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Tragedies are life-altering for us. We are never the same after we go through severe loss. Different people try to cope with it in different ways. Some people face tragedy upfront, while others create an illusory world around to shield them from the pain of reality. It can be a world where you're not who you were before, or it can be a world where you're exactly how you were before. That is part of the background of this slick scifi thriller from Leigh Whannell.
Set in a near future where automation is taking over, Upgrade follows Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), an auto mechanic who still tries to cling to some level of control on his life. But when tragedy hits him and he ends up a quadraplegic, he undergoes an experimental procedure that implants a chip on his spine which gives him back control of his body, and then some. With his "upgraded" powers, he sets out to take revenge against those that brought the tragedy upon his life.
Grey is the representation of what I mentioned above. Tragedy has turned him into a different person; someone that's willing to go all the way down this path of revenge and murder. You can say it was technology what sparked the change, but it's ultimately his willingness to seek, to hunt, and to confront those that did him wrong what sets him apart. He's not living in the world he was used to, but in an entirely different world where everything is possible, and anything is justifiable.
Marshall-Green does a great job of showing the different shades of Grey that go from pain and suffering to disbelief, and eventually confidence and cockiness. Betty Gabriel is good as the detective that's trying to help, but then stop him, and Benedict Hardie is pretty effective as the main bad guy. However, it is Grey who's at the center of the film through all its run, and he owns it. Special mention goes also to Simon Maiden, who voices STEM, the automated voice on Grey's chip that walks him through everything that's happening to him.
Whannell's direction is another highlight, as he tries to transmit the distortion and imbalance going on Grey's mind as he gets used to this "new persona". He also manages to instill a decent amount of humor to a story that would be awfully bleak otherwise. The early moments where Grey is reluctantly trying to stop his body from doing certain things are great. Also, the film moves at a nice pace that never really drops. Upgrade managed to slip under my radar back then, but I'm glad I gave it a chance now.
Grade:
UPGRADE
(2018, Whannell)
A film that starts with the letters U or V
(2018, Whannell)
A film that starts with the letters U or V
"A fake world is a lot less painful than the real one."
Tragedies are life-altering for us. We are never the same after we go through severe loss. Different people try to cope with it in different ways. Some people face tragedy upfront, while others create an illusory world around to shield them from the pain of reality. It can be a world where you're not who you were before, or it can be a world where you're exactly how you were before. That is part of the background of this slick scifi thriller from Leigh Whannell.
Set in a near future where automation is taking over, Upgrade follows Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), an auto mechanic who still tries to cling to some level of control on his life. But when tragedy hits him and he ends up a quadraplegic, he undergoes an experimental procedure that implants a chip on his spine which gives him back control of his body, and then some. With his "upgraded" powers, he sets out to take revenge against those that brought the tragedy upon his life.
Grey is the representation of what I mentioned above. Tragedy has turned him into a different person; someone that's willing to go all the way down this path of revenge and murder. You can say it was technology what sparked the change, but it's ultimately his willingness to seek, to hunt, and to confront those that did him wrong what sets him apart. He's not living in the world he was used to, but in an entirely different world where everything is possible, and anything is justifiable.
Marshall-Green does a great job of showing the different shades of Grey that go from pain and suffering to disbelief, and eventually confidence and cockiness. Betty Gabriel is good as the detective that's trying to help, but then stop him, and Benedict Hardie is pretty effective as the main bad guy. However, it is Grey who's at the center of the film through all its run, and he owns it. Special mention goes also to Simon Maiden, who voices STEM, the automated voice on Grey's chip that walks him through everything that's happening to him.
Whannell's direction is another highlight, as he tries to transmit the distortion and imbalance going on Grey's mind as he gets used to this "new persona". He also manages to instill a decent amount of humor to a story that would be awfully bleak otherwise. The early moments where Grey is reluctantly trying to stop his body from doing certain things are great. Also, the film moves at a nice pace that never really drops. Upgrade managed to slip under my radar back then, but I'm glad I gave it a chance now.
Grade: