Binary Samurai

Needless to say that I had never even heard about the 2023 sci-fi movie "Binary Samurai" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2024. And with it being a movie that I had never heard about, much less actually watched, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

Sure, I have to admit that I harbored zero expectations to the movie, given the title and the premise of the synopsis. But still, I opted to watch what writers Sean-Michael Argo and Aaron Kondziela had to offer. And the staggering 3.0 rating on IMDb, while I sat down to watch the movie, didn't exatly raise any hopes for the movie either.

And here I was thinking Samurai were Japanese people. Well, not in "Binary Samurai" they aren't...

Of course I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. Usually I am actually fond of watching movies with unfamiliar talents and faces on the screen, but I have to say that movies that are starring the same guy who wrote and directed the movie, well that just leaves a rancid taste in my mouth.

"Binary Samurai" is a low budget movie, no doubt about it. But writer and director Sean-Michael Argo seemed to have put quite some effort into the movie, attempting to make it look like more than just your average low budget homemade sci-fi action. But it didn't necessarily make it a good movie though, but points awarded for trying.

I found this movie to be a struggle to sit through, and it is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend you to waste your time, money or effort on.

My rating of "Binary Samurai" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

Dear GOD! What an utter dumpster fire of a movie. I could review the whole thing but let's just do the first 5 minutes. Brand new camelback backpack in a decimated apocalyptic world, Check. M-4 rifles with magazines that hold bullets yet fire lasers, Check. "Martial arts" moves that look like the Step Brothers doing "Karate in the garage", check! Binary background graphics, check. Now on to the acting. The acting in this reminds me of when I went to my son's 2nd grade play. Basically, someone had a bit of money they wanted to waste, found an abandoned and overgrown warehouse, and a few "actors" willing to work for screen time and lunch, and said F it, let's make a movie. Throw in some black lick effects, neon tubing for that incredible futuristic look, and BOOM, you've got yourself a modern masterpiece of UCKERY! (Leave off that F for the censors".

Avoid this at all costs! Whatever the cost! AVOID IT!

Someone needs to give Sean Michael Argo some money, because clearly he has some interesting ideas jumping around his head. While I give him the credit for putting his ideas to screen, it's hard to give him too much credit due bare bones results.

Much like a couple other movies I have seen with him, namely Ember Days and The Cleric, Binary Samurai takes on a lot of the weird and distinct tropes he has peppered in his films. This time around he takes a stab at cyberpunk, which is interesting considering the world he built is distinct and detailed. In an alternate 1999, the internet shut down. Millions were still "jacked in" and thus their minds were lost to the digital realm and left on hard drives called nodes. These nodes are worshipped by Otaku, people devoted to technology who hide from the general populace. Samurai walk the earth killing Otaku and ronin along the way as our two leads serve an evil hacker named Demogogue. They quickly discover there is a digital entity hiding in the digital realm known as the Kami of Wires. Needless to say, that is the end of it.

Truthfully, we get little insight into what the Kami of Wires is meant to represent. Maybe a messianic figure? I don't know, it was never quite explained. The story overall is pretty vague, and overall it's hard to gauge what is really going on. I suppose one of the bad guys is a robot? Overall, the film looks pretty good for a micro-budget production, mixing in elements of Neuromancer and Snow Crash with movies like Hardware and Cyborg. So how could all of this fail?

Besides some wonky sound design, it's the weird interpretive dance. I felt like I was watching a how to video about tai chi, and it happens a lot. This whole idea was utilized as a way to differentiate the real world with the digital, and in some ways it is interesting. But it just kept going on and on, and ultimately it got silly when two characters got into a "fight."

There are elements in this story that would make an interesting movie, and the scenery and sets Argo used and created are top notch. But it falls short and ends up as another deep cut on free streaming services.