Upgrade is about a mechanic who's wife has been murdered after their semi auto-piloted driving car crashes. the mechanic himself has been left paralyzed by the ordeal but a former client of his offers him a microchip implant that would not only give him back the use of his body but also help him find the men responsible. Bottom line, I recommend this movie. Out of 5 stars I’d give it 3 1/2.
Still here? Good. Let me see if I still know how to review a movie in a traditional sense. Bare with me, WORLD. I'm a bit rusty. *Ahem*
Directed by Leigh Whannell of Saw and Insidious fame, Upgrade is bloody at parts and action packed but mainly a straight forward telling of a futuristic revenge movie. One can probably guess how this film ends as I did. I saw the ending coming a mile away then it happened just as I thought it would. Then, it didn't.
Upgrade happens in the not so distant future. A mechanic named Grey
 |
| Logan Marshall-Green |
As the couple head home in a semi automated vehicle provided by Asha's company, the self-driving car's system fails, the car overturns and the couple appear to suffer only minor injuries until a team of men show up, shoot Grey in the neck and murder Asha. A few months later, Eron visits a paralyzed Grey offering a chance to get the use of his body back with help from the STEM chip. Of course, it wouldn't be a movie if Grey didn't take Eron up on this offer, right? And of course, the experiment works, Grey gets the use of his body back, and all is right with the world for all of 5 minutes until Grey hears a voice in his head.
STEM turns out to be much more than a second chance for Grey to have full body movement. Much more. Among other things, it can also communicate with the owner of the body it's been implanted in. This turns out to be a plus for Grey, who is so not happy with the job the police, led by Officer Cortez (Get Out's Betty Gabriel), have been doing trying to identify his assailants. Apparently, having the video of the assault thanks to recording drones everywhere still can't lead the police to the perpetrators. Good old STEM saw the video once and seemed to gain more knowledge about the assailants identities than the police did.
What follows during rest of the movie could best be described as a mix of Taken and The Matrix. Marshall-Green's presence through out the film was the real draw for me. Even if he acted a little wooden in certain scenes, you knew his motivation and saw it clearly on his face. Gabriel, who was underused until a little past the two thirds of the movie was done, was very effective and charismatic as a somewhat ineffective officer but again, I will say she was underused. On another note, I do think adding her to this movie was inspired casting. This movie and Get Out could almost play off of each other if one watched them both at the same time. As Eron, Gilbertson was giving off those creepy vibes that actors like Crispin Glover or Dane DeHaan provide so easily.
Still, this film isn't without it's flaws. The bad guys, lead by Benedict Hardie's Fisk, didn't stand out much to me but I believe that was because the plot didn't require them to. The movie looked fantastic at first but as the movie went on, the future started to look more and more generic. It doesn't distract you from the movie once everything gets rolling so it's not really a big deal but this movie could've been set in the present day and the movie would've still worked. Also, the dialogue was groan inducing at times. I literally groaned at the dialogue... a lot. And for this movie to be somewhat of a horror movie, it's not horrifying at all. It's quite the opposite. When I wasn't groaning I was LMAO. I wasn't the only one either. The audience I viewed this movie with was laughing as often as I was. There's two maybe three scenes that even come close to horror but even those got plenty of laughs from the crowd. It's not Shakespeare, for sure, but if you wanted action and a few good laughs plus a great plot twist, then this movie is for you. Overall, the film was great. I can't wait to see it again.
