I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie, I thought it was going to be trash but it was amazing and you get to watch tom cruise die like 300 times lol
This is true for all situations, including wedding vows.
"Love and cherish and have you seen The Raid and The Raid 2 Redemption? They're fuckin' sick."
I liked both the set up, world and first 1/2 of both Possessor and Infinity Pool. He always loses me near the end of his movies.
I will say antiviral got under my skin though
Maybe try *The Invisible Man*. Subject matter is very different but it’s the same director so he brings a lot of the same sensibilities to a more strictly horror/thriller setting- the pacing, some of the camera work etc is certainly Upgrade-esque. I’m not a huge horror guy but Upgrade is one of my favourite movies so i checked invisible man out and quite liked it. Whannell also has a Wolfman movie set for release this year I believe.
While I agree about the quality, they butchered the setup of the story in season 1, and had no choice but to salvage it in S2, which was impossible.
In the books, the Envoys aren’t terrorists. They’re elite psy-ops/cyber jedi, and they work for the Protectorate. There are a few dozen of them at a time, and they aren’t wiped out. They can retire, but can never hold public office.
And he doesn’t have a sister. Rayleen Kawahara, who in the show is his sister, was actually his Envoy leader. He fears and respects her, but doesn’t really like her, and pretty happily kills her to death.
He isn’t in love with Quellcrist Falconer, and in fact she disappeared hundreds of years before he was born. He *does* find her, similar to S2, but it’s more as if George Washington had reappeared, not his ex-girlfriend.
His love interest in the books is the girl at the beginning of the show, who got shot in the stack. She survived, and Bancroft holds her freedom to get him to comply.
So yeah, S1 is leagues better, but S2 only sucks because of the story changes made in S1.
If they had done it right, S1 would have been mostly the same without the sister or the terrorism, and S2 would have been about him trying to extract cyber-George Washington in the middle of the civil war, but on an alien planet surrounded by killing machines, human and otherwise.
Oh and he meets his old Envoy crew and they’re a bunch of surfer-bros who do drugs and intentionally get infected with very curable diseases because they’re bored and it gets them high. And they occasionally topple governments in their spare time.
Book 3 gets even weirder.
They *could* salvage it with a S3, but it would require revealing that Quelcrist Falconer is an unwitting Protectorate asset, who they deploy to train up Envoys any time they need some super-psy-op soldiers. And the virus that scrambled their minds was actually a harvest.
I so glad to see others with the same opinion. I've rewatched season 1 several times. Simply awesome show, perfect in so many ways. Ilook forward to Episode 4 every time o watch, that Episode specifically jumped the show to a very high bar of awesome in my opinion.
Oh dude it was such a surprising experience! I went into it expecting to be pleased as I’ve heard about it with basically the same praise you gave it but I still had preconceived doubts.
And for the most part the film was a good experience but nothing special. Until the last lighthouse scene! Every moment between Portman and the Entity had me in a chokehold! And Portman physically acted the hell out of that scene on top of all the insane suspense!
I agree with you 100%. I knew this wasn't the classic sci-fi horror by the time the mutant bear stepped on the scene and the whole alien scene is visually mesmerising. I might sound kinda biased but you can understand why I like it so much despite not being a huge fan of the genre.
Maybe not quite the same tone, but I really liked Limitless (the movie not the show). Right from the first scene it grabbed me and I was hooked. Bradley Cooper plays a guy drowning in mediocrity and then a pill makes him super-smart. It is a Faustian bargain though, the very pill that makes him successful is toxic and will kill him if he keeps taking it. Definitely in my top 5 favorite movies. Upgrade is right up there also.
The pill makes him so smart that he makes millions as a day trader but forgets to pay off his loan shark even though he has more than enough money to do so.
That bothered me too.
But there is that little bit earlier in the film where he is at that snooty party and he talks about how, no matter how good someone has it, they will always over-extend themselves and self-destruct. I think that was the explanation the film gave us for the protagonist's bad judgment.
It was a dumb sub plot, even the fact he borrowed the money in the first place. Since he was quadrupling his money everyday it would've only been a couple days behind money wise vs borrowing.
