We are very familiar with rich vs poor in future scenarios from movies such as The Maze Runner series (with actual walls), The Hunger Games series (with big hair for the rich), Snowpiecer (2013) or the brilliant Elysium (2013). One might also remember, to a lesser degree, the two District 13 movies (2004, 2009) and Brick Mansions (2014). Trepalium fits neatly into this kind of dystopian future. One problem with it is it is so self-contained. Conveniently the city's solution to unemployment, the wall, is not international, which makes it all a little inward looking. You notice early on it is very dystopian, as there is no TV from outside of the premier's city centre office, high up in one of the skyscrapers. To me it seemed a little unnatural. People spoke of "The South", but no-one seemed to bring actual news from there. It all seemed a little convenient to a budget. Don't get me wrong, visually Trepalium can be stunning, particularly if looking on the inner side of the wall. The tech has good smarts as well. The entire story is basically powered throughout by intense ambition (the rich), or extreme desperation (the poor). It's a good story with good ideas, but to be honest I thought it was let down a bit by the production. For me it lacked a raw edge to the poor, who didn't seem to be notably skinnier. There were some really good performances however, and most of the characterisations were good and comparable to those in the Hunger Games for example. I'm happy to give it an 8 as it was fast moving, intelligent, original and engaging, but I couldn't help thinking that they got certain castings wrong, and should have equalled the effort they put into the superb vision of the rich with a better, much starker version of the poor.
