Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsCriminally underrated dystopian Sci-fi action
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2021
This film is an absolute classic. Is it the greatest sci-fi film of all time, no, however it's a damn good one This is a solid film which is not just another brainless action flick. I fear the main reason that this film never gained the appreciation and success that it deserved, was it was poorly marketed. I remember seeing adverts for this when it first came out, and the only focus was on the gun action, it told you nothing about the film itself. Such a shame as this film is so much more. Set after WW3, society has been destroyed and replaced by a totalitarian new order which has risen from the ashes. It has been deemed that humanity could not survive a forth world war and that the only way to prevent it, is to suppress humanities inner nature to destroy itself, the way, suppress all emotions by drugging the population to eliminate our ability to feel. A high cost, because in doing so although we have achieved peace between ourselves, and we will no longer feel anger or rage, there will also be no joy and pleasure either. Well we soon see that even this world is still far from achieving peace, as the city state Libria, through it's Grammaton Clerics who are this world's thought police are waging a war against the remains of the old world in an effort to eliminate everything that could tempt people to want to feel once again, so ofcourse the irony being in order to achieve peace, Libria is waging a perpetual war on human emotion itself and all those unwilling to give it up and live in this cold new emotionless world. I won't go any further as to do so would spoil the film, and my run down does not do this film justice. But I will say that the performances, the action and the story in this film are top notch. If you like dystopian sci-fi action films with some deeper meaning to the story, about where we could very well end up going one day if oppression of thought, the individual and censorship all get taken to the nth degree, then I can't recommend this film enough.
