As stated in other review this is a reissue / rename of a 2016 movie however I had not seen it before. I quite enjoyed it for what it was, a movie with minimal cast with no expensive backdrops etc. It's almost a snapshot of a part of the whole story and yet it held my interest. If you like end of the world SF then I think you will like this, it's not going to get any awards or make big bucks but kept my interest.
61 Reviews
slow but decent
MunkyMovie12 May 2021
Like a found footage flick, this one benefits from its shortcomings by focusing on what is available without a big budget. Most of the good parts are at the end, but the first half was not utterly devoid of interest. The commentary on social media, tech, and video games was perhaps a bit on the nose, but it created an effective sense of isolation -- of an almost "empty world" -- pretty well.
an episode
SnoopyStyle17 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
In the near future, humanity lives out their lives in front of computers. Darwin operates a loader remotely and spends his life in his computer chamber. A lightning strike takes down his computer and he goes out into the real world. He finds a group of people living off the grid in the woods.
This is an over-extended episode of Twilight Zone or in modern parlance, Black Mirror. There are interesting ideas but it does not add up to a compelling movie. It also leaves some issues in question like why the men leave or how the world works. It needs more danger to elevate the tension. In the end, the little tension doesn't hold up and the movie is left with the interesting ideas.
This is an over-extended episode of Twilight Zone or in modern parlance, Black Mirror. There are interesting ideas but it does not add up to a compelling movie. It also leaves some issues in question like why the men leave or how the world works. It needs more danger to elevate the tension. In the end, the little tension doesn't hold up and the movie is left with the interesting ideas.
Kingston to Mississauga
simscheryl8 April 2022
Surprisingly good
treborbasset29 December 2021
I wasn't expecting much from this, but it was a surprisingly good little story despite the small cast and small number of locations; it didn't need more. It's also very relevant for the future with everything that's happened in the last two years and the way things are going.
Heavy hamfists ruin what might have been enjoyable
ravencorinncarluk14 May 2021
There was potential for a decent message, if it had been allowed to grow naturally. Although, there is something ironic about using a movie to remind people to go out and make real connections.
The narration is what really ruined it for me. I was being shown things, then told about the things I had just seen. As if I might have been too dumb to get it.
It's also predictable, slowly paced, with no surprises or real stakes. And so much reality had to be overlooked, like how a podling didn't immediately die of exposure with no food or water.
Not good, but the scenery was pretty.
The narration is what really ruined it for me. I was being shown things, then told about the things I had just seen. As if I might have been too dumb to get it.
It's also predictable, slowly paced, with no surprises or real stakes. And so much reality had to be overlooked, like how a podling didn't immediately die of exposure with no food or water.
Not good, but the scenery was pretty.
A bit slow
mick12035919 May 2021
A bit slow going and could have done with a lot more action, but overall not a bad film.
I felt that there should have been more about the back story and maybe a bit more looking at what had happened to the rest of the world.
Worth a watch if your bored, but don't anticipate to much from this film.
I felt that there should have been more about the back story and maybe a bit more looking at what had happened to the rest of the world.
Worth a watch if your bored, but don't anticipate to much from this film.
neat but light
phenomynouss27 March 2022
This is one of those insufferable cases where a great idea was executed clumsily, and it seems to be largely due to the format at hand. Other reviewers point out the obvious that this is a story that ultimately could not fit the scope it is intended to (a feature length film). It would make for a great singular TV episode type thing, or a short novel.
Ultimately as a 90 minute movie, it is too light on content and storytelling to maintain itself. It is quite literally the kind of film where you could fade in and out of and not lose step with it as long as you are paying attention to the first and last 15 minutes or so.
It's all very interesting and neat, but that's it.
Ultimately as a 90 minute movie, it is too light on content and storytelling to maintain itself. It is quite literally the kind of film where you could fade in and out of and not lose step with it as long as you are paying attention to the first and last 15 minutes or so.
It's all very interesting and neat, but that's it.
This is the movie Darwin with a narrator
jlebel909912 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Dont understand why remade. Darwin was better as it had a scary aspect with the people who cut off fingers. This regurgitated take was no where close to scary. No real reason to stay in pods other than the bad air factor ehich was unbelievable.
