Writer/director Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade (2018) is a
mid-budget sci-fi/thriller that borrows lot of elements from the 80s & 90s
cyberpunk flicks, and sprinkles Black
Mirror’s ‘beware-of-digital-world’ message on top of it. It has a good
atmosphere, inventive gory action scenes, and a fairly captivating every-man
protagonist. Of course, there are logical leaps and overplays
its hand a bit in providing the grim futuristic vision, but it delivers some
riotous fun, comparatively more than the average summer blockbusters. Leigh Whannell is
director James Wan’s favorite screenwriter (Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious
franchise) and he had made his directorial debut with the 3rd
chapter of Insidious. With Upgrade, Whannell has tried to tackle a more
ambitious, genre-bending project that gets points for witty script and visceral
action.
Logan Marshall-Green of The Invitation
(2016) plays Grey Trace, a stubbled, hyper-masculine, old-school mechanic. In
this near-future digital world full of self-driving cars, smart houses, and
cybernetic organisms, Grey remains a Luddite, watching the technological
innovations enveloping his surroundings with innate suspicion. Despite the
doubts over alleged utopian human-machine systems, Grey has married a hotshot
worker in the cybernetic field named Asha (Melanie Vallejo). In few brief
moments, Whannell conveys the mutual love between the couples, regardless of
their contradictory stance on digital world. Soon after this character-building, Grey takes
Asha for a ride to drop a car at the bizarrely-structured lair of a smug,
billionaire technocrat, Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson). On return, a
mysterious error in the automated car lands them on the wrong end of the town. The waylaid couple is attacked by a gang of thugs. Asha is
brutally shot down and Grey wakes up a quadriplegic, wheel-chair bound
for life.
Grey is determined to bring the killers to justice, but the
investigation led by a well-meaning detective named Cortez (Betty Gabriel)
doesn’t seem to have produced any results so far. While wallowing in the sea of
post-traumatic stress, Eron offers help in the form of STEM, a surgically
implanted computer system, which may restore the severed connection between
Grey’s brain and his body. Eron simply wants Grey to be a guinea pig to test
the efficiency of STEM, before making it into a marketable product. The
resulting operation allows Grey to walk again. However, Eron asks to keep it a
secret and thus Grey confines himself to wheel-chair outside the house. Unlike
the 'Robocop', Grey doesn’t seem to have an inherent lust for revenge, up until
the STEM begins to talk, a voice that’s a mix of Alexa & HAL (voiced by
Australian actor Simon Maiden). When requested, the implanted AI offers
observations and advice. It also single-handedly uncovers a pivotal clue about
the murderous gang members’ identity. Most importantly, if Grey hands over
control of his body to STEM, it executes cool martial-arts moves to brutally
kill his knife-swinging, gun-wielding foes. STEM’s killing spree seems to make
Grey’s newfound thirst for revenge easy. Alas, a harsh truth is finally
revealed which leaves Grey powerless and aghast.
Upgrade is at its entertaining best while harnessing the
right amount of comedy and style out of the action scenes. The increasing
estrangement between Grey and his own body bring forth an interesting kind of
physical humor. Similar to Craig Zahler’s (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block
99) intriguing blend of genres and solid visceral punch, director/writer Wahnnell’s
frantic and incredibly fast action sequences will certainly infuse an immediate
visceral thrill on viewers. The director’s skillfulness in deploying the comedic action, however, isn’t found in his critique of
AI-dominating dystopia, where the man’s free will is expunged by his own hands.
Even the climactic twist seems a bit iffy. But again, Upgrade wouldn’t be seen
for the profundity of its message. It would be sought out for the unapologetic,
adrenaline-rushing, schlocky tone, which is sincerely delivered.
Despite the minimal budget, Whannell cooks up
some impressive special effects and vividly realized locations. Most of the other
cat-and-mouse games surrounding the crazy action are familiar and falls flat;
particularly, the conflict between the detective and Grey is tiresome.
Marshall-Green’s precisely executed physical performance assuages some of
the stiff writing. The horror, guilt as well as contentment that lights up
Marshall-Green’s face after STEM disemboweling the goons is a delight to watch.
Overall, Upgrade (100 minutes) is a smartly packaged blend of b-movie violence
and retro sci-fi narrative that manages to concoct a heap of gruesome fun. It’s
a tale of revenge best served by a wronged man’s inner cyborgian butler.
Trailer
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