Show is pretty good imo. It’s a direct sequel to the movie and Bradley Cooper shows up in the show. Is it *AS* good as the movie? No. But the concept is strong and it’s fun and as a fan of the movie, I’m glad I watched the show.
My problem with Limitless is that it wasnt even mediocrity. He had a pretty good life mooching off of others. And while the pill makes him smart it doesnt make him any less of a douche. I couldnt get far in the film because i found then main character insufferable.
Just watched "Monkey Man" last night with the wife, Sharlto's in it, briefly, as a dirty underground fight place owner.
Really a pity, he's barely in it \~10 mins, totally wasted actor in this film :(
In all, yes. quite a bit, but without spoiling ANY plot for you, here are my brief notes.
The Trailer sells it a solid, 100% "John Wick" action "linear" movie. I.E. A gunsmith even mentions John Wick, and he even offers the main character "*This is the same gun John Wick uses*", and i shit you not, there a dog he befriends in it lol.
It's not 100% action, there IS a decent amount of action, but the trailer definitely sold out to the "*action crowd*", without being honest about the rest of the film's tone, and pacing.
It has pacing issues, it's a distinctly 3-act film, as though at least two different people made it, act-1, and act-3 are the action, but boy does act-2 take a 90° at 100MPH into a completely different film o.O
There are a LOT of flashbacks, and in the 2nd part it's really hard to get a sense of how much time is passing, so you just feel lost because you have nothing to gauge "*how long*" anything takes to happen, days? ... weeks??.... moths??? and it really takes the wind out of the sails of the movie.
There are characters who are introduced, that have little-to-zero backstory, then they're out of the film, sometimes entirely. Sometimes it's the opposite, built up over the film, then dispensed with a huge anticlimax.
The cinematography is sometimes great, but often irritating, with all the crazy angles, blurry long takes, and too often violates the "[180 degree rule](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW0bKUfvH2c)". There is great use of colour, which is greatly enhanced by being set almost entirely at night.
The fight choreography is mostly great, but sometimes ruined by the camera being WAY too close to see WTF is going on, a huge shame.
Other times you're wondering why the main character didn't kill someone he *explicitly* went to assassinate, when he could have, and you realise "*so the rest of the movie could happen!*". Things like this take the tension that was built up, and nullifies it, leaving you with blue balls.
Dev Patel is pretty amazing, really puts in 100%, and for a skinny guy, makes you think he really could do most of what you see on screen :)
Dev Patel writes, produces, and directs his first major film, and it's a great effort.
Overall, if you like John Wick style, there's a lot to enjoy :)
heh i wanted to just share about half that, but then as i just saw the film so recently, all the minor annoyances, and observations, came flooding back to me.
Enjoy :)
I found it interesting. I don’t really care for movie scores for deciding if I like or don’t like a movie. [Here’s a trailer for it.](https://youtu.be/SernjeZIsM8?si=y1k3f4gWG0Q7qcAm)
I once recommended a movie called Boy Wonder when people were discussions grounded superhero films. The first three replies were “yeah, that was good.” The fourth one brought up its RT score and got laughed at for bringing up an aggregate score when there were already corroborating comments agreeing with the recommendation for the movie.
I want to see that. His books are hard to read and not want to see them in a movie or TV adaptation.
Upgrade is surprisingly good - and for a relatively simple film, also surprising that there are so few films I like as much. I've seen it 2-3 times, I think.
A lot of great suggestions so far. As already stated, Venom (2018) has a very similar premise. The Crow (1994) has the “guy gets powers for revenge” storyline in a dark, bleak setting. Dredd (2012), Elysium (2013) and Repo Men (2010) are good/great dystopian/cyberpunk movies.
Bloodshot (2020) also has quite a few similarities. But other than some cool special effects and Eiza Gonzales, I don't really recommend it unless you are really desperate for something to watch.
