The concept of Paradise is an old sci-fi trope… the rich (sometimes literally) feeding on the poor to gain youth or everlasting life. And I guess what matters is if they find something interesting to do with the premise. This movie did not.

Paradise is a German Netflix film about a near future where the young can sell their youth for cash money. The rich take advantage, growing young while the donor grows old. It turns out you can also use your youth as collateral so when a couple gets into a financial mess, the only way to pay is to collect. Against her will.

I enjoyed the first half of this low-fi sci-fi. It’s not particularly original but I liked its dour, gloomy, and unfair setup and atmosphere. You can see what the screenwriters were going for and they laid out an interesting scenario.

Unfortunately the second half of the film stars to sag and the final act is pretty mediocre. You can see where its going but it takes too long to get there. The lack of originality in the premise seeps into the rest of the film.

Still, not the worst film I’ve seen and it presents old ideas in a pretty grounded way. Wish it had some better ideas in the back half of the story though.

Score: 72