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.

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.

Welcome to the future, where everything is computerized but Siri still sounds like a computer from the 80's. I almost turned off the movie solely based on that annoying Siri voice.

"Levels" is the brainchild of Adam Stern and I think would do fairly good as a book, but here the casting is just horrible, it seems like they just took the first two actors that were available and the pacing of the movie is too slow and gets really boring at parts. The actors are not horrible, but here their performance is flat, and their chemistry is non-existent.

Adam Stern's got some hurdles to overcome before he can deliver a real blockbuster. For now, it's a niche indie film, likely drawing in Cara Gee fans from The Expanse, but unlikely to reach a broader audience.

Watch if you are a hardcore indie/sci-fi fan, I don't think I would recommend this otherwise it's just a dull watch. Exact score: 44 / 100.

It's a complete disappointment. The first thing I criticize is the music. The music of the movie is terrible. A movie soundtrack is definitely very important. The music that plays in this movie is classical. But the movie is science fiction. The other important thing is the plot. The script may be good, but the plot is very important. Jumping from topic to topic will take the viewer away from the movie. Also the actors. The actress definitely plays so badly that I would never want to see her again. Also the actor is not very good. Science fiction has been tried, but this is only in communication networks. In other words, when technology advances, it advances in the entire universe. For example, the fact that cars are the same, but almost all communication tools are made with eyes is a complete fiasco. I think no expense was spared for this movie. Because all the scenes were generally shot in the same place.

In short, it is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.