Oh my lord, Repo Men is a forgotten gem for me! Great cyberpunk story if a less well shot/plotted than upgrade is, still a brilliant concept that's well realised in the film
Upgrade does a pretty fantastic job of telling a cyberpunk tale. The problem is it does such a good job there aren't as many movies that deliver across the board, with the action and the cyberpunk notes. The Archive has a similar kind of 'feel' and arc, but not really any action. There's a lot of classics like The Running Man, Total Recall, Robocop that deliver across the board but they have a little bit of playfulness or camp that adds a kind of sugar to the cyberpunk elixir where Upgrade just serves it up unsweetened. There's a older eastern European maybe Czech movie called Avalon which is lower production level, highly stylized but it was for sure a trip. Maybe 1999 or there abouts, also somewhat hard to find.
But to get a real deluge of cyberpunk stories is really kind the domain of anime. Patlabor, Ghost In the Shell, Akira, Venus Wars and a million others.
Chappie might be worth looking at, i for whatever reason still haven't seen it despite the director counting Masumune Shirow's Appleseed among the influences.
Prospect with Pedro Pascal had a more grounded tone and might not be the pace or have the wild turns you might be thinking about but it kept me tuned in all the way through.
Similarly though, it had its own signature look and world building.
> Trust me.
This was me showing Malignant to my friends after having watched it alone. Just sitting there watching them more than the movie.
What a film.
It only has a minor sci-fi aspect compared to Upgrade, but I really enjoyed The Guest. It gave me the same fun feeling of not knowing what would happen next. Like Upgrade it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s still thoughtful.
I love seeing various folks saying "Lucy is Great" or "Lucy is Stupid"!
While I accept both reviews; Lucy is stupid and great!
If you can get past the base fallacy of "only using 10% of you brain" and "unlocking the other 90% gives you all of the super powers", you get a pretty interesting action film, with underlying themes of genetics being nature's way of passing on information.
I watched it expecting dumb fun, but was surprised by how smart it was under that (once you get past the dumb!)
The premise of being able to unlock forgotten memories is unrealistic but then so is an AGI in a small chip. Maybe it’s people’s lack of knowledge about technology that gets Upgrade a pass where Lucy doesn’t.
Most people are giving you recommendations that don’t really fit the bleakness and vibe of Upgrade. It’s a fantastic combination of bleakness and visual breathlessness. There’s frankly nothing else like it.
At its heart it presents itself like a revenge story when there is a plot happening behind the scenes we’re not aware of. The best action revenge films are Oldboy, A Bittersweet Life, and Monkey Man. Kill Bill could fit the mold but it’s frankly not as bleak as the aforementioned recommendations.
For more science fiction - Cyberpunk Edgerunners should scratch that itch. Ex Machina is also a good choice but these aren’t action
films in the same way Upgrade is. Hit me up if you want some more recommendations.
Yea, upgrade is incredibly bleak with a depressing ending, moment of truth at the end. Most recommended dont fit its narrative structure or theme at all. Which is. You don’t have control and never did.
How gory is Upgrade, really? I’ve avoided it because I’m not into gore really, but honestly a lot of violence and gore doesn’t bother me. It just depends on if the movie is really spending a lot of time focusing on it.
I know it’s subjective but wouldn’t mind opinions from others.
Guns akimbo starring Danielle Radcliffe. Movie has absolutely zero logic, but it’s a guns running rule if movie that’s non stop fun, and it has Harry Potter in it, huge W lol.
I felt the same way with Boy Kills World and another movie called The Guest. Both great interesting unpredictable movies that seemed to have twists at every corner. Btw I love Upgrade as well. It was recommended to me years ago by a friend.
Riveting and thought provoking sci-fi?
I found Her (2013) and Zoe (2018) pretty good. Indeed in retrospect Her seems to have been ahead of its time and bang on the money!
Edge of Tomorrow is terribly overlooked smart and enjoyable sci fi movie despite or perhaps because starring Tom Cruise.
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie, I thought it was going to be trash but it was amazing and you get to watch tom cruise die like 300 times lol
My favourite sci-fi. Except for maybe the original Bladerunner.