Nothing wrong with this movie at all.
ascendant0127 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I am not sure why some people just cannot accept a basically nice movie. It's nice enough to be family oriented, no swearing or cursing, no nudity no violence, or drugs. It's just a simple movie that tells a complicated story in a very simple manner. There is nothing wrong with that. And the story gives some very interesting warnings too. What the escalation in the industrial military complex can lead to if not controlled and the environmental damage such a thing could bring about, not to mention the psychological and sociological effects. And it also warns of the possible issues of AI controls over a population. These are all good things to know and the movie brings them out in a way that makes younger people think about it, not have it shoved in their face.
I could care less that the movie was first shown and/ created in 2016 under another name. Actually I found it currently under at least 4 different names: "Confinement", "Esc", "2049: The Aftermath", and "Darwin"! If you want to watch it on Amazon Prime look for it as "Confinement" It's not a knock your socks off movie with big stars, just a good, basic science fiction movie. It is too bad they didn't have more of a budget for better fleshing out of things like the story and characters as it could have been a much better movie that way. But as a lower budget movie I think it did quite well.
I could care less that the movie was first shown and/ created in 2016 under another name. Actually I found it currently under at least 4 different names: "Confinement", "Esc", "2049: The Aftermath", and "Darwin"! If you want to watch it on Amazon Prime look for it as "Confinement" It's not a knock your socks off movie with big stars, just a good, basic science fiction movie. It is too bad they didn't have more of a budget for better fleshing out of things like the story and characters as it could have been a much better movie that way. But as a lower budget movie I think it did quite well.
A movie of any names... Literally!
freshsince25 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
So firstly,this movie has at least three separate titles. Which in itself is horrible, because how you market?! Or even find the movie if it's not right for you to choose on the moment? If this is the original title of the movie then the other two are Confined and 2149: The Aftermath, in case information is needed.
The movie itself is fairly solid. It has all the structure to pull most people through to the end. Nice casting, good locations and sets, decent overall acting, plot keeps the interest there, and kudos cameras and effects. But that's where the good stops. I'm not going to thrash this movie to death, just state facts. The plot is riddled with hole and dead ends. No true reasoning any history accept the bombs, but that was quite flimsy also. The main character y barely grounded in any way and many parts of his story is very disconnected!
Overall I was going to give it a 5/10 but then there was the little at the end that presented a , "Light at the end of the tunnel", scenario. Seems like a repolished Senior College Project.
The movie itself is fairly solid. It has all the structure to pull most people through to the end. Nice casting, good locations and sets, decent overall acting, plot keeps the interest there, and kudos cameras and effects. But that's where the good stops. I'm not going to thrash this movie to death, just state facts. The plot is riddled with hole and dead ends. No true reasoning any history accept the bombs, but that was quite flimsy also. The main character y barely grounded in any way and many parts of his story is very disconnected!
Overall I was going to give it a 5/10 but then there was the little at the end that presented a , "Light at the end of the tunnel", scenario. Seems like a repolished Senior College Project.
Boring, pointless, waste of time.
michaelegan-3173031 March 2022
There is just so much wrong with this movie
davinashadow11 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I will not give a synopsis, as that is easily found in various online places.
The worst moments for me were the absolutely illogical behaviours of the boy. When someone hasn't moved in over 9 years, and has already had no water whatsoever (after the failure of the pod) they will never be able to go the ways he did.
There are animals outside - and he never wondered how they survived the apocalypse? How they breath?
His Mom isn't answering for years on end - logically that should mean death. Yes, admittingly, he was a wee boy when he was thrown in the pod, but even 9 years later a small boys brain must have given up - especially when taking into consideration that he forogt so much about his former life. That he can't speak is illogical. Or that he doesn't know how to wear underpants. He must have been some 6 or 7 when he got in the pod. So his mom never taught him what underwear is? But those are just the small details, which sum up in the most illogical way ever:
A boy, abandoned by his mother, and a teenager, threatened by the outside world, finds his mother and is kind to her? Doesn't throw a fit, doesn't get emotional, doesn't have any reaction? Doesn't ask anything? Why did you do that? How could you? .....
And she still has her weird vape? Where does she get the supplies from?
Whilst the boy and the settlers had "immaculate " clothing, shaven armpits, hairdresser hair, nice teeth etc (OMG, SOOO illogical!!), oh, and wore lycra pants and tops, the mother looked indeed as if she was in a pod without anything. Except her vape.
