FUTURE WORLD (2018)

Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: James Franco, Bruce Thierry Cheung
Cast: James Franco, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Suki Waterhouse, Snoop Dogg, Margarita Levieva, Jeffrey Wahlberg, Method Man, George Lewis Jr
RunTime: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: TBA
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 21 June 2018

Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world, where water and gasoline have long since dried-up, a prince from the oasis (one of the last known safe-havens) must venture out to find medicine for the ailing queen (Lucy Liu), but along the way he gets mixed up with the warlord (James Franco) and his robot Ash (Suki Waterhouse), which leads to a daring journey through the desolate wastelands.

Movie Review:

Unfortunately for James Franco, what ambition, hope or potential there might have been of establishing himself as a serious actor with last year’s much-lauded ‘The Disaster Artist’ was derailed in the wake of accusations of sexual misconduct which resurfaced during the peak of the #MeToo movement. Yet equally, it’s unclear if the Academy or its members would have looked past his dubious filmography as a director, which has yielded more than a dozen barely watchable movies, despite being seemingly respectable adaptations of literary works by Cormac McCarthy, John Steinbeck and William Faulkner. Certainly, his latest attempt at the science-fiction genre won’t help his reputation one bit, considering how abysmal, derivative and downright incoherent it is – and some may say self-serving, given how he receives top billing despite being in barely half the movie.

Co-directing with his frequent collaborator Bruce Thierry Cheung, the movie scripted by Cheung, Jeremy Craig Cheung and Jay Davis is a shameless ripoff of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. Oh yes, the similarities are so patently obvious: from the extended sequences of masked men riding motor bikes over barren rocky wastelands; to the story of a kept woman (though supposedly synthetic in this case) who undergoes an awakening; and last but not least to a mythical place in the post-apocalyptic landscape that promises a better future. But even as an imitation, the storytelling is so clumsy that you wonder what on earth these three screenwriters were even thinking. Anyhow, long story short, the plot revolves around a young man named Prince (Jeffrey Wahlberg), who journeys through the desert to procure a miracle drug that could save his dying mother (Lucy Liu). Along the way, he crosses paths with Franco’s vicious Warlord and his gang of dirt bike-riding toughs, and finds an unlikely ally in Warlord’s female robot Ash (Suki Waterhouse).

Throughout the movie, we are hardly given any reason to care about Prince and/or his quest. In fact, there is barely any depth to any of the other characters here – certainly not Warlord, who comes off as a one-note teeth-baring villain; nor for that matter Warlord’s henchman Tattooed Face (Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith), who barely registers at all. Ash could potentially be a much more intriguing character, but hey her soul-searching seems no more than filler in between the bike chases and fight sequences. Perhaps the most memorable among the inconsequentials is Milla Jovovich’s Drug Lord – who runs the beachfront refuge of druggies where Prince finds his drug – because Jovovich seems to be relishing the opportunity of playing an unhinged mad(woman) rather than the gun-toting ‘Resident Evil’ heroine. Notwithstanding, it is shocking why she and the rest of her respectable supporting ensemble would waste their time, talent and credibility on such a poorly conceived project, if for anything else than as a favour for Franco.

As its co-director, Franco deserves blame for how terribly executed it is. For one, his decision to film almost the entire movie in nomadic Steadicam shots is utterly frustrating, not only because of its lethargy but also because its effect is akin to a spectator standing on the sidelines watching everything unfold without ever getting into the thick of the action. Not that the action itself is anything to shout about; indeed, the choreography here is lazy, uninspiring and tedious to the point of numbing, which is so clearly evident in how indifferent the actors performing them are. That is not helped by the monotonous electronic score by Toydrum, or the random bursts of violence that come off more exploitative than anything.

Make no mistake, ‘Future World’ is a completely dreadful piece of work that doesn’t warrant being seen at all. Not only does it run down what credibility he may have built up from ‘The Disaster Artist’, it also reinforces the troubling allegations that have cast a cloud over the future of Franco’s career in Hollywood. But really, Franco has only himself to blame, especially when we see his character calling women ‘bitches’ and reprogramming Ash to be his personal sex slave. There’s also the fact that the movie has an establishment called ‘Titty Town’ in it, where strippers and prostitutes are forced to obey orders or suffer electric shocks delivered by their electronic collars. The future is bleak indeed, but none more so than for Franco, who desperately needs to rise above his own apocalypse.

Movie Rating:

(One of the worst movies we have seen. 'Future World' is an abysmal 'Mad Max' rip-off that cannot even tell a coherent, engaging or entertaining story)

Review by Gabriel Chong