Zone 414

Zone 414: A Blade Runnerish SF thriller set in near future UK. Guy Pearce is David, in the Deckard role and at one stage kills an android but that isn't his real job. He's hired by a billionaire to track down his missing daughter, Melissa. Matilda Lutz is a pleasure model android, more advanced than most, philosophises a lot about her predicament, sees a counsellor. But Lutz is no passive victim, she aids David when he arrives in Zone 414 where humans and android are allowed to interact. Thus begins a dark journey where both human and android life don't count for much. Olwen Fouéré is suitably sinister as the madam for the pleasure models. The budget wasn't quite high enough to achieve a full Cyber Punk aesthetic in Zone 414 (or the cities) but it's suitably run down and grim . A couple of plot twists and some rather violent scenes. Directed by Andrew Baird from a screenplay by Bryan Edward Hill. Saw it on Virgin Media Movies. 7/10.

I sat down to watch the 2021 sci-fi thriller "Zone 414" from writer Bryan Edward Hill and director Andrew Baird. I must say that I took an interest to the movie when I stumbled upon it, as the synopsis sounded interesting enough, and also because the movie has Guy Pearce on the cast list.

However, I should say that I hadn't heard anything about the movie prior to watching it, nor did I even know about it existing. So I wasn't sure what I was in for, nor did I have any expectations to the movie. So I entered the movie with an open mind and a clean slate.

And sure, aspects of "Zone 414" definitely were interesting, but the writing was just inadequate. "Zone 414" just felt like a knock off of the "Bladerunner" movie in many aspects, but at the same time managing to be original enough in its own way. However, for a futuristic thriller, then "Zone 414" just was lacking certain important elements to the storyline and to the overall feel of the movie.

The pacing of the storyline was a bit mundane and somewhat of a struggle to sit through, as there were severe slumps of period of nothing much interesting happening in the plot, and that definitely challenged my attention span of the movie. And the overall lack of futuristic environment and atmosphere, just took away so much from the movie, that was somewhat hard to buy into this being a futuristic movie with androids.

Guy Pearce was definitely nicely cast for "Zone 414" and carried the movie quite well with his performance. I am not overly much a fan of Travis Frimmel, but the way they made him look in the movie with the prosthetics and make-up was certainly interesting, and his performance was adequate, but somewhat diminished next to Guy Pearce's performance.

While "Zone 414" was watchable, it just wasn't an outstanding movie. Nor was it a particularly memorable foray into the sci-fi thriller genre. But if you enjoyed something like "Bladerunner", then chances are you will find something appealing about "Zone 414".

I found the movie to be rather bland, truth be told, and as such, my rating of "Zone 414" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

I found almost every element in this movie just slightly undercooked. The director has done well to hide an obvious low budget but where it suffers is in the story elements. Obvious comparisons to Blade Runner aside it is not a good detective story, they go here, they go there, they meet whacky weird characters, but no real sense of intrigue or suspense. The main character is a half baked unoriginal copy, the a.i. Character is done well but again, nothing original innovative or different, though very well acted. It was just so very MEH, when the bones were there for something surprising and different i am left knowing i will forget it very soon.

Zone 414 had an awesome plot that for whatever reason it could not fully live up to.

The story falls short. It feels like it's trying to be like Blade Runner without ripping it off and it that confusion it lost its way (and still looks like its ripping off Blade Runner) I don't want to crap on the fact that this movie looks cheap but it does. Very little cyberpunk in the visuals even though the story is engulf in it.

Not really bad but just not worth the time.

This is not a perfect movie by any means, however it is better than several of the harsh reviews it seems to be getting.

One reviewer even said "worse than 5th element", which seems like a odd comparison (also, who hates 5th element, and is into scifi?).

If you are at all into Neo-Noir, it is well worth the watch. A bit predictable, and not exactly cyberpunk. More near future I suppose. But maybe that is because of us inching closer and closer to a high-tech dystopia.