Most illogical: An ex-society advanced enough to build the pots, would have been advanced enough to implement sport, diet pills, and astronaut food, along with the possibility of family pods so at least two people could live together.
Nothing of that happened. Jeez, more than half of the civilised world today already gobbles up tons of food supplements each day, has something like the Ringfit at home and dried food like beef jerk! (Which we know since the dawn of the human, actually)
I have done nearly a decade of medieval reenactment, as authentic as possible in Germany, and clothing that has been handsown, never looks like that when you don't have the supply of elastic fabrics, cotton and other industrialised materials anymore, not to mention needles and thread, or power for a sowing machine. And I very, very much doubt that they got their hands on a manual machine.
And the solar panels! They have solar panels on the roof but are afraid of being discovered. Erm, solar panels always produce a glare, depending on the angle a drone flies over? It is an intelligent solution, however, not when one is afraid to be discovered by the drones.
Although I love deep male voices, the narrator was completely out of place.
It could have been a calm storytelling movie, with just more thought and more realistic analysis of the human behaviour, and research on tiny home, outdoor and survival living, and it gets two stars only because for once I didn't have to see endless violence, sex and slaughter (and it seems that is all our nowadays society can film anymore)
I am an avid Scifi geek along with everything dystopian for over 40 years now, and I am starting to loose hope if I will ever see something great again.
The worst moments for me were the absolutely illogical behaviours of the boy. When someone hasn't moved in over 9 years, and has already had no water whatsoever (after the failure of the pod) they will never be able to go the ways he did.
There are animals outside - and he never wondered how they survived the apocalypse? How they breath?
His Mom isn't answering for years on end - logically that should mean death. Yes, admittingly, he was a wee boy when he was thrown in the pod, but even 9 years later a small boys brain must have given up - especially when taking into consideration that he forogt so much about his former life. That he can't speak is illogical. Or that he doesn't know how to wear underpants. He must have been some 6 or 7 when he got in the pod. So his mom never taught him what underwear is? But those are just the small details, which sum up in the most illogical way ever:
A boy, abandoned by his mother, and a teenager, threatened by the outside world, finds his mother and is kind to her? Doesn't throw a fit, doesn't get emotional, doesn't have any reaction? Doesn't ask anything? Why did you do that? How could you? .....
And she still has her weird vape? Where does she get the supplies from?
Whilst the boy and the settlers had "immaculate " clothing, shaven armpits, hairdresser hair, nice teeth etc (OMG, SOOO illogical!!), oh, and wore lycra pants and tops, the mother looked indeed as if she was in a pod without anything. Except her vape.
Most illogical: An ex-society advanced enough to build the pots, would have been advanced enough to implement sport, diet pills, and astronaut food, along with the possibility of family pods so at least two people could live together.
Nothing of that happened. Jeez, more than half of the civilised world today already gobbles up tons of food supplements each day, has something like the Ringfit at home and dried food like beef jerk! (Which we know since the dawn of the human, actually)
I have done nearly a decade of medieval reenactment, as authentic as possible in Germany, and clothing that has been handsown, never looks like that when you don't have the supply of elastic fabrics, cotton and other industrialised materials anymore, not to mention needles and thread, or power for a sowing machine. And I very, very much doubt that they got their hands on a manual machine.
And the solar panels! They have solar panels on the roof but are afraid of being discovered. Erm, solar panels always produce a glare, depending on the angle a drone flies over? It is an intelligent solution, however, not when one is afraid to be discovered by the drones.
Although I love deep male voices, the narrator was completely out of place.
It could have been a calm storytelling movie, with just more thought and more realistic analysis of the human behaviour, and research on tiny home, outdoor and survival living, and it gets two stars only because for once I didn't have to see endless violence, sex and slaughter (and it seems that is all our nowadays society can film anymore)
I am an avid Scifi geek along with everything dystopian for over 40 years now, and I am starting to loose hope if I will ever see something great again.
Good story, but you don't get any answers at the end.
guinnesswench4 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Also found under title "2149: The Aftermath". A boy locked in a "safe" pod by his mother a5 nine, because the biggest and world ending chemical war kills the air. He remained there for nine years until lightning hits his pod and he is forced to leave. But was it a lie? My disappointment was that they never explained what happened during and after the war that lead to such extreme measures. At 18, boy meets the first girl he sees and moves into a caring family hiding in the woods. But he still had to find his mother, locked in a similar pod, all while trying to avoid killer police drones.
