Film Review: Upgrade

Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

Cert: R-rated

Director: Leigh Whannell

Screenwriter: Leigh Whannell

Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Richard Anastasios, Rosco Campbell, Richard Cawthorne, Linda Cropper, Steve Danielsen, Michael M. Foster, Betty Gabriel, Renah Gallagher, Harrison Gilbertson, Benedict Hardie, Clayton Jacobson, Sachin Joab,  Christopher Kirby, Simon Maiden

Running time: 1h 40min

Parents advised reading before viewing the film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity:

• A woman wears a cleavage-revealing blouse.
• A man jokes about a woman taking her pants off.
• A man and woman make out in a car.

Violence & Gore:

• In one scene, a woman asks a man, "Do you know how to fuck?"
• We see an accident, which sends a man colliding throughout the car's cabin.
• A woman is shot in the chest (we see her bloody wound). A man is shot in the neck (which is also a gory mess).
• A man is beaten, stabbed, has glass broken against his face before having his cheeks sliced horrifically open.
• A men head being blown off with a gun.
• A man gets his head gets shoved onto a spike of glass.
• A man is tortured (we don't see it happening, but we see the results and hear the victim's screams), with his face being lacerated repeatedly with a knife.
• A man dies from blood loss.
• A character takes a mortal knife blow to the side of his face.
• Several people are shot and killed with guns (including some gruesome headshots).
• Several melees involve fast-paced martial arts, with hits and kicks brutally knocking people around
• One person chokes to death
• A man repeatedly sticks a knife into various parts another man's body to see if he can feel anything.
• A lengthy, reckless car chase ends with an accident that bloodies one driver's head.
• Someone's stabbed in the hand with a knife (which stays stuck in that hand for quite some time).

• While a man is paralysed, he tries to commit suicide by asking his robot helper to repeatedly dose him with pain medication.
• We see a scalpel slice into flesh, glimpse a surgical procedure in which doctors install a chip into a spinal cord, then watch them staple the lengthy incision shut.

Profanity: 

• In the red band trailer, there are 3 uses of the word "f**k"
• About 10 uses each of the f- and s-words.
• One use of "c--k."
• "God Damn" is heard roughly 5 times, with "God" being used alone an additional 5 times.
• We hear a handful of uses each of "a--," "a--hole," "d--n," "b--ch" and "p-ss."

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking:

• Characters drink beer and hard liquor.
• One scene takes place in a grimy bar where most patrons are drinking and bottles are visible behind the bar
• We see a bottle of what seems to be prescription medication.

Frightening/Intense Scenes:

• This film contains lots of strong bloody violence throughout
  

Story: Set in the near future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.

Likes: This is the one film ive been waiting to see since it hit the cinema in us on the 1st June, From the trailer, I knew I was getting into an ultra-violent and surreal blood trusty movie but ultimately this film just ended up being disappointing.

Im not gonna completely trash this film there is somewhat of a good direction from the start to midway through the film, it doesn't hold back when it comes to the violence for R-rated film, which I don't understand it being given a 15 certification. The fight scene is kind of funny in a darkly comedic way, especial when he first gets into a fight, the character reaction is priceless.

There is a lot of brutal scenes which add to the film's entertainment, The plot was going in right direction in the right way, not that its a new idea as it seems familiar to Robocop in certain ways.
Logan Marshall-Green performance is great in this film giving a believe character on a revenge path, which is great for the film, also give a slightly sarcastic humour which gives his character more depth.

The rest of the cast give great performances as well, set in a futuristic world, the fight scene is well choreographed. The one-liners although a little cringe-worthy at times, giving the film character. But this is all that I can say it great about the film as ive said I came away from this disappointed.

Dislikes: The Major problem with this film is it ending, you have a great direction for great fight choreography, a great revenge story, the ending just ruins what was a great film. It was a bad direction to end on which make the villains weak and felt like the writer on this film ran out of ideas to end the film and went in the wrong direction for the ending of the film. I would have done it differently.

This is why the film is disappointing, you had a great film here that is destroyed but its own end, it could've been better, that could have lead to a unique TV series or a sequel, but the ending kind of destroyed that, which is a shame.

Overall: Great choreography, Great action, good direction, poor ending decision

Rating: 5 out of 5 for Entertainment / 6.5 out of 10 for the concept