Paradise

A rather dull approach to an interesting subject.

Unfortunately, neither of the characters emerge as multi-faceted human beings, they simply pop out of the script like two-dimensional caricatures, and while the cast does its best to bring these personae to life, their hard work can only go so far in carrying a piece that doesn't hold its ground.

With a few plot twists, the movie tries to gain our attention, but they appear predictable by the time we've finished watching the film.

Despite introducing us to a formidable antagonist, the CEO of the evil AEON corporation, who's capable of eliminating innocent lives for her own profits and interest, we don't get to know much about her either, and the whole characterisation falls flat. Neither does her character design present her as a grey shadowed presence, nor does it do much to make the viewer hate her.

Even the opposing fraction ADAM fighting against AEON is led by a woman with firm beliefs, but that side of the story doesn't contribute anything except bodies dropping left and right. It ultimately leaves us with a question - what really was the point of it all, if neither the negative forces leading the controversial ageist agenda had anything to speak for themselves, nor the resistance party trying to reinstate the status quo.

Although classism and ageism are the obvious themes being dealt by the movie, the social commentary in that arena also feels very thin, resulting in merely a crumbling down of the whole idea that could've created a larger than life image, but never does.

Personally, I was looking forward to this release owing to my own cravings of a good science fiction thriller, but again that ship has sailed without leaving me with much to remember in the end.

Unfortunately, Boris Kunz's feature has only resulted in a run-of-the-mill forgettable viewing experience. As much as I wanted to like this one, it didn't really hand out a significantly building up narrative, nor did it lay out worthy character developments. Its sole dark vision of a society falling apart with a classist billion-dollar company set up at the centre only brings out the obvious view of a dystopian setting, but nothing more than that.

Initially, the German film pushes a great deal to cement its foregrounding issues about the socio-economic divide between different classes of society, ageism, relationships, technological advancements overtaking emotional human ground and more.

But in the end, it reels out a dystopian concept merely on the surface, as a selling point. It lacks profundity and fails to ask the right questions.

No pun intended - actually one might say puns. But let's not get ahead of ourselves! What is life or a movie if we skip stuff - if we are made to fast forward? Or go back? Time and age wise! There are a lot of questions the movie is asking - very obvious ones (should we sacrifice so called regular folk to enrich our culture with geniuess? Make them live longer?) ... but I would argue that it doesn't really answer them ... it does go off into different directions.

That all being said, this is an intriguing concept ... try not to get hung up on ... well technicalities (again sorry for the pun). This is meant to be ... well meant to be entertainment first, while also giving you food for thought. What would you do? And does every technology benefit the rich? Who can be deemed ... well unnecessary? Isn't every life worth something? Still if someone would want to give away ... there is a whole bag of issues there. One being that person may change their mind ... no backsies I assume.

I like that the filmmakers took a chance and went for it. With Kostja they have a very charismatic lead ... he walks a very line about what he wants, about being a fighter for justice ... and trying to handle what his significant other may want ... all the while playing god of sorts ... there are many twists and turns ... some make more some make less sense ... just suspend your disbelief ...

I loved the issues brought up and how it used a Sci-fi concept to highlight them, and it had some lovely details; but I think it had a bit of a slow build up. Like I feel the pacing of the film would have made an excellent TV series.

I do feel like the concept and the things brought up were very interesting. I also felt there were a lot of side characters who seemed like they had a very interesting stories to tell that were barely touched on.

It was overall interesting, and enjoyable it just had more to give. And I think the film suffered a tiny bit because of that. It was clearly a very well thought out concept.

It's hard for me to understand how Netflix can allow complete amateurs write movie scripts.

They do it again and again. How can this be a sustainable business model? Put 15 million dollars in a movie based on a script that any 16 years old could have written better.

I mean look at this mess of a script. What is this? Apart from the premise, which is not completely new but interesting, it is just complete garbage. There are no character build ups, there is no interesting dramatic goal, there are not story steps, there isn't even a central conflict, it's just a huge chaos all over the place.

None of the characters come even close to touching us. The antagonist has one single encounter with the hero, where they both say one sentence, no conflict. We never learn what motivates her.

The hero saves a woman that doesn't wanna be saved. His wife. Well, it's said that she is his wife, but we never really come to believe it, as there is zero chemistry between them. They tell each other "I love" you three times in a car, but there is no feeling, it's worse than in a soap opera. Two sex scenes (hello Netflix) add nothing to the chemistry. The actress isn't very convincing, but it's not only her fault. Maybe the makers should have watched some love movies to learn how to establish a bond between a loving couple, especially as this is - or rather should have been - the central motivator of the hero, saving his wife's life.

That's his mission. Unfortunately, she doesn't rally wanna be saved and seems to have given in to her fate. Then she changes her mind and wants to be saved. Then she changes her mind again, because it would mean to harm an innocent person. Then she changes her mind again and almost kills the innocent girl, sleeps with her husband, and finally decides to betray her husband and take the lifetime of the girl, and also break up with the guy who sacrificed his life for her and get pregnant from another guy that appeared out of nowhere (is this the new "female empowerment"?). Frustrated, her now ex-husband joins the terrorist to kill some more people. Why? We never really learn.

It's so bizarre, that it's almost funny. The script actually reminded me of Tommy Wiseau's 2003 film The Room, widely considered the worst film ever made. In this film the actor changes his mind sometimes twice within a scene.

I wonder if the producers come to Netflix with a script so bad, or if the script is okay but Netflix ruins it with their developer team, because they want it to fit their algorithm or whatever.

It's depressing, because the premise would have offered so much potential. For example, only the rich can afford the costly life-time transfer process, and they take it from the poor. Was that too political for Netflix? Why was this huge potential theme never harvested in the movie? Isn't that what's happening right now on this planet, that only the rich can afford top medical care?

Well, but ignoring reality and promoting escapism seems to be the new thing on Netflix, so I guess the filmmakers ran into heavy resistance there. Sad.

Netflix used to be cool, now it's more and more turning into a drug to numb down the oppressed workforce.

I see there are a lot of mixed reviews for this German sci-fi, from people that didn't get it to people that found it clever. Count me in the people that enjoyed this movie, and so did my wife. I thought the plot was interesting, certainly food for thought. The only thing that could have been a bit better was the acting from certain actors but overall it was all pretty decent. I didn't think the plot was complicated at all so I don't get what others didn't understand about the story. The lesson of the movie is don't do to others what you don't want others do to you. If everybody would think about that a bit more, life on earth would be so much better.