Diabolus Ex Machina

Aussie directing-producing-writing-acting “quadruple threat” Leigh Whannell is at it again.  The geeky 41-year old filmmaker who (along with James Wan) gave us the ‘Saw’ torture-porn franchise and (along with Angus Sampson) formed one-half of the ghost-hunting duo of Specs and Tucker in the low-budget, otherworldly ‘Insidious’ horror series tries his hand at sci-fi with the low-key, atmospheric near-future dystopian thriller ‘Upgrade.’  Flying under the radar with nary an advertising budget, ‘Upgrade’ had already more than recouped its meager production cost over the first weekend of release against such heavyweights as ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ ‘Deadpool 2’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’

 

Set in an unspecified future that could fall anywhere within the next 50 years, ‘Upgrade’ is the woeful tale of one Grey Trace (played by the heretofore unheard of Logan Marshall-Green, who bears a passing resemblance to Tom Hardy), an auto mechanic and restorer of classic muscle cars whose technophobia is at once at odds with the cyber-organic trends of his time.  In the wake of a tragedy which killed his wife and rendered him paralyzed, he’s given a second lease on life with a revolutionary AI implant that not only restored all of his faculties but made him a better machine, er, human.  Not quite the “Six Million Dollar Man” but still better and stronger, so we’ll just call him the “Four Million Dollar Man” in 1970’s dollars.  Driven by a need to find the culprits who ruined his simple but perfect existence and bring them to poetic justice, Trace became a one-man avenging Angel-of-Death even Charles Bronson would envy.

 

Fresh, suspenseful, gorily violent with a wholly unexpected twist ending, ‘Upgrade’ is what I would call the “Men Are From Mars” answer to the female-centric and demure ‘Ex Machina.’  Both films are relatively low budget indie gems in their own right and deserve all the positive reviews lavished upon them.  Both are also cerebral affairs disguised as pop entertainment, cautionary tales warning of technology running amok and the Robopocalypse that is to come.   Be afraid, be very afraid.

Grade: A