Levels

Whilst the script could have used refinement, some of the visual gimmicks were heavy handed, at the heart of this story is real substance. Unlike a lot of Hollywood movies, especially in genre adjacent stuff, this movie feels like it has a genuine human element as well as a sort of wistful philosophy befitting the subject material.

The special effects are beyond what one would expect from a low budget, and indeed so is the acting, which successfully sells the premise. On the downside there's a little too much exposition and as mentioned before reliance on visual gimmicks.

But where you can watch most blockbuster movies and feel like you've been exposed to no real new ideas, or effected by the premise, the heart this movie has makes the sci-fi experience more personal - as science fiction should be, a reflection of our human experience.

All told, worth a watch IMO.

For Sci-Fi fans, you may watch It... for regular folks, I'd say skip It.

I did like this movie a bit, but a lot of scenes don't have Impact as It should have been (could have been elevated by editing or camera movements)

The movie pacing In this one is just slow and boring sometimes...

While some fighting scenes I did like (It wasnt very over the top)... Some dialogue Is well crafted.

The plot Is a mess and full of plot holes... It starts to lose any sense at the end.

While this movie budget was small, the CGI mostly did It's job... but It's still 'modern' world.

This movie is like a Matrix but made by Indie and with less Impact.

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.

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.