of Sam Worthington and I won’t go on about it cause he takes a beating from genre fans but yes I like most people find him bland, also oddly enough I’m not a huge Taylor Schilling fan as I find her to be bland as well so going in I was hoping Tom Wilkinson would carry the movie.
What I Liked: So we’re in the year 2048, I think that’s right, and we need somewhere else to live cause once again earth as gone to hell in a side car, just one movie I’d like a future where earth is just swell. We don’t dwell on earth as this is more of going into space and creating a new society, here the big idea is we’ll change human DNA so we can live on a moon called Titan, it’s a bad name, just saying. So the idea we’re seeing the best of the best train to go to this new moon is a decent idea and it does work as they take these new meds and these, soldiers, astronauts and whatnots are mutating and for a sci-fi idea it’s not bad.
Tom Wilkinson is the man in charge and he’s good here, he’s always good but he breathes life into a very cliched and stock character and the fact that Tom Wilkinson is playing him we know where this is going. Schilling if fine here she becomes almost the lead by the end as she’s the one that is figuring things out. The film moves along very straight forward until we hit the dreaded side effects, you knew there would be side effects and that part is decent, it builds tension and conflict and it helps push the story along.
The film does try a couple of different things and some of the movie science is fun and they had a chance to take it in a different direction and say something but they don’t really.
What I Didn’t Like: The film is hurt by two main things the film is way too slow and plodding and that kills so much of the tension that they try to bring to the end and by the end what do we get man trying to play God. Been there seen that a million times.
I’ll say it Worthington is bland here but so is most of the film but he doesn’t bring much and it’s too bad cause they could have used a shot of charisma or energy to the film. The training is fine but the film turns this into the standard evil doctor movie instead of trying to do something bold and having the film be about really changing the way humans are to survive and that’s the part that really breaks down in the film, we can’t life on earth cause in 20 years no one will be left but here 90% of the people they try to change dies and so want we’re doing this so 10% will turn into an alien and live on a strange moon where they loose who they are, those are two bad choices, so the movie becomes a fatal would you rather game.
The film on the whole is boring, you don’t care and the weird thing is they don’t do much with this being set in the future, a love there’s a scene where someone is trying to find out the truth and they break into evil doctor’s office and go through his files, really in 2048 we still have files, we still have filing in the future? The odd thing is the filmmakers don’t say anything really that hasn’t been said before we’re talking Frankenstein here folks, a man is playing God and it goes badly, really?
Final Thoughts: Sadly another dude for Netflix, I like that they keep trying and they’re doing genre I just wish they’d do it better.
Rating: 4/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 