Zone 414 desperately wants to be Blade Runner. It outright copies numerous elements including the dystopian view of a future where humans can build intelligence but cage it to service our darker passions, the gloomy atmosphere where civilization seems trapped in perpetual night, even the anachronistic use of outdated machinery alongside futuristic technology that suggests a kind of sociological stasis despite wonderous scientific achievement. But for all it mimics, Zone 414 fails to recreate the moody, thoughtful experience of Blade Runner.
Part of that is in the casting, as the Blade Runner franchise benefited from some of the top talent in Hollywood. Part of it is from the lower budget of Zone 414 that doesn't allow for the same level of set design and special affects. But the biggest part of it comes down to the fact that Zone 414 doesn't tread any new ground. When Blade Runner was released it struggled to find an audience because it presented an unusual take on the future: it presented a world where mankind had accomplished feats we can only dream of, but instead of Han Solo and Princess Leia it presented only a world of broken and unhappy people desperate for something that their society seemed to have lost. Instead of science making our dreams come true, it had instead stagnated and isolated us.
Zone 414 very much implies a similar future, but instead of a fresh take it feels trapped by its inspiration to recreate the same dynamics, right down to the leads being a broken couple who ultimately find the only solution is to run away together hoping to find something better together than what life handed them individually. The problem this created for me is that if the movie is so directly copying another, better creation, what is the point of it?
Anyway, that's my impression of the movie. I found it mildly interesting at parts but mostly kind of dull. The basic plot, for those who are interested, is a future in which hyper-realistic human androids have been developed. Their cost makes personal ownership prohibitive for all except the one percent of the one percent, but a city entirely populated by androids, Zone 414, has been created where the merely rich, as opposed to the filthy rich, can visit to live out their personal fantasies. The inventor and industrial tycoon who owns the city hires former detective David Carmichael to find his daughter who has disappeared in the city, and connects him with the most advanced android model, Jane, that lives in the zone, to assist in the search.
David is a salt of the earth type who doesn't care for androids and doesn't see them as sentient beings while Jane is so advanced that she finds herself tortured by her existence as a disposable object of entertainment for humans. It's not quite a love story, but each of them seem drawn to the other by qualities they possess. The movie follows the pair as they solve the mystery of the missing girl, which has a very anti-climactic and unsatisfying conclusion, and gradually open up to one another about their tortured pasts.
The movie ends on kind of a 'meh' note, technically sewing up loose ends but in a very minimal fashion. If sci-fi interests you you might find it an interesting diversion for an hour or two, but probably don't count on it becoming a favorite.
Part of that is in the casting, as the Blade Runner franchise benefited from some of the top talent in Hollywood. Part of it is from the lower budget of Zone 414 that doesn't allow for the same level of set design and special affects. But the biggest part of it comes down to the fact that Zone 414 doesn't tread any new ground. When Blade Runner was released it struggled to find an audience because it presented an unusual take on the future: it presented a world where mankind had accomplished feats we can only dream of, but instead of Han Solo and Princess Leia it presented only a world of broken and unhappy people desperate for something that their society seemed to have lost. Instead of science making our dreams come true, it had instead stagnated and isolated us.
Zone 414 very much implies a similar future, but instead of a fresh take it feels trapped by its inspiration to recreate the same dynamics, right down to the leads being a broken couple who ultimately find the only solution is to run away together hoping to find something better together than what life handed them individually. The problem this created for me is that if the movie is so directly copying another, better creation, what is the point of it?
Anyway, that's my impression of the movie. I found it mildly interesting at parts but mostly kind of dull. The basic plot, for those who are interested, is a future in which hyper-realistic human androids have been developed. Their cost makes personal ownership prohibitive for all except the one percent of the one percent, but a city entirely populated by androids, Zone 414, has been created where the merely rich, as opposed to the filthy rich, can visit to live out their personal fantasies. The inventor and industrial tycoon who owns the city hires former detective David Carmichael to find his daughter who has disappeared in the city, and connects him with the most advanced android model, Jane, that lives in the zone, to assist in the search.
David is a salt of the earth type who doesn't care for androids and doesn't see them as sentient beings while Jane is so advanced that she finds herself tortured by her existence as a disposable object of entertainment for humans. It's not quite a love story, but each of them seem drawn to the other by qualities they possess. The movie follows the pair as they solve the mystery of the missing girl, which has a very anti-climactic and unsatisfying conclusion, and gradually open up to one another about their tortured pasts.
The movie ends on kind of a 'meh' note, technically sewing up loose ends but in a very minimal fashion. If sci-fi interests you you might find it an interesting diversion for an hour or two, but probably don't count on it becoming a favorite.