Virtual Revolution

Good plot, good dialog, saves the movie from the obvious low budget. Music suits the movie theme. Composed by the director even. Some visual effects catch your eye for not being "Hollywood standard". I've seen worse visual effects with way more budget. Still impressive piece of work with actors doing their best within what they've given. For a low budget scifi flick I'm more than entertained. The storyline was easy to follow and some minor distractions were saved by lively dialogue (my mother language is not English so I don't pay much detail to subtle nyances in dialogue). Very enjoyable scifi flick to pass the time with a nice thought provoking plot.

This movie is not particularly original, but it doesn't slavishly copy any other film. The noir atmosphere is nicely done. The characters are interesting, and really live in the future in believable ways. The plot is decent. There are no big surprises, but my interest was kept until the end. The film ends with an unsettling ambiguity in probably the nicest touch.

I cannot really label myself a sci fi aficionado in the sense that I do not go looking for sci fi movies. I generally prefer my sci fi as context, as opposed to focus of a movie.

This movie surprised me because while it was sci fi, the sci fi simultaneously was context for discussion of the state of society, and how trying to fix society without obtaining buy in of society eminently can backfire.

That the ending was somewhat dystopian seemingly was fitting because it was the choice of the people, as opposed to an imposition of say, a dictatorship.

First, in an effort to be positive: There are so many things in this film done amazingly well - especially considering the budget. The cinematography was quite good, the production design and props were - again, for the money - amazing. Costume department had a strong showing. Well done. The special effects were not groundbreaking, but for groundbreaking special effects, it seems you have to employ 1,000 VFX artists. (You ever count the names in the VFX section of the credits of a blockbuster? That's a small city right there.) In any event, the effects were good enough to not be a distraction.

The creative aspects of this film, sadly, did not live up to the technical achievements. I understand that this film is strongly influenced by Blade Runner, Inception, The Matrix, perhaps the book Ready Player One (which Spielberg has made into a film). No issues there. However, if you're going to play in that space, the characters have to be grounded, they have to pull you into the story. The dialogue has to be believable to the ear. The actors have to sell that world to the audience. This did not happen, as other reviewers have mentioned.

However, if you are starting out as a filmmaker, this is a great film to watch. You get to see that impressive visuals can be achieved with a modest budget ... and think about how much better it could have been if the writing had been a step up.

Definitely worth watching, from that perspective.

If you could program a perfect life for yourself, but it wasn't real and you could not go back, would you do it? Is life about experience or is it about soldiering on in the real world, however depressing it might be?

This movie is yet another exploration of this theme. But I think it does it well and has a new take upon it.

The rest of the movie was a nice b-movie, watchable with some weaknesses and some cringe. But I liked the basic theme and I do not regret watching this movie at all. Give it a go if you are into these sort of thing.