This movie has so many names
jimwt6625 September 2021
It might be hard to get a fix on the real reviews of this movie since there are so many versions out there.
But for the one named 2149: The Aftermath, it's not an exciting movie and it does leave a lot of things unanswered but it is an OK movie.
I can see that some might draw parallels to what is happening now with Covid. Stay inside, let the government take care of you, and other things.
Beef up the response to Covid and it might come close to something like this. The people in the pods would be the pro vaccine/mask people and the people outside would be the no vaccine and mask people.
But for the one named 2149: The Aftermath, it's not an exciting movie and it does leave a lot of things unanswered but it is an OK movie.
I can see that some might draw parallels to what is happening now with Covid. Stay inside, let the government take care of you, and other things.
Beef up the response to Covid and it might come close to something like this. The people in the pods would be the pro vaccine/mask people and the people outside would be the no vaccine and mask people.
3 movie titles...1 movie
iounu230 August 2021
On IMDb this is called Darwin and also Confinement but on Amazon it's known as 2149:The Aftermath. I've watched a lot of movies but never seen 3 completely separate movie titles before. I haven't even watched it yet but when you can't get past the title without a mess you know it's gonna be trouble.
Ditto the reviews saying-Slow, Glacial, Predictible
EddiesFathersSon23 November 2021
I will just add that the narration is unnecessary and contributes to It's failure. And the voice! I started hitting mute when he came on. --- Just a tiny bit of scriptwork and this would have been a fairly watchable lobudget sci-fi flick. Lastly, no idea what the reviewers references to socialism are about. There's no indication of life before 2149. May have been a war between Amazon and Google for all I know.
Great film
jaimebargen27 September 2021
Excellent science fiction
Snootz27 September 2021
I would suppose this has a low rating because it's cerebral fiction and doesn't have enough action/adventure to appease today's adrenaline junkies. Further, zero bad language, no nudity, no violence. Most unusual for a post-apocalyptic sci fi film
This film has a great premise, good writing, good directing, good acting, music, and great use of limited scenery. A slow-burner for sure, but post-apocalyptic doesn't have to be Mad Max. Sometimes it's just people adapting.
I can't get into the strengths and weaknesses without spoilers, so suffice to say that the plot generally makes good, logical sense. Some people complain about 'missing information' but they haven't thought through the concept of a war that destroyed most of humanity, the remaining government trying to retain a viable workforce / civilization (as meager as it is), and survivors just trying to get by day to day (without going on sadistic rampages).
On the downside, the movie would have been better without narration... giving the audience a chance to figure a few things out. One doesn't have to know all the background details to understand the life the characters have been thrown in to. Remove the narration, it would have been a better, more immersive film.
This is a movie about people adapting to the needs of everyday life and discovering more about that life as time passes. Science fiction isn't always about giant robots and planet-conquering aliens. Sometimes great science fiction is just about people.
This film has a great premise, good writing, good directing, good acting, music, and great use of limited scenery. A slow-burner for sure, but post-apocalyptic doesn't have to be Mad Max. Sometimes it's just people adapting.
I can't get into the strengths and weaknesses without spoilers, so suffice to say that the plot generally makes good, logical sense. Some people complain about 'missing information' but they haven't thought through the concept of a war that destroyed most of humanity, the remaining government trying to retain a viable workforce / civilization (as meager as it is), and survivors just trying to get by day to day (without going on sadistic rampages).
On the downside, the movie would have been better without narration... giving the audience a chance to figure a few things out. One doesn't have to know all the background details to understand the life the characters have been thrown in to. Remove the narration, it would have been a better, more immersive film.
This is a movie about people adapting to the needs of everyday life and discovering more about that life as time passes. Science fiction isn't always about giant robots and planet-conquering aliens. Sometimes great science fiction is just about people.