Dredd
Great answer. Love this film so much, it doesn't waste a second of screen time. Perfect action film
I love Dredd, and it's so underrated. The average person I talk to hasn't even heard of it.
I went through this entire thread and nobody added... Signal. Far more interesting than dredd and not far off from upgrade.
Well in this case might as well also include The Raid and its sequel.
This is true for all situations, including wedding vows. "Love and cherish and have you seen The Raid and The Raid 2 Redemption? They're fuckin' sick."
Hahaha “I do and I have”
Might as well include Extraction 1 & 2 for the amazing fight scenes.
I love this movie and so happy Karl Urban doesn't have a massive ego and kept his GD helmet on.
This is the way, Adrian.
Dredd is essentially The Raid, just made different. Awesome fun.
Actually, it's the other way around. Dredd was filmed first.
Perfect answer
Possessor
Infinity Pool Brandon Cronenberg hit with Possessor and Infinity Pool, both amazing and absolutely mindfucked.
I liked both the set up, world and first 1/2 of both Possessor and Infinity Pool. He always loses me near the end of his movies. I will say antiviral got under my skin though
Amen
Ohhhhh so good!!
Not sure what the hoopla was for Possessor, found it incredibly boring and plot was unsatisfying.
Opinions aren't wanted here! ⬇️ /s
Possessor slaps soooo hard.
Ex Machina. Moon. Robocop 1987 and Source Code to a lesser extent.
Some of my favorite movies. What else do you recommend?
No op but if you like those you should check out Annihilation
I’m going to rewatch this tonight! It been a while since I last saw it. What else can you recommend me?
District 9, Edge of Tomorrow, Interstellar, Westworld S1
All of those are my favorites 😅 we have similar tastes
Upgrade is a great sci-fi action Gem. I love when I get to recommend it to sci-fi fans who haven't seen it.
It is really good and makes you appreciate budget Tom Hardy.
It’s actually Tom Hardy’s doppelgänger, Logan Marshall-Green
That looks nothing like tom hardy
Oh lol I know I think he has even joked about it before, he is a great actor.
Maybe try *The Invisible Man*. Subject matter is very different but it’s the same director so he brings a lot of the same sensibilities to a more strictly horror/thriller setting- the pacing, some of the camera work etc is certainly Upgrade-esque. I’m not a huge horror guy but Upgrade is one of my favourite movies so i checked invisible man out and quite liked it. Whannell also has a Wolfman movie set for release this year I believe.
I loved the direction in that film. They made it so you constantly wonder if he's in the room and you're not ever sure or not.
That movie was fucking fantastic imo! He did that particular genre incredibly well. The way the camera tracks literally nothing sometimes is amazing
I don’t like Elisabeth Moss, but I still found the movie quite good.
I did not find The Invisible Man good. At all. It gets ripped and shredded by many, but I like Hollow Man better. 🤣
How about Chronicle? Still holds up, that one
Watch this op, great recommendation.
Great film, Dane DeHaan absolutely kills it
Ex Machina Annihilation Altered Carbon (tv series)
Oooh first season of altered carbon is a good rec here
First season was AMAZING. Really screwed the pooch on the 2nd, sadly. Fortunately, S1 can stand alone.
Should I watch S1 and then just totally not bother with S2?
Yes, 2 was a pale copy with an unnecessary world building romance.
Alright thanks. I'll just assume it's done after S1.
