With the Blu-ray and DVD release of this movie still being reasonably recent, and it being one of the movies I’d wanted to see in the cinema this year and never got around to seeing (partly due to having nobody to go to the cinema with) I recently decided to sit down and watch this movie. Here’s my Verdict.
The Setup
Set in a future where humans are outfitted with a number of technological “enhancements”, including things like cybernetic eyes, enhanced strength and cybernetic implants to increase intelligence and work with machines, the story follows the character of Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson), a survivor of a terrorist attack who’s body was damaged beyond repair and who’s brain is transplanted into a robotic body, or “shell”, by the Hanka Robotics. She’s seen as the future of humanity, and is quickly assigned to “Section 9”, a counter-terrorist bureau, where she rises to the rank of Major before the main story begins.
Working with her team, but disobeying orders to wait for backup, Killian goes in alone and thwarts a terrorist attack on a Hanka business meeting. There Killian saves many of the guests, and kills a robotic geisha. Killian, however, seems to be experiencing hallucinations which her designers put down to being simple glitches. She also seems upset by how little she can remember of her past. After learning of the origins of the attack and the suspect behind it, Killian makes the reckless decision to hack into the geisha for answers on who overtook it and where to find them. This leads our heroine on a path to confronting the terrorist, but also learning so much more about her origin, her past, and what those hallucinations/glitches she’s seeing really mean…
The Delivery
Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and everything else about this film, shall we? To start off we could look at the worldwide gross, which while profitable you’ve got to believe was a disappointment for those involved. From watching the movie I could see why. The advertising for it wasn’t exactly mind-blowing, and the main reason I wanted to see the film was because I’d heard so many good things about the source material despite never having looked into it before. It was a chance to see what the hype was really all about for me, and I’ll admit that it had the effect of making me want to check out the source material a little more now, even if the movie itself wasn’t the greatest. That said, it wasn’t a bad movie either. It held my attention for it’s entire runtime, even if the plot was a little formulaic in more than a few different ways. The advertising didn’t really grab the attention of the world though, I think it’s safe to say, and that could be because the movie itself didn’t really give us anything revolutionary either. From what I remember of the advertising a lot of it focused on the fact that Scarlett Johansson was the main actress, which may not have been the greatest way to advertise this particular film. It had a lot more to go for it other than it’s main star, and I think it may have generated more interest if it was marketed as more of a whole package than just focusing the advertising so much on her. Then again maybe that decision was made because the rest of the film didn’t really jump out as all that different from other films in the genre.
That said, there were some very cool visuals in the film, and the world on display was stunning. The high rise buildings which made up the city, with the giant holographic advertising throughout, made for a very cool vision of the future. The actual cityscape itself though, while very cool looking, didn’t jump out as anything particularly new. I think back to Mad Max: Fury Road and while it showed a very different vision of the potential future it stood out as “different” far more than this film. The most exciting visuals in the film, which I think the advertising could have benefited from, came from the different technological enhancements on display, from the little metallic plates on the heads of some people who’d presumably had cybernetic enhancements built in to the robotic eyes that some possessed to the exoskeletons on display, not to mention the completely robotic characters like the geisha who Killian faces early on to kick off the main plot. These were all very cool and very well done, both convincing visually as well as compelling to watch, and the blend of costuming and CGI made everything look very real. There are so often moments in films like this where you look at something as looking particularly “fake” due to the overuse or simply poor execution of CGI but that wasn’t the case here at all.
There’s nothing wrong with the acting or the casting here either. It could possibly have done with the casting of another “big name” or two to pad out the cast, so it wasn’t quite so reliant on Scarlett Johansson as the only major recognisable face in the film (and there were a few roles where I think that a bigger name actor could have worked well in support, especially when it comes to widening the appeal of the movie in advertising), but there were no particularly terrible performances in the film. Everyone played their role well, and I have no complaints about any of the acting. The use of a mix of languages was perhaps a little questionable, with the chief only speaking in Japanese the whole time but everyone responding in English, which I felt was a little weird and never explained throughout the film, with I suppose us just meant to believe that this is the way the future will work with various nationalities so mixed together. Still, it wasn’t the acting or the special effects that really brought the movie down for me but rather that formulaic story where, unfortunately, it was rather predictable the entire time what was going to happen next. Even knowing nothing about the story of the source material going in I could have told you, moments after being introduced to each character, exactly what their future would hold and exactly how their story would progress. That was disappointing. Even the development of the “villains” was very paint-by-numbers, and due to the nature of the plot when characters were put at risk of death there was no edge-of-your-seat moments in the hope that the character would live. It was so predictable that unfortunately it made it hard to really bond with any character besides Killian.
This wasn’t what I’d consider a “modern” sci-fi film, in the sense that there was very little humour involved. A lot of films these days, especially after the success of the MCU films, tend to try for that blend of humour in some moments and this one didn’t pander for that, so I’ll give the film respect for that. I’m going to go ahead and assume that that’s because of the nature of the source material. Still, it did feel at a few points like it was taking itself a little too seriously. The “woe is me” attitude that Killian has throughout is a bit of a buzz kill at times, and her struggle over the fact that she clearly feels like she’s more robot than human isn’t really explored as much as it could have been. It feels like it’s just stated a few times in certain conversations with no exploration into her life beyond her job and that of the plot, and I feel like that they missed a beat or two in helping us explore more of the character in that. Again, if they’d done that, if they’d explored more of the character so that the audience felt more of a connection with her – and indeed with the other supporting characters – that when their lives were at risk perhaps it would have felt more meaningful. Even a paint-by-numbers plot, when you care deeply about the characters, can be made all the better. The film definitely missed a beat by exploring more of the character than they could have.
The Verdict
As with these posts, I don’t want to give a whole “rating out of ten” thing for movies. Everybody’s taste is subjective and you may feel that this film is far better than my rating based on the way that you score versus the way that I would score. Instead I’ve devised my own scoring system, and with this one I’ll give it the same rating as the last film:
Watch it on Rental/Netflix
It’s hard to say that it’s a bad film. It’s not. It’s also hard to say it’s a film that’s particularly worth paying a lot of money for. It was on my Wish List for Amazon until I bought it off Amazon on their new films for £1.99 deal for Prime customers. £1.99 felt like the right kind of price that I didn’t mind paying for this film. If you see it on Netflix then it’s probably worth watching if you like sci-fi films. It’s a decent enough film, it’s just not anything particularly amazing. It’s probably not worth buying the Blu-ray for either, unfortunately. I wouldn’t say it’s worth watching over and over again, but if you’re a sci-fi fan then it’s definitely worth seeing once.