Code 8

12/30/2019

I thought the trailer made _Code 8_ look like it was gonna be pretty bad, but I liked the premise, and I wanted to see what Stephen Amell could do in a 2019 feature film, so I gave it a chance, and while I don't think it was great, it was better than I had been expecting. There were some bits that sort of reminded me of last year's _Darkest Minds_, and that's definitely a bad thing, but overall it was actually pretty decent. It goes for both the social commentary, and a *pew pew splodey zap zap* action crime thriller. It doesn't work **spectacularly** as either, but it tries, and its failures certainly are not abysmal ones. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

7/27/2021

Code 8 never really grabbed me, though I managed to watch it all the way through. Perhaps I am an outlier viewer, but I would have liked to see more time spent on why society lowered the status of the super-powered people to practically second class citizens. To me that might have been more compelling viewing than the details of Connor’s descent into crime or his mother’s rather stereotypical declining health. But within its narrow plot and limited number of interesting characters, it may have been less than great, but it was better than mediocre.

3/27/2022

Robbie Amell is undoubtedly a good-looking man, but that really does not forgive the fact that as an actor, he is really dead behind the eyes. The concept here is quite interesting - ordinary people have superpowers and are all still pretty much persecuted by the authorities. Amell is down on his luck and has a sick mother so, to pay for her extortionately expensive treatment, he seeks work casually - and soon falls in with the wrong company where he uses his powers (he can generate and focus electricity) to further their petty, but increasingly ambitious criminal activities. This gets him caught up between a drug-smuggling gang and with the pursuing police. Cousin Stephen discards his bow and arrow for this film, instead heading the druggie gang that will betray everyone/anyone as soon as

8/25/2022

Code 8 is X-Men minus the budget and the A-list cast, and that's the good news. Unfortunately, the movie suffers more, not when it deviates from, but when it copies Marvel's mutants. Code 8 is set in a world where 4% of the population are born with various supernatural abilities, but instead of being rich and famous, they face discrimination, live in poverty, and often turn to crime. As far as I can tell, Code 8 is an allegory about illegal immigrants in the US – the image of day laborers waiting for a van to take them to work is unmistakable, because we have seen it in other, better films (e.g., El Norte). There is also the matter of an addictive narcotic called Psyke manufactured from the cerebrospinal fluid of the People with Power (doesn't quite have the same ring as X-Men, does it?

3/6/2024

Good use of budget. Interesting enough. Good ideas. I watched it because I thought I had to because Code 8 part two was out as well. I probably wouldn't have watched it without that. I'm glad I watched it.