Zone 414 so desperately wants to be a better movie but fails. I think it was earnestly directed by someone with a decent visual eye but with a script that does no favors.

The film is set in a near future where humanoid robots exist but are forced into Zone 414. The rich and powerful can pay millions to enter the zone to play. There’s no crime in Zone 414… just a seedy underbelly that looks crime ridden. But someone in the zone has kidnapped the daughter of a very wealthy man and he hires gumshoe Guy Pierce to find her.

It’s a detective/gumshoe movie set in a tech noire underground. It’s basically Westworld without the violence but with dark shadows, seedy alleyways, and mysterious lights cycling past windows. It also really really wants to be Blade Runner…. without the violence.

Hey, credit a movie that doesn’t resort to shootouts (I suppose), but how about being about 75% less talky? It’s like the full second half of this flick is the final act of a noire where the corrupt businessman explains how the system really works. It’s talk talk talk that’s supposed to be feeding us character and motivation but it’s unearned. Unearned attempts to mimic better films without bothering to include detective work, danger, suspense, etc.

The movie is, sadly, just really boring. It wants to be that crime noire with tough guys and shadowy bad guys, but all it manages to be is a poser. It tries to look like one, it tries to talk like one, but it just ain’t good enough to be one.

Interesting try though. There’s a nugget of something interesting going on in the film, but not nearly enough to crawl out of the seedy ratnest of familiarity. Forget it Pierce, it’s Zone 414.

Score: 68