Interesting
kenyaekofi24 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Living in the world where the air was poisonous. Abandoned by your mother and was never educated on how to speak proper sentences. Just insane. I see this was just a repost movie with a narrator with a different title, but it was interesting. Darwin had to take on the chance of survival or so he thought. Being isolated and living in a pod/rover. He then runs into other humans who accept him with open arms. But for some strange reason he understood English very well. Just the idea of not speaking to someone for 9 years seems unbearable. It seems intense that one of the boys with other humans was able to tell what Darwin was saying with air typing. He seemed to relearn how to speak very quickly. The dance moves were horrible. I guess no black people lived on this planet haha. It sucked that his mom lost her grip on reality. Too afraid to go back outside. But Darwin overcame his fear and lived life on his own terms!
Nonsensical cheap and slow
freermottram19 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Didn't get through it. Watched the first half and fell asleep.
Darwin is in a pod after a biological war that basically destroyed the earth's ability to support life. In the pod he has a chair and a big screen and lots of computer games. He works by remotely controlling a digger through cameras mounted on the digger. One day sees a dog and begins to question what he's been told about the world outside. A lightning strike shorts out all his systems and he ends up having to escape the pod rather than suffocate. On exiting he realises he can breathe. After a long walk he accidentally finds the dog and a girl. And then some more people. Darwin can't speak. They give him some food and one kid puts his hands on Darwin's hands and translates what Darwin pretends to type. Then I fell asleep.
Wow this is so bad. From the very beginning there is a voice over and it's an older Darwin. So we immediately know he makes it. Moreover when he escapes the pod and finds people he can't speak. So we also know he sorts that out too.
There's a small window in the pod from which we see the lighting strike. Darwin can see the outside world. Are we meant to think in all the years he's been in the pod he never once saw any sign of life? Especially as the first thing that happens when he stumbles out if the door is he frightens away 2 birds.
So much of this world makes no sense. He's alone in a pod but someone is overseeing his work. Who is that and where are they? There is a scene where he orders food. Where doss that come from and who re-stocks it? Who maintains the digger. After Darwin fills the hopper with the digger at the dig site who processes it. Why is there only 1 digger. Who cuts his hair and why bother?
When he leaves the pod he walks for days and just happens to end up in the quarry where he saw the dog. What a stupendous piece of luck!
Darwin's keypad is built into his trousers which he is wearing when the kid translates his typing. Firstly, how the hell do you do that when Darwin never moves his hands up and down as if moving over the keys? Secondly, the keypad is on his trouser leg. Show them.
Just silly and another one of those extremely low budget movies that plod along.
Save up some money and make 1 good movie instead of 5 bad ones.
Darwin is in a pod after a biological war that basically destroyed the earth's ability to support life. In the pod he has a chair and a big screen and lots of computer games. He works by remotely controlling a digger through cameras mounted on the digger. One day sees a dog and begins to question what he's been told about the world outside. A lightning strike shorts out all his systems and he ends up having to escape the pod rather than suffocate. On exiting he realises he can breathe. After a long walk he accidentally finds the dog and a girl. And then some more people. Darwin can't speak. They give him some food and one kid puts his hands on Darwin's hands and translates what Darwin pretends to type. Then I fell asleep.
Wow this is so bad. From the very beginning there is a voice over and it's an older Darwin. So we immediately know he makes it. Moreover when he escapes the pod and finds people he can't speak. So we also know he sorts that out too.
There's a small window in the pod from which we see the lighting strike. Darwin can see the outside world. Are we meant to think in all the years he's been in the pod he never once saw any sign of life? Especially as the first thing that happens when he stumbles out if the door is he frightens away 2 birds.
So much of this world makes no sense. He's alone in a pod but someone is overseeing his work. Who is that and where are they? There is a scene where he orders food. Where doss that come from and who re-stocks it? Who maintains the digger. After Darwin fills the hopper with the digger at the dig site who processes it. Why is there only 1 digger. Who cuts his hair and why bother?
When he leaves the pod he walks for days and just happens to end up in the quarry where he saw the dog. What a stupendous piece of luck!
Darwin's keypad is built into his trousers which he is wearing when the kid translates his typing. Firstly, how the hell do you do that when Darwin never moves his hands up and down as if moving over the keys? Secondly, the keypad is on his trouser leg. Show them.
Just silly and another one of those extremely low budget movies that plod along.
Save up some money and make 1 good movie instead of 5 bad ones.