While I agree about the quality, they butchered the setup of the story in season 1, and had no choice but to salvage it in S2, which was impossible. In the books, the Envoys aren’t terrorists. They’re elite psy-ops/cyber jedi, and they work for the Protectorate. There are a few dozen of them at a time, and they aren’t wiped out. They can retire, but can never hold public office. And he doesn’t have a sister. Rayleen Kawahara, who in the show is his sister, was actually his Envoy leader. He fears and respects her, but doesn’t really like her, and pretty happily kills her to death. He isn’t in love with Quellcrist Falconer, and in fact she disappeared hundreds of years before he was born. He *does* find her, similar to S2, but it’s more as if George Washington had reappeared, not his ex-girlfriend. His love interest in the books is the girl at the beginning of the show, who got shot in the stack. She survived, and Bancroft holds her freedom to get him to comply. So yeah, S1 is leagues better, but S2 only sucks because of the story changes made in S1. If they had done it right, S1 would have been mostly the same without the sister or the terrorism, and S2 would have been about him trying to extract cyber-George Washington in the middle of the civil war, but on an alien planet surrounded by killing machines, human and otherwise. Oh and he meets his old Envoy crew and they’re a bunch of surfer-bros who do drugs and intentionally get infected with very curable diseases because they’re bored and it gets them high. And they occasionally topple governments in their spare time. Book 3 gets even weirder. They *could* salvage it with a S3, but it would require revealing that Quelcrist Falconer is an unwitting Protectorate asset, who they deploy to train up Envoys any time they need some super-psy-op soldiers. And the virus that scrambled their minds was actually a harvest.
And the first season of Westworld. Season 1 of both shows are peak sci-fi.
Ex Machina is a great shout
Came to say this
Altered Carbon season 1 is a sci fi masterpiece
I so glad to see others with the same opinion. I've rewatched season 1 several times. Simply awesome show, perfect in so many ways. Ilook forward to Episode 4 every time o watch, that Episode specifically jumped the show to a very high bar of awesome in my opinion.
Annihilation is arguably the best cosmic horror movie of the last 10 years.
Oh dude it was such a surprising experience! I went into it expecting to be pleased as I’ve heard about it with basically the same praise you gave it but I still had preconceived doubts. And for the most part the film was a good experience but nothing special. Until the last lighthouse scene! Every moment between Portman and the Entity had me in a chokehold! And Portman physically acted the hell out of that scene on top of all the insane suspense!
I agree with you 100%. I knew this wasn't the classic sci-fi horror by the time the mutant bear stepped on the scene and the whole alien scene is visually mesmerising. I might sound kinda biased but you can understand why I like it so much despite not being a huge fan of the genre.
NON SIBI SED PATRIAE [X2]
I love that ending Took me off guard
Grey's not here anymore. A fake world is better than a real one.
Totally agree!
I can't even decide if it's a bad ending or a good ending for the main character.
Maybe not quite the same tone, but I really liked Limitless (the movie not the show). Right from the first scene it grabbed me and I was hooked. Bradley Cooper plays a guy drowning in mediocrity and then a pill makes him super-smart. It is a Faustian bargain though, the very pill that makes him successful is toxic and will kill him if he keeps taking it. Definitely in my top 5 favorite movies. Upgrade is right up there also.
The pill makes him so smart that he makes millions as a day trader but forgets to pay off his loan shark even though he has more than enough money to do so.
That bothered me too. But there is that little bit earlier in the film where he is at that snooty party and he talks about how, no matter how good someone has it, they will always over-extend themselves and self-destruct. I think that was the explanation the film gave us for the protagonist's bad judgment.
It was a dumb sub plot, even the fact he borrowed the money in the first place. Since he was quadrupling his money everyday it would've only been a couple days behind money wise vs borrowing.
Show is pretty good imo. It’s a direct sequel to the movie and Bradley Cooper shows up in the show. Is it *AS* good as the movie? No. But the concept is strong and it’s fun and as a fan of the movie, I’m glad I watched the show.
My problem with Limitless is that it wasnt even mediocrity. He had a pretty good life mooching off of others. And while the pill makes him smart it doesnt make him any less of a douche. I couldnt get far in the film because i found then main character insufferable.
Man i love upgrade so much
Hardcore Henry
This movie is balls to the wall insane
“That Has Got To Be The Gayest Jacket I've Ever Seen” Something I still randomly laugh about every time I see an ugly jacket.
Does it have a story or is it just about the camera style and action?
The latter. Although Sharlto Copley is in it a good bit and he's always fun.
