2067 (2020) (Blu-ray)

SYNOPSIS

Climate change has decimated the Earth. It is 2067 and things are worse than ever. But a message from the future offers hope. “Send Ethan Whyte.” That’s it. That’s the message, and as vague and as nondescript as it might be, it will send underground tunnel worker Ethan (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on an adventure beyond imagining.

CRITIQUE

Or not.

Writer/director Seth Larney’s low-budget indie science fiction thriller 2067 isn’t so much bad as it is relentlessly disappointing. While visually imaginative, this is a plodding, unfathomably dull enterprise that takes forever to get where it’s going. Worse, when it finally does arrive at its destination, the climactic act lands with a thunderous thud and precious little else. This is a promising effort that almost seems deliberately insistent on not delivering on it, making this feature more of a frustrating curiosity than it is anything remotely akin to essential.

It all starts promisingly enough. The setup is like some twisted melding of 12 Monkeys, Brazil and just about any Isaac Asimov story one can immediately think of. Larney has a strong visual eye and whatever his budgetary restraints might have been the director does an exemplary job of concealing them.

But once the actual plot kicks in and Ethan’s mysterious mission commences the film quickly loses momentum and becomes more tedious than it is anything else. Smit-McPhee is hopelessly miscast, floundering for ways to anchor his character that just don’t seem to exist. Costars Ryan Kwanten, Sana’a Shaik, Deborah Mailman and Aaron Glenane barely make any sort of lasting impression, while the plot meanders from one idea to the next almost as if Larney was making things up as filming went along.

I really don’t want to say anything more. It’s obvious a lot of passion and energy went into this, and for all the film’s numerous miscues I do believe Larney has talent. I’d be curious to see whatever he gets up to next. But 2067 just didn’t do a darn thing for me, and part of me rather would have never watched it in the first place.

THE VIDEO

2067 is presented on a 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with a 1.85:1 1080p transfer.

THE AUDIO

This Blu-ray features an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack and includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Extras here include:

Audio Commentary with writer/director Seth Larney
Behind the Scenes of: THE STORY, THE CAST, THE DIRECTOR, THE LOOK, THE COSTUMES & MAKE-UP, THE TIME MACHINE, THE EDITING & VFX, THE MUSIC

FINAL THOUGHTS

I didn’t hate 2067. I just didn’t care to be watching it. The film is aggressively underwhelming, and even though writer/director Seth Larney makes the most of his limited budget, this is one science fiction adventure I’d rather have avoided going on.