I watched "Code 8" and it's a miss
Jun. 7th, 2021 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexThis Code 8 is the 2019 Netflix film. It tells the story of a world in which some people have one of a handful of super powers - fire, electricity, physical force, and some rarer ones like mind-reading. These powered people are cast into society's underclass in a world that's moving toward robotics replacing humans. Previously shut out of conventional work, powered people are now at risk of losing even the low-wage manual jobs like construction day labor that they rely on due to rising use of robots. At the same time, criminals are ramping up production and distribution of Psyke, a powerful drug made from the spinal fluid of powered people. 2.5/5 stars for stringing together some bog-standardard SFnal tropes and not doing anything innovative with them.
The 'powered people as underclass' idea is at least as old as the X-Men, when mutants became stand-ins for a variety of marginalized people in the late 20th century. SF and comics told allegorical stories about racism and classism through these fictional people, echoing similar themes in earlier written speculative fiction. Code 8 has nothing new to say in this regard and frankly seems disinterested in exploring that.
Instead, the story centers on Connor Reed (Robbie Amell) who's not only downcast for being powered, he's also the son of a powered criminal and his poor family can't afford treatment for the cancer that's visibly killing his mother. As desperate people will do, he falls in with a criminal gang and thing just go from bad to worse.
I found the movie overall depressing. Reed isn't exactly the typical "good guy among bad people". He's just less bad than one group of them, who are themselves less bad than the baddest bad guys. Even the cops aren't particularly admirable, showing themselves not only brutal tools of the oppressive state but fairly corrupt, willing to cut corners or even outright cheat to get what they want.
No one is so bad as to make the film unwatchable - they're just bad enough that I don't end up caring much about any of them. Connor's mother is probably the only good person in the film, but her role seems to be victim/motivation and although Kari Matchett does the best she can with the scenes she has, it's not enough to uplift the film as a whole.
Not entirely a waste of an afternoon, but not one I'd rewatch.
The 'powered people as underclass' idea is at least as old as the X-Men, when mutants became stand-ins for a variety of marginalized people in the late 20th century. SF and comics told allegorical stories about racism and classism through these fictional people, echoing similar themes in earlier written speculative fiction. Code 8 has nothing new to say in this regard and frankly seems disinterested in exploring that.
Instead, the story centers on Connor Reed (Robbie Amell) who's not only downcast for being powered, he's also the son of a powered criminal and his poor family can't afford treatment for the cancer that's visibly killing his mother. As desperate people will do, he falls in with a criminal gang and thing just go from bad to worse.
I found the movie overall depressing. Reed isn't exactly the typical "good guy among bad people". He's just less bad than one group of them, who are themselves less bad than the baddest bad guys. Even the cops aren't particularly admirable, showing themselves not only brutal tools of the oppressive state but fairly corrupt, willing to cut corners or even outright cheat to get what they want.
No one is so bad as to make the film unwatchable - they're just bad enough that I don't end up caring much about any of them. Connor's mother is probably the only good person in the film, but her role seems to be victim/motivation and although Kari Matchett does the best she can with the scenes she has, it's not enough to uplift the film as a whole.
Not entirely a waste of an afternoon, but not one I'd rewatch.
