Code 8: Renegados

It's nice to see a film about superpowers be about "normal" people, about the choices they have to make to live their lives. A solid story, good characters, good acting and very well done special effects make this film well worth watching.

Code 8

It is obvious that this Indie Sci-Fi from Director Jeff Chan takes inspiration from the X Men franchise but it also has a Neill Blomkamp vibe. Set in a world where some humans have extraordinary gifts. These powered individuals live in poverty. Their gifts are more of a burden and anyone caught using their special abilities must answer to the law. A powered construction worker played by Robbie Amell falls in with a criminal gang when he desperately needs to raise money for his sick mother.

As aforementioned this film is heavily influenced by the X Men movies but it does have its own unique premise. Sadly the execution of this premise is slightly lacking. Performances by all are commendable. The audience will grow to care for what happens to those onscreen due to some decent acting. However this story would have been better told as a TV series rather than a 1hr 38min movie. The world which is created onscreen is one that can be expanded upon. An episodic TV show would have allowed the created universe and characters to flourish. I have read somewhere that Robbie and Co-star Stephen Amell are actually developing a continuation for the small screen.

Considering that this films production budget was crowd funded and was only a measly $2.1 million the special effects are really quite impressive. This is where the Neill Blomkamp vibe becomes apparent. The robotic police officers in the movie reminded me of the robot designs in 'Elysium' or perhaps 'Chappie'. But it is painfully obvious that it is just a man in a suit rather than a CGI creation. This is where budget constraints are visible. Still the aerial shots of the drones deploying the robots was rather cool. This is a film that does punch above its weight in terms of the visuals effects.

'Code 8' is certainly worth checking out. It's probably a movie that won't linger in the memory banks for long but the expansion of the universe created by this film in the form of a TV show would be most welcome.

Code 8 is a mix of Blade Runner (for the music style and the image texture and color) and X-Men for the scenario. It's a very good movie. It's a little bit like if the director and the producers said « ok teenagers have the X-Men saga, let's do something around the same idea but for adults ». The are no jaw dropping special effects, mutants (called "person with abilities" in the movie) dont do funky stuff.. every body acts great.. it's the kind of sci-fi movie that will very likely go unnoticed and it's a shame, it deserves much much more.

I will start out by saying that the movie is not great, but I can also say that it doesn't deserve as much flack as it's getting. A thing some have been talking about was that it doesn't add anything new and while it is true, I also don't think it needs to. The movie is enjoyable to watch and it definitely had potential. My complaint with this movie is with the characters. The characters have little to no development or depth. Again I want to restate that it's not a bad movie, at points, you can feel as if the characters could be real people and connect with them. However these moments are cliche and very few. At it's worst, the movie will throw ideas in the air and never come back to them. Special effects are very well done and don't let down. The plot was generic but still enjoyable. Overall, this movie is good for casual audiences and people that just wanna sit down and turn off their brain for an hour after a long day. If you want something with a lot more to offer than this then I wouldn't recommend watching this movie.

Code 8 is a decent enough film, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was worth skipping by, superhero builders and drugs taken from people's body bits, but it really isn't bad.

Some nice ideas and some good special effects, it's not a huge budget film, but somehow they make it work. Don't expect Marvel, and don't expect Breaking Bad, but do expect a few interesting moments. Every single cliche under the sun is here, there's not a huge amount of originality, but enjoy it for what it is.

I wonder if those that have given this 1 and 10 star reviews have actually seen this, those I've read with such extreme scores do not relate to this movie.

Decent acting, Robbie Amell will of course have his fans, 6/10.