Upgrade Movie Review (2018)
A dystopian thriller about a paraplegic man who receives an implant that gives his body hyperabilities, Upgrade is a middle-of-the-road film until the ending gives it a boost.
One of the best things about futuristic sci-fi films is that they can do anything they want. They can build any world that they want, create any technology that benefits the story, and form a value system that fits within the walls of the narrative. And if the characters are invested in the stakes, so are you.
Upgrade is about Grey, an everyman who lives in a world of technological advances, but he prefers to use his hands. He works on old cars that require a knowledgeable mechanic while almost everyone else in the world uses AI powered devices. His wife, Asha, works for a company in the technology industry, so she is familiar with the one car client of Grey’s, genius Eron. While dropping off the classic car, Eron introduces Asha and Grey to his newest technology, STEM, which can be implanted into a person to improve their functioning. When Asha and Grey are in a fatal self-driving car crash on the way home, Grey is left a paraplegic and Eron approaches him to have STEM implanted in his body. This allows Grey to do much more than he was ever physically able to.
This movie is totally fine. There is a lot of action and entertaining choreography, but it does start to feel like you’ve watched the same thing a few times. There is very little depth to the film, although Grey clearly misses his wife, so it relies heavily on action and Grey’s determination.
STEM is an implant that communicates with Grey and can be tracked by Eron. Grey is supposed to be responsible with this priceless technology, but once he finds that STEM enables him to use his full body again, and also become a sort of ninja, his goal is to find the people who killed his wife. The world around him is dim and mechanical, with shady dive bars and dirty alleyways, which are pretty much the only sets you see outside of Grey’s clean home and Eron’s lab.
What had me mildly amused from the very beginning of Upgrade, though, is that it felt like it was always on the verge of being a B-movie. The acting is over-the-top at times, with Logan Marshall-Green’s Grey semi-shouting on the regular and speaking out loud to STEM in public. He comes off as brash and annoying. Eron has white-blonde hair and comes off as some kind of Johnny Test-looking-like mad scientist caged within a man’s body. It’s all kind of funny, but that part isn’t supposed to be.
By the last 20 minutes of the movie, I was feeling like this was totally acceptable. It wasn’t painful, it was kind of amusing, but it really wasn’t anything special. Then the last 10 minutes took place, and that bumped it up half a star for me. So if you watch this movie, stay with it. It ends with a bang.
Runtime: 109 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Sure, it won’t hurt you
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
Available: Free on Netflix, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