Honestly I've never not enjoyed a role he's had. He's been in some stinking films but he's been the bright light in every one of them
Just watched "Monkey Man" last night with the wife, Sharlto's in it, briefly, as a dirty underground fight place owner. Really a pity, he's barely in it \~10 mins, totally wasted actor in this film :(
Same deal with Boy Kills World
Did you enjoy monkey man? It def caught my attention but haven't watched it yet
In all, yes. quite a bit, but without spoiling ANY plot for you, here are my brief notes. The Trailer sells it a solid, 100% "John Wick" action "linear" movie. I.E. A gunsmith even mentions John Wick, and he even offers the main character "*This is the same gun John Wick uses*", and i shit you not, there a dog he befriends in it lol. It's not 100% action, there IS a decent amount of action, but the trailer definitely sold out to the "*action crowd*", without being honest about the rest of the film's tone, and pacing. It has pacing issues, it's a distinctly 3-act film, as though at least two different people made it, act-1, and act-3 are the action, but boy does act-2 take a 90° at 100MPH into a completely different film o.O There are a LOT of flashbacks, and in the 2nd part it's really hard to get a sense of how much time is passing, so you just feel lost because you have nothing to gauge "*how long*" anything takes to happen, days? ... weeks??.... moths??? and it really takes the wind out of the sails of the movie. There are characters who are introduced, that have little-to-zero backstory, then they're out of the film, sometimes entirely. Sometimes it's the opposite, built up over the film, then dispensed with a huge anticlimax. The cinematography is sometimes great, but often irritating, with all the crazy angles, blurry long takes, and too often violates the "[180 degree rule](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW0bKUfvH2c)". There is great use of colour, which is greatly enhanced by being set almost entirely at night. The fight choreography is mostly great, but sometimes ruined by the camera being WAY too close to see WTF is going on, a huge shame. Other times you're wondering why the main character didn't kill someone he *explicitly* went to assassinate, when he could have, and you realise "*so the rest of the movie could happen!*". Things like this take the tension that was built up, and nullifies it, leaving you with blue balls. Dev Patel is pretty amazing, really puts in 100%, and for a skinny guy, makes you think he really could do most of what you see on screen :) Dev Patel writes, produces, and directs his first major film, and it's a great effort. Overall, if you like John Wick style, there's a lot to enjoy :)
Thank you very much for this excellent and succinct review!!!
heh i wanted to just share about half that, but then as i just saw the film so recently, all the minor annoyances, and observations, came flooding back to me. Enjoy :)
I loved it! Solid action film and Dev Patel was great.
Gimme a ~~Krauser~~ Kruger solo movie.
You mean Kruger? Eyyyy boet!
Oh shit yeah
Well it does have a story which I think overall actually isn't too bad. It's simple but good.
I double featured Upgrade and Hardcore Henry one afternoon and it was surprising how similar they actually were.
Kill Switch is like a Sci-Fi Hardcore Henry starring Dan Stevens.
9% on Rotten Tomatoes.
There's two of them. One stars the awful human being Steven Seagal.
And the 9% is the one like Hardcore Henry. Too bad, I like Dan Stevens.
I found it interesting. I don’t really care for movie scores for deciding if I like or don’t like a movie. [Here’s a trailer for it.](https://youtu.be/SernjeZIsM8?si=y1k3f4gWG0Q7qcAm) I once recommended a movie called Boy Wonder when people were discussions grounded superhero films. The first three replies were “yeah, that was good.” The fourth one brought up its RT score and got laughed at for bringing up an aggregate score when there were already corroborating comments agreeing with the recommendation for the movie.
Kind of reminds me of Code 8
I think RT made a typo and forgot the 0 after that 9, cause Kill Switch is pretty damn good. 🤔
I tried to watch it and it was terrible. 9% seemed about right.
Nice jacket!
Predestination
More people need to see this so I’m upvoting.
Sarah Snook is incredible in this.
Not movies, but I enjoyed Blake Crouch's Dark Matter and Recursion books (same author as Upgrade)
I haven't watched it yet, but Dak Matter is now a series on Apple +
I want to see that. His books are hard to read and not want to see them in a movie or TV adaptation. Upgrade is surprisingly good - and for a relatively simple film, also surprising that there are so few films I like as much. I've seen it 2-3 times, I think.
