Code 8 - Movie Review

By
Adonis Monahan
5

10

0
5

10

Code 8

This film fell flat. Very flat. Freshly buffed marble flooring installed with a freshly calibrated spirit level type of flat. There are a lot of contributing factors to why that happened, the most obvious of which was the absolute lack of originality.

The film is basically a very slightly different take on the premise of the X Men films; some humans are born with enhanced abilities and for this, they are feared and vilified by people and law enforcement.

To give the film credit, in the opening sequence they painted a very detailed yet succinct picture of how people – society – used these powered beings when it was beneficial but then cast them aside afterwards. Other than that, the show’s story is very unoriginal. A young guy with abilities needs money for his dying mother.

He makes money by getting mixed up with a bad crowd. You rolled your eyes when you read that, didn’t you? Now retelling a story can be fine, even if you don’t have a fresh take on it. But the film felt slow.

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/1596039499287code-8.webp Code 8 - Movie Review

It wasn’t the script’s pacing either; enough events occurred to progress the story and keep the audience engaged. The issue was with the music/soundtrack. There was almost no variation in tempo or emotion. All the notes were similar, creating the vibe of one long moment -extending the same emotion for the film’s entirety.

It desperately needed a change; rise and fall, something. Anything. The film’s colorist seems to have taken a cue from the music department because the film seemed drab the entire time. Now I can understand this being done intentionally, maybe the director going for the subtly matt feel to mimic real life and the plight these special individuals are feeling, but then play with the color when you want them to come alive.

They’re using their powers in some scenes, supposedly feeling uninhibited, why not tell that with color and vibrancy? It all just had that same drab one ongoing note to it. I won’t ruin the ending, but then again you can see it a mile away as you watch the film. If you’ve seen movies about powered individuals before, then you kind of saw this one too.