Sunday, June 3, 2018

"Upgrade" (2018)

I met director Leigh Whannell on the set of "Saw" nearly 20 years ago.
His career has blossomed beyond the one location film and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. James Wan too.

Everyone in this town has one of those stories. Everyone has a James Wan story. They are genuinely nice guys. Very grateful anyone would want to work on their movies.

"Upgrade" has that Australian humor. Dark. But also playful. Also, lack of formula because this movie is that. "Matrix" meets "RoboCop" meets "Terminator" meets Anything Philip K. Dick.
In this not-so-distant future, our society has fractured because of technology. Again, we prefer to live in automation. Though this doesn't address the collision course head on, it is nice to see SOMEONE root for the days of analog.
The story is of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), a normal guy whose wife works for a super progressive technological company. When the machine malfunctions, it ends up costing the life of his wife (no spoiler as it's in the trailer) and rendering Grey a quadrapalegic. A mysterious uber-nerd, Eron (Harrison Gilbertson) offers Grey the use of his body again by way of STEM. A chip that is implanted into a body that controls the motor-neurons. Or something like that. STEM not only gives him full function but now speaks to him.
Without going into too many discoveries, this movie asks a question ANY Ridley Scott movie does but sheds the melancholy. And may have cracked the entertainment value that has eluded Steven Spielberg's "A.I." or "Minority Report." It's a grim story of computers ruling our lives. Then...making the lives theirs.

Are you tired of hearing about how flesh, bone and blood are going obsolete? This addresses that as well.
Overall, the movie moves. And that's a welcome change for so much darkness of the subject matter. Though it keeps it light, it still has some deep thoughts on where we are in terms of information and how fast it will start to consume us.

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