Zona 414

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.

Worth a watch for scifi fans. This one was not the right fit for Travis Fimmel (Ragnar Lothbrook in Vikings), whose makeup was even more distracting than the weird Viking accent which seemed fake and melodramatic here. Still, there were some redeeming aspects, including the "brother" played by Jonathan Aris, who stole the show as the most interesting character, and overall a high quality production with a cast of other excellent actors worth mentioning: Guy Pierce, Colin Salmon, Ned Dennehy and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, all of whom saving it from being a complete disaster.

This film had some amazing eye candy filler - especially for having a low 5m budget, but the story needed more substance and better pacing.

This is director Andrew Baird first full length feature film, and he did great. For an international (Irish) low budget indie film, it was better than some recent big budget Hollywood blockbusters I've seen lately. The cinematography by James Mather was outstanding, and even made basic inexpensive sets feel like that post-apocalyptic grungy future one would expect.

The 98 min runtime felt a little long with the slow pacing and progression of the story. The writing by Bryan Edward Hill had some plot and technical issues with some convoluted dialogue, and the screenplay could've used some tweaking by a seasoned writer. Had the film been cut down to about 85 mins with faster pacing, and/or had more grit and suspense with a little more character development, this could've been a cult classic.

The score I found to be excellent, especially for a B grade film. It was fitting, and certainly set the look and feel of the film appropriately. The performances were great by all, especially Fimmel, but I felt Pearce's character could've used more expression and energy.

Overall I did enjoy this better than I expected. I just wish that the story had some tweaking that could've made this great. It's a well deserved 7/10 from me.

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.

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.