This is almost a great film; it's atmospheric, great performances, frequently looks beautiful and has a great soundtrack.
It's set in a future where emotion is deemed to be a vestigial feature, something to be feared and medically-cured or dealt with by (usually) suicide. The problem is that this fear is never properly explained or demonstrated. I'm guessing it's because they believed emotion led to the catastrophic "Great War," but you don't want to be guessing - you want to be engaged with the story.
A short expositional scene (flashback?) showing why emotion is considered so destructive, would have gone a long way to making the film vastly more engaging. Likewise the insemination system, as opposed to letting people fall in love and have babies - why is that considered such a superior system?
We've seen this "robotic" future before in sci-fi and without a fresh, considered spin on it, it simply doesn't hook the viewer. Which is a shame because many elements in this film work well, but without that basic back-story, it's prevented from getting over the line.
It's set in a future where emotion is deemed to be a vestigial feature, something to be feared and medically-cured or dealt with by (usually) suicide. The problem is that this fear is never properly explained or demonstrated. I'm guessing it's because they believed emotion led to the catastrophic "Great War," but you don't want to be guessing - you want to be engaged with the story.
A short expositional scene (flashback?) showing why emotion is considered so destructive, would have gone a long way to making the film vastly more engaging. Likewise the insemination system, as opposed to letting people fall in love and have babies - why is that considered such a superior system?
We've seen this "robotic" future before in sci-fi and without a fresh, considered spin on it, it simply doesn't hook the viewer. Which is a shame because many elements in this film work well, but without that basic back-story, it's prevented from getting over the line.