Leaving aside the utterly nonsense impossibility of that giant central issue for a moment, I will state that this film definitely doesn't deserve the harsh critical treatment it got on release. The washed-out, grey concrete butalism of the city centre creates a look of oppressive order that films with fifty times the budget fail to capture.
The script, although dangling from the hook of nonsense, is delivered with enough skill by the actors that you're able to suspend your weighty disbelief on a neighbouring hook.
The action scenes are fantastic. Fast, well choreographed, exciting.
The story offers enough for you to actually want to see what happens.
Now, as for that central problem, the illegality of emotion... The film mostly explains this away by telling us that all citizens inside the controlled zones are on a drug that nulls it out of existence.
Well, that's kinda impossible.
Yeah, of course, there's stuff that exists in the real world that has emotionally numbing and controlling effects, but to remove impulse and emotion to an absolute degree would essentially render us unable to perform even the most basic of functions with literal constant instruction.
It's believed that fear of certain scents and shapes have been evolutionary bred into us, why we find some things repulsive without them presenting a realistic threat to us. A five year old who lives in Croydon will never face the threat of a python, yet take them to the zoo and they shit themselves if you throw one at them.
Their house is the same place at night as it is in the day, but the kid is still terrified of the dark.
Especially if you bought another python back from the zoo and left it under their bed.
Anyway, I mostly joke, but fear is an emotion, historically speaking probably the one that has been the greatest spur in our collective momentum as a developing species.
Fear is an emotion, as is love, happiness, hate and all the other stuff we all feel if you spend just a few moments watching the news or reading YouTube comments.
Right, so, all understood and in place?
My main problem is, the central character in this film has a child. In a world where emotions don't exist, reproduction would bottom out rapidly. Yes, you can say that the urge to have sex is a physical one rather than an emotional one, but, well, physical function and physical "wants" are two different things.
I eat food and after the required nutrients are taken in the digestive process, I have a poo. Both are essential, although poo is way funnier than food (Sadly commissioners of light entertainment TV shows think the opposite, so we have Noel Fielding gurning like a cunt in a tent while some fucking bellend makes a scone and crys a bit.)
I can do a handstand and walk around upside down on my palms. It's not practical, it's not fun, it's not essential, therefore I don't.
Without emotion, there is no desire, without desire he (probably) wouldn't of got a bonk-on and joylessly slipped one to his chosen life mate.
I dunno, everyone's different, some people may have disliked this film for entirely different reasons, or for the ones that make me think it's underrated. Personally, I just find myself pondering why there isn't more fecal orientated teatime viewing and if I could ever manage to go full mast in a world where it'd be pointless.
I can't really walk on my hands like that either. Fuck even trying that.
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