Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Restore Point (2023) Fantasia 2023


In 2041 people can be brought back from the dead if they have backed up their consciousness. When one of the researcher working for the institute and his wife are killed, both seeming not to have a back up a lone wolf cop is forced to investigate what happened. Joined by the researcher who was brought back using an months old back up he is thrown into a dangerous quest involving efforts to privatize the restoration institute and a group of people who oppose restoration as unnatural. 

The trick to watching RESTORE POINT is to largely ignore the science fiction elements. You want to focus on the mystery. Yes the a scifi element is vital to the story, but out side of the key plot point about bringing dead people back the world it creates doesn't make a lot of sense. This is an old school science fiction film where much of society is flashy new things with screens and projections and such. This is a film that pits new technology against old for effect. It's a film that we used to get in the 1950's and 60's where wonderful things are just a few years off. There are all these trappings to make it look futuristic. It's cool to see the return of it, even if the world it creates doesn't completely hang together.

If you are going to like RESTORE POINT it's because of the mystery. At its heart the film is an old school hard boiled detective story in a film noir vein. It's a film about rich people doing things for their own ends and a lowly detective sorting it all out. It's a film about corruption (the public institute bringing people back wants to go private) and the human heart (questions of love and is it better to live unnaturally are raised) two things that old school detective tales are full of. This is the heart of the film.

Honestly until the mystery really started to go front and center, I didn't care for the film much. Too much of the first half hour of so is focusing on making us certain we know this is the future with holograms and fancy talk. Once that stopped and we just started to focus on the mystery, with the flashy stuff integrated I fell in love with the film.

As a mystery this is a great film. It has action, suspense and some unexpected turns that kept everything lively. Once this turned I had an absolute blast with this and I was locked and loaded to the end.

Get some popcorn and a beverage of choice and sir down for a solid mystery.

Recommended

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