Levels

Good acting, interesting premise, good special effects (for it's budget) this movie has it all except that it is utterly boring. It's like Free Guy after they sucked every ounce of fun out of it. Cara Gee (the Expanse) couldn't save this movie from being bland but she is definitely a good watching point. The premise is interesting and while we have seen similar premises in Free Guy, Matrix and Inception we have never seen this exact premise in any movie that I know of. It could be a very interesting movie but it failed. I am being generous giving it 5 stars because it was made competently but it is so boring and after you know what is going on then it is just unbearable to watch and the final twist doesn't make up for it even though it's quite clever. This movie is barely watchable once, I would never sit through it a second time.

A mish mash of themes and tropes from movies that done them far better. There really isn't anything remotely original. The writing is flat and the actors don't seem to be very invested, I've seen far better acting during daytime soap operas. Cara Gee did OK but even she seemed to be phoning it in.

Nothing feels lived in, it feels like it is, them on a bad set with bad lighting and bad set design with no budget.

The special effects are early 90s level of bad. Lots of unnecessary lens flares and really, really, really bad green screen backgrounds. There's a weird soft fuzzy filter over everything.

The pacing is slow. It's really not exciting at all. Trying to be futuristic everything they touch bleeps and bloops.

As a hard core lover of everything scifi this was really disappointing. It doesn't even fit into "it's so bad it's good" territory.

There is nothing gained from watching this movie.

Other reviews contrasting this Canadian production (presumably lower budget, but unsurprisingly good acting) with Free Guy and Matrix aren't wrong, but what we see with this entry into that universe is not only visually appealing (all three films have had mind-bending special effects), but shows a bit of heart and soul. It feels less mass produced. So what was needed was a bit more work on the development of the characters, a bit more plot development. I acknowledge the criticism of another reviewer that the exposition feels a bit dogmatic, but davka (actually, for me) that is necessary for the precious little character development we do have here, so I wouldn't have edited that out. Rather, I'd have added to the run-time a bit, to flesh out all of the characters, precisely because, in a digital universe, personality and individuality begins to matter in this one. Perhaps...our choices do matter.

Disclosure: I could only stand the first half of the movie. If anything significant happened at the second half, that I do not know.

The movie starts slow and progresses even slower. At a few times when you feel the pace is building up, it goes down again.

Acting is dull and forced. I tried to justify that by the theme of the movie but my personal legends like Amanda Tapping and. David Hewlett both deliver solid performances. The rest of the cast, unfortunately, need to learn from them and have a long way ahead.

Simple story aside, the conversations are also simple, shallow, uninspiring. I saw no creativity or even slightly entertaining part in any section. I felt like the movie tried to inspire some philosophical debate but falls short on each and every level.

To sum up, this should have been a much better experience. It wasn't.

Joe (Peter Mooney) seems to be jumping from world to world. He encounters Ash (Cara Gee), Hunter (Aaron Abrams), Oliver (David Hewlett), and a gun. The first thirty minutes are a confusing bore. Then comes the long info dump. It's not a good way to start and connect with these characters. For this sci-fi indie, the writing is the problem. There is no advantage to leaving the reveal late in the process. It needs to explain this world sooner. In the end, it doesn't sound wild enough. The acting is pretty good for a lower budget sci-fi. The special effects are fine. The movie probably lost me in the first 30 minutes.