Upgrade Review

By: Nik S

Director: Leigh Whannell

Producers: Jason Blum, Kylie Du Fresne, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones

Staring: Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson, Simon Maiden

Production Companies: Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures, Automatik Entertainment, Nervous Tick

Distributor: OTL Releasing, BH Tilt

Technology is an ever-growing part of our daily lives. We carry around phones that can do the same functions most computers can, and even cars are starting to drive themselves. There are plenty of amazing things we can do with technology, even change the lives of those with impairments. Imagine if you've lost a limb, only to be given a new robotic one that did all the same functions. Upgrade uses the sc-fi premise of using technology to enhance one's capabilities and mixes it with a cold blooded revenge story.

Upgrade is an extremely gory sci-fi melodrama with a bit of campiness brought in for extra measure. It's one part Death Wish and one part any movie where the hero gets robotic implants to save the day (think Million Dollar Man or Robocop). It's directed by Whannell, the screenwriter who helped co-create the Saw and Insidious franchises, who seems to being just stepping outside of his comfort zone while using the security blanket of buckets of blood.

In the not-so-distant future we're introduced to a car mechanic, Grey (Marshall-Green), who specializes restoring classic muscle cars. The world around him is constantly progressing forward with self driving cars, automated kitchens, and robotic implants. Grey is a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy and really doesn't see the need for technology, even refusing to have enhancements done on him. Heck, even when his wife Asha (Vallejo) wants to order a pizza he'd rather make it himself. After meeting with a wealthy client, who he restored a car for, he and his wife take the self driving car to return home. Rather than their original plan, the car crashes itself right into the arms of four criminals who kill Asha and paralyze Grey.

Grey wakes up in a hospital only to find out he's quadriplegic. His client from earlier, Eron (Gilbertson) pays him a visit, after an attempted suicide, to inform him that a chip he has, STEM, can give him back motor-function. Grey decides to go ahead with the procedure and is able to move again. While watching over the drone footage of the incident that took his wife, he hears a voice in his head that turns out to be STEM (Maiden). With the aid of STEM, Grey decides it's time to take matters in his own hands to find his wife's killers. 

The driving force behind Upgrade is the cartoony violence turned visceral. Every fight scene is has this nice flow to it, and the camera work does nice to accompany it. Grey is always in the middle of the frame for every bounce, Smooth Criminal lean, and punch. With the help of STEM, Grey is able to do some amazing footwork and fight like a karate master. Instead of following the recent norm of shaking the camera during a fight scene, you see every blow and block. The cinematography shines in these scenes, with some of the trickiest shots I've seen in an action movie in quite a while.

The plot gets dark quick, and it's really thanks to Logan Marshall-Green that you're able to keep entertained. It's almost a two man show with just one actor, as Mashall-Green has a lot of dialogue of arguing with the voice in his head. He's able to make you empathize with Grey, wanting to know why a loved one was taken and doing whatever you can to make it happen. There's also a lot of unintentional comedy from just how Marshall-Green is able to play off a ludicrous scene with a sort of charm.  

The supporting cast is either too hammed up or extremely dull, there's really no middle ground. Gilbertson's acting is extremely phoned in, and seems stiff and awkward the entire time. He's supposed to play this secluded young billionaire genius, but comes across as a bad B-rated movie actor. The villains never get enough screen time for you to either love or hate them and seem like nothing more than cannon fodder with one liners.

There is one character that seems thrown in just to have some diversity, a token character if you will. There is a hacker that Grey learns about and needs to meet with on his journey. He's told to go to an abandoned building, go to a certain room and ask for Jamie. When he's flustered and starts asking "Jamie" if they can hurry up he's responded to by an over-exaggeration of what you might get from a Tumblr user. Turns out the hacker doesn't go by Jamie and is non-binary, which would be alright if they didn't make it the character's one and only trait. The character's not on screen long enough to get a good read, but they feel like they were put in simply to say they had a non-binary character.

If you're really into in-your-face action flicks you're bound to love Upgrade. While it's an extremely enjoyable watch, it's better suited to watch on the couch with your friends to make all the excitable noises when a gory scene plays. There's plenty in it to keep you entertained from start to finish, but there's a few bugs in the system (bah-dung-ching) from making it 2018's best action/sci-fi flick. It's something I still highly recommend that you watch, since it is a really good movie. If this sounds like your kind of movie, then please go see it in theater. But, if you're like me, this is a movie you should play with guests over so you can hype yourselves all the way through.

Liked this review? You should check out these reviews:
Hereditary
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
Before I Wake

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