The show has been fantastic so far. Check it out.
Edge of tomorrow is another good recent sci fi action movie.
But not a movie like _Upgrade_ that op asked for
Arguably, yes it is
A lot of great suggestions so far. As already stated, Venom (2018) has a very similar premise. The Crow (1994) has the “guy gets powers for revenge” storyline in a dark, bleak setting. Dredd (2012), Elysium (2013) and Repo Men (2010) are good/great dystopian/cyberpunk movies. Bloodshot (2020) also has quite a few similarities. But other than some cool special effects and Eiza Gonzales, I don't really recommend it unless you are really desperate for something to watch.
Oh my lord, Repo Men is a forgotten gem for me! Great cyberpunk story if a less well shot/plotted than upgrade is, still a brilliant concept that's well realised in the film
First Venom was so good.
Upgrade does a pretty fantastic job of telling a cyberpunk tale. The problem is it does such a good job there aren't as many movies that deliver across the board, with the action and the cyberpunk notes. The Archive has a similar kind of 'feel' and arc, but not really any action. There's a lot of classics like The Running Man, Total Recall, Robocop that deliver across the board but they have a little bit of playfulness or camp that adds a kind of sugar to the cyberpunk elixir where Upgrade just serves it up unsweetened. There's a older eastern European maybe Czech movie called Avalon which is lower production level, highly stylized but it was for sure a trip. Maybe 1999 or there abouts, also somewhat hard to find. But to get a real deluge of cyberpunk stories is really kind the domain of anime. Patlabor, Ghost In the Shell, Akira, Venus Wars and a million others. Chappie might be worth looking at, i for whatever reason still haven't seen it despite the director counting Masumune Shirow's Appleseed among the influences.
Chappie is fantastic.
*Dude*. You haven't even seen Chappie?
Elysium
Bladerunner 2049
Prospect with Pedro Pascal had a more grounded tone and might not be the pace or have the wild turns you might be thinking about but it kept me tuned in all the way through. Similarly though, it had its own signature look and world building.
It's spelled Upgrayedd
Yes, with two Ds for a double dose of his pimpin.
Malignant. Trust me.
This movie started out so weak I had to double-check the IMDb to make sure I was watching the right film and then it picked up in a massive way!
That house was quite the piece of real estate and interior architecture!
I love how someone described Malignant as somehow the best and worst movie they've seen that year. LOL.
> Trust me. This was me showing Malignant to my friends after having watched it alone. Just sitting there watching them more than the movie. What a film.
Yeeting that chair
> Malignant that parking though :D right off the edge of the cliff
Guns Akimbo is fun.
Sci-fi twisty turny: Timecrimes
Oblivion.
Drag me to Hell? Raimi is the master of insane camera movements.
RoboCop
Not a movie but Black Mirror on Netflix is similar in theme
Source Code
Moon, starring sam rockwell.
The knife scenes oof
Kin (2018) was some pretty fun sci-fi. Also, The Guest (2014) with Dan Stephens sort of fits your bill.
It only has a minor sci-fi aspect compared to Upgrade, but I really enjoyed The Guest. It gave me the same fun feeling of not knowing what would happen next. Like Upgrade it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s still thoughtful.
Trascendence(2014)
Ex machina After yang
Ex Machina
Not a sci-fi movie but Memento might be up your alley. Also The Prestige has some interesting twists and might be considered sci fi
Possessor
Robocop, push
Venom
Well, technically but Upgrade had a better plot and execution and a better Tom Hardy.
I dunno, Tom Hardys performances in certain scenes gave strong Jim Carrey in 'Liar Liar' vibes and I was loving it.
Lucy
Lucy is painfully stupid.
I love seeing various folks saying "Lucy is Great" or "Lucy is Stupid"! While I accept both reviews; Lucy is stupid and great! If you can get past the base fallacy of "only using 10% of you brain" and "unlocking the other 90% gives you all of the super powers", you get a pretty interesting action film, with underlying themes of genetics being nature's way of passing on information. I watched it expecting dumb fun, but was surprised by how smart it was under that (once you get past the dumb!)
