The Fix

In a dystopian future where air is toxic, a troubled young model takes an illicit new drug at a party and suffers a shocking transformation. She undertakes to reverse the effects of the drug, only to discover that her mutations may be the key to saving the human race.

Okay let's do the positives first... Right so now let's do the negatives: Poor acting, poor direction, poor editing, appalling dialogue, everyone angry and raving even when it's not warranted, choppy, messy and chaotic scene changing. Is that enough for you or shall I go on? I think th film tried to be clever beyond the abilities of everyone involved in it.

The synopsis and plot description sounded similar to Limitless (2011) but this film deals more so with a drug which they aren't certain of and in a seemingly dystopian future world. The entire plot revolves around the lead taking the entirety of this drug in which we don't know why. She didn't know what it was yet thought it was apparently a good idea to consume the entirety. Then was surprised that there were obvious side effects and bizarre happenings.

The film is somewhat engaging but moves at such a rapid pace and at times feels off. We don't necessarily know much about the lead character to truly cate, besides her being a model/ actress in commercials who seemingly was being cheated on by her virtues wort her best friend.

The action and overall tone feels like a teen novel but it's apparently an original concept by the director. The ending was also seemingly setup to set a sequel which came rather abruptly and left with questions unanswered. In the end, it's a film concept which we have seen a lot better in the last but there's still somewhat of an engaging factor.

In the near future, toxin in the air is killing the world. People need to wear respirator masks to survive. Big pharma Aethera has created AIRemedy which is the only known antidote against the toxin, but there may be a limited supply which must be taken constantly. Ella McPhee is the face of AIRemedy advertising. She is depressed over her mother and the world in general despite having a secure supply of the drug. At a party, she takes an overdose of a new drug without knowing the consequences.

This is a South African sci-fi. It is obviously referencing the recent pandemic. Some movies hit that note too hard making it fall flat. This is one of those and it's weird that the toxin has no name. The story is a bit messy. At one point, the movie turns into The Fly including the ear, but then it turns into something else. It wants to be bigger, but it doesn't get there.

A more than decent premise that with a bigger budget and in the hand of an expert director like Luc Besson could have made a big entry into the sci-fi / mutation genre like Lucy did back in 2014.

Impressive are the idea of it, not the first though, but from a contaminated air point of view, nearly the first mutation average flick. Not so impressive are the plots, flow and ending of it that could be polished in a sequel.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 5.5
• Production value/impact: 5.5
• Development: 5.5
• Realism: 6
• Entertainment: 5
• Acting: 5.5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7
• VFX: 7
• Music/score/sound: 5.5
• Depth: 6
• Logic: 2.5
• Flow: 5
• Action/sci-fi/drama: 5.5
• Ending: 3.5.

The ratings on here are a bit harsh in my opinion. Sure it's not a movie that will be remembered in the future but for a rather low budget science fiction from South-Africa it was certainly not that bad. Sure some film locations looked a bit low budget and that could have been easily fixed but besides that the acting was not bad at all and the story was interesting to follow. Grace Van Dien plays the main character and she did well. Maybe with more special effects and a bit more action scenes would have benefited the quality of the movie but overall The Fix is worth a watch if you're not too picky.