Boring, and a huge cash grab at the anti-covid, anti-government group. Molly Parker's eyebrows save the day, tho.
xzhcscz7 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Warning: i wasted 40 minutes on this movie waiting for it to get better before fast forwarding to something actually happening. So I'm a little bitter and it shows.
I am often one of those people that watches a movie and goes, "That was good!" only to find out that everyone else hated it. My standards are quite low, is what I'm trying to say, so it's almost impressive how bad I think this movie is. There's more plot holes than there is actual plot, the world isn't fleshed out outside of literally the bare minimum needed to make their point of technology ruining society, and the characters are incredibly generic with no development.
The one saving grace that this movie has is that it sometimes has vaguely original takes on an overdone trope of a dystopian post-war future caused by the government hating its citizens for whatever reason.
It's like someone took the concept of "nothing technically HAS to happen in a movie" from Napoleon Dynamite and made it into a bad sci-fi movie with a thinly (I'm talking 2-ply toilet paper) veiled metaphor for "government bad! Technology bad! Both together? Even worser!"
The movie's metaphor is fitting for the way a lot of people feel about life under covid right now, so I am 99% sure they rereleased it under a different name for a cash grab, because it's been released under 3 different names since 2016. I'm also pretty sure any above-4-star ratings are from people who enjoyed it only due to their political beliefs. Even then, it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are, this is just a bad movie.
You could have literally participated in the January 6th riots, and I would still expect you to be sensible enough to be like, "yeah, but this is just a bad movie." I've seen better and more intriguing depictions of ~the human spirit~ and "my life is a lie?!" in my little brother's face when he found out Santa wasn't real, but he was still going to get presents, so it's whatever.
The acting is also quite subpar from everyone but Molly Parker. There's a 4-second scene where Parker's character is responding to a perceived threat, and all she does is literally turn around with a *slight* furrow in her brow, and you can see the incredibly notable difference in quality of acting. A literal eyebrow had more believable emotion than this entire movie. Which is surprising considering most of the main actors have decent resumes, so I have no idea why they have the charismatic equivalent to bird poop on your car the day after you washed it.
I guess you could say it's technically plot driven? Because it surely isn't driven by character development. Because there isn't any. Unless you count the main character's mom; despite having the most interesting plot-line of the movie- a mom who had to abandon her kid and then turned insane from isolation and drugs- she was STILL so incredibly boring. Her "loss of touch with reality" was her vaping, playing video games, and becoming mute. Most college students do that every other weekend, which I guess you could say is also, The Whole Point Of The Movie, but that doesn't mean it's actually good.
((Also, the main character's entire goal, and the climax of the movie, is realized by finding his mother, and after seeing that she's a brain dead druggie and that there is technically no government (?? Or something like that??), he literally just leaves. He's like "woah. I guess I'm free now. Sorry you're a traumatized mute, mom, ima leave, love you tho."))
There's also an attempt at commentary on how a 9-5 only serves to keep you dependent on it, which is also the government's fault, but it's soooo superficial and blatant that they might as well have just had the narrator say it at the beginning and spared us all a watch- and this is coming from someone who agrees with that point. The narration is also annoying. The voice actor is great, but the use of narration is random and 100% used out of laziness instead of actually contributing anything.
The characters are 2-D, uninteresting, and generic "I'm one of the good guys because there's nothing controversial about me! Because, I don't have a personality!" kind of characters. You might as well have had them wearing halos if they were supposed to be any more pure to drive home the message of being The Good Guys, Uncorrupted By TikTok. It's amazing how every character was literally just a plot device. I've actually never seen that done before.
The camera work was pretty decent, but everything was so saturated that you didn't get dystopian vibes at all. There was no filter to set the mood, so it looked like you were just looking at an iPhone video. I guess you could say that's aLsO a MeTaPhOR, but again. It doesn't make it good.
There's also a scene where they're supposed to be roughing it in the wild, dressed in rags and surrounded by a make-shift home they built *around* nature. And everything looked brand new. I'm pretty sure they bought the table and "hand-made" gazebo from home-depot's clearance section the day before filming. Their dishes and cutlery were almost distractingly shiny and unscathed; it's just one of the many little details that pulls you out of the movie.
Overall, it feels like no one put any thought into this movie outside of trying to capitalize off of those who get their covid and media awareness from the-REAL-truth.com and Fox News. The most captivating thing about this movie was literally Molly Parker's eyebrows.