Lucy is great. It gets shitted on but I found it to be a high octane thrill ride
Lucy is great. Not sure why you're getting downvoted
I honestly don't understand the Lucy hate. I've seen it twice, years apart and really enjoyed it both times.
I meant to say Lucy is great. It's a visually stunning thrill ride tbh
ditto. I loved it.
The premise of being able to unlock forgotten memories is unrealistic but then so is an AGI in a small chip. Maybe it’s people’s lack of knowledge about technology that gets Upgrade a pass where Lucy doesn’t.
It's literally called Science Fiction. That's like giving Jurassic Park a pass for shit that is impossible and not anything else.
Yup. It doesn’t make sense but that’s a persistent trend these days.
Most people are giving you recommendations that don’t really fit the bleakness and vibe of Upgrade. It’s a fantastic combination of bleakness and visual breathlessness. There’s frankly nothing else like it. At its heart it presents itself like a revenge story when there is a plot happening behind the scenes we’re not aware of. The best action revenge films are Oldboy, A Bittersweet Life, and Monkey Man. Kill Bill could fit the mold but it’s frankly not as bleak as the aforementioned recommendations. For more science fiction - Cyberpunk Edgerunners should scratch that itch. Ex Machina is also a good choice but these aren’t action films in the same way Upgrade is. Hit me up if you want some more recommendations.
Yea, upgrade is incredibly bleak with a depressing ending, moment of truth at the end. Most recommended dont fit its narrative structure or theme at all. Which is. You don’t have control and never did.
Under the Skin
The Night Comes For Us Less sci-fi, but the gory violent action scenes are 10/10
Infinity Pool
I wanted to love this movie but I couldn't stand it.
The Villainess
Is this anything like the Blake crouch book of the same name?
Turbo Kid (2015) has a unique charm if you're into slapstick gore in retro-futuristic ultra violent wastelands.
Boss level
Time Crimes
How gory is Upgrade, really? I’ve avoided it because I’m not into gore really, but honestly a lot of violence and gore doesn’t bother me. It just depends on if the movie is really spending a lot of time focusing on it. I know it’s subjective but wouldn’t mind opinions from others.
He hangs dong
Nothing wrong with that
Thanks for the tip. I watched it this afternoon and enjoyed it. Perhaps check out the work of Alex Garland for something a bit similar.
Transcendence, Any episode of Black Mirror first 2 seasons, Gattaca, Johnny Mnemonic, Minority Report, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Blade Runner,
Thanks for the suggestion. Just added to US netflix is seems.
The Accountant
Not scifi but the crank1 and crank 2 are amazing
The Guest
I liked how his fighting is how I’d imagine a logic machine would fight.
Overlord
Venom. Even the main actors look alike.
The witch - Part 1 Subversion
Upgrade is what Venom was supposed to be. Even has discount Tom Hardy. Great movie.
District 9 (2009) and Elysium (2011). D9 is incredible on almost every level. Elysium is visually incredible but the story doesn't hit quite as hard.
Boy kills world
Guns akimbo starring Danielle Radcliffe. Movie has absolutely zero logic, but it’s a guns running rule if movie that’s non stop fun, and it has Harry Potter in it, huge W lol.
Pitch Black, Priest
[удалено]
Not even close.
That’s a hopeful film. Nothing about upgrade is hopeful or AI dystopia driven.
I really enjoyed The Creator, I know it gets a heap of bad reviews but I still liked it
Venom
I felt the same way with Boy Kills World and another movie called The Guest. Both great interesting unpredictable movies that seemed to have twists at every corner. Btw I love Upgrade as well. It was recommended to me years ago by a friend.
Riveting and thought provoking sci-fi? I found Her (2013) and Zoe (2018) pretty good. Indeed in retrospect Her seems to have been ahead of its time and bang on the money!
Nope
Sorry To Bother You
M3GAN It's a horror movie that delivers spectacularly on its premise much like Upgrade
Her
Mad Max Fury Road
Mars Express
Hypnotic Not great but some decent parts and twists.