Director: Jeff Chan
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Cast: Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell, Natalie Liconti, Sarena Parmar, Alex Mallari Jr.
Duration: 100 minutes
Now streaming on Netflix
Released in the spring of 2020, Jeff Chan’s anti-police Sci-fi action film Code 8, produced and starring brothers Robbie and Stephen Amell, flew mostly under the radar, despite its timely themes. Although a sequel series fell apart with the collapse of Quibi, the franchise has found new life with a Netflix-backed sequel. Like its predecessor, Code 8: Part II uses its high concept sci-fi to critique the increasing violence of the militarised police state, especially in the age of surveillance.
Set five years after the events of the first film, Robbie Amell plays Connor, a small-time crook just out of prison. Stephen Amell plays Garrett, the drug kingpin Connor partnered with in an ill-fated attempt to save his dying mother. Both men are Powers, the title given to the 4 percent of the fictional Lincoln City’s population who have superpowers. These residents are treated as second class citizens, kept in poverty, and heavily policed.
Part of the problem is that the plotting is not as tight as the first film, which was penned solely by Chris Paré. Here he shares writing credits with Chan, Sherren Lee, and Jesse LaVercombe, and there may well be too many cooks in the kitchen.
However, Chan’s visual world-building remains sharp. The whole film has big, dilapidated Rust Belt vibes, from the rundown community centre where Conor works as a janitor to the greasy spoon diner where he meets up with Garett. Everything here is gray and cold and bleak.
The action sequences remain cheesy, but fun, with both Amells having committed deeply to the bit, as they move objects at their will or harness the power of lightning with complete seriousness.
–rogerebert.com
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