The end.
I am often one of those people that watches a movie and goes, "That was good!" only to find out that everyone else hated it. My standards are quite low, is what I'm trying to say, so it's almost impressive how bad I think this movie is. There's more plot holes than there is actual plot, the world isn't fleshed out outside of literally the bare minimum needed to make their point of technology ruining society, and the characters are incredibly generic with no development.
The one saving grace that this movie has is that it sometimes has vaguely original takes on an overdone trope of a dystopian post-war future caused by the government hating its citizens for whatever reason.
It's like someone took the concept of "nothing technically HAS to happen in a movie" from Napoleon Dynamite and made it into a bad sci-fi movie with a thinly (I'm talking 2-ply toilet paper) veiled metaphor for "government bad! Technology bad! Both together? Even worser!"
The movie's metaphor is fitting for the way a lot of people feel about life under covid right now, so I am 99% sure they rereleased it under a different name for a cash grab, because it's been released under 3 different names since 2016. I'm also pretty sure any above-4-star ratings are from people who enjoyed it only due to their political beliefs. Even then, it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are, this is just a bad movie.
You could have literally participated in the January 6th riots, and I would still expect you to be sensible enough to be like, "yeah, but this is just a bad movie." I've seen better and more intriguing depictions of ~the human spirit~ and "my life is a lie?!" in my little brother's face when he found out Santa wasn't real, but he was still going to get presents, so it's whatever.
The acting is also quite subpar from everyone but Molly Parker. There's a 4-second scene where Parker's character is responding to a perceived threat, and all she does is literally turn around with a *slight* furrow in her brow, and you can see the incredibly notable difference in quality of acting. A literal eyebrow had more believable emotion than this entire movie. Which is surprising considering most of the main actors have decent resumes, so I have no idea why they have the charismatic equivalent to bird poop on your car the day after you washed it.
I guess you could say it's technically plot driven? Because it surely isn't driven by character development. Because there isn't any. Unless you count the main character's mom; despite having the most interesting plot-line of the movie- a mom who had to abandon her kid and then turned insane from isolation and drugs- she was STILL so incredibly boring. Her "loss of touch with reality" was her vaping, playing video games, and becoming mute. Most college students do that every other weekend, which I guess you could say is also, The Whole Point Of The Movie, but that doesn't mean it's actually good.
((Also, the main character's entire goal, and the climax of the movie, is realized by finding his mother, and after seeing that she's a brain dead druggie and that there is technically no government (?? Or something like that??), he literally just leaves. He's like "woah. I guess I'm free now. Sorry you're a traumatized mute, mom, ima leave, love you tho."))
There's also an attempt at commentary on how a 9-5 only serves to keep you dependent on it, which is also the government's fault, but it's soooo superficial and blatant that they might as well have just had the narrator say it at the beginning and spared us all a watch- and this is coming from someone who agrees with that point. The narration is also annoying. The voice actor is great, but the use of narration is random and 100% used out of laziness instead of actually contributing anything.
The characters are 2-D, uninteresting, and generic "I'm one of the good guys because there's nothing controversial about me! Because, I don't have a personality!" kind of characters. You might as well have had them wearing halos if they were supposed to be any more pure to drive home the message of being The Good Guys, Uncorrupted By TikTok. It's amazing how every character was literally just a plot device. I've actually never seen that done before.
The camera work was pretty decent, but everything was so saturated that you didn't get dystopian vibes at all. There was no filter to set the mood, so it looked like you were just looking at an iPhone video. I guess you could say that's aLsO a MeTaPhOR, but again. It doesn't make it good.
There's also a scene where they're supposed to be roughing it in the wild, dressed in rags and surrounded by a make-shift home they built *around* nature. And everything looked brand new. I'm pretty sure they bought the table and "hand-made" gazebo from home-depot's clearance section the day before filming. Their dishes and cutlery were almost distractingly shiny and unscathed; it's just one of the many little details that pulls you out of the movie.
Overall, it feels like no one put any thought into this movie outside of trying to capitalize off of those who get their covid and media awareness from the-REAL-truth.com and Fox News. The most captivating thing about this movie was literally Molly Parker's eyebrows.
The end.
The danger of big government socialism.
jamalking1510 October 2021
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