VOD Review - Code 8

This film was directed by Jeff Chan and it was written by Chris Pare. Both Chan and Pare are relatively unknown in the film industry and new to it. The names of which to take note are the two actors who are the true force behind this project. Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell are two young actors who have become well-known on television, specifically on the CW network. They're cousins from Canada who are especially well-known for their super-hero personas on TV. Stephen Amell is the older cousin and he's probably the most famous. Stephen is the star of the series Arrow (2012), which ran for eight years and spawned four spin-off series, including The Flash (2014) on the same network. Robbie Amell is the younger cousin and arguably less famous. He's had a great career, but he's never been the lead in a hit series like Stephen. His closest shot was being the lead in The Tomorrow People (2013), which was a really great super-hero show. Unfortunately, that program was cancelled after one season. It just didn't garner the ratings of Arrow or The Flash.

The reason is probably because it didn't have the inherent value of being a character from DC Comics. The marketing for The Tomorrow People wasn't as splashy either. The marketing for Arrow for example played on the sex appeal of the characters with posters featuring the shirtless, ripped physique of Stephen Amell. Yet, it was Robbie's first leading role and he was really good in it. Given he's a producer on this film, it feels as though Robbie is trying to recreate that experience and some of the ideas from The Tomorrow People. In some ways, this film could be seen as a spiritual sequel to The Tomorrow People, except I would argue that it's not as interesting or really explores the breath of its ideas. Yet, Robbie's performance and the direction of it keep this production very engaging.

Robbie Amell stars as Connor Reed, a guy who lives with his mother. He does so because he's trying to help take care of her. His mother has a job at a grocery store and she's a functional person who doesn't really need her son's help in terms of physical care. She does have a physical illness. She basically has cancer. Yet, she can't afford medical treatment. Connor is therefore living with her, so that he can help pay for whatever she needs. It's never explained where Connor and his mom live. The film was shot in the Amell's home town of Toronto. Presumably, that's where.

I don't fully understand the healthcare system in Canada, but I thought it was a universal system where someone with cancer could get the care they needed. It seems though that some Canadians like those in Ontario do have to pay for prescription drugs and that can be costly. The film doesn't get into the specifics of those costs. It's just established that they need money for her healthcare. His mom doesn't have a great job and Connor can only get odd jobs like working on construction sites, doing manual labor. Actually, Connor does day labor. Yet, he does so by waiting on the side of a road in front of a convenience store or gas station. Doing day labor that way is reminiscent of how migrant workers or undocumented immigrants get work.

Connor comes across as an undocumented immigrant and the reason he's seen this way is because the film is trying to make a metaphor or comparison between undocumented immigrants or marginalized people and the people that this film creates. Connor is a young, handsome, white guy. He doesn't have a drug addiction or substance abuse problem. He doesn't have a criminal record, despite his father being a criminal. The question becomes why would he need to do day labor. Why couldn't he have gone to school or someplace and gotten a better job? The reason implied is because Connor is a "power-enabled" person and power-enabled people are discriminated against in this film.

Power-enabled people are basically people with supernatural powers like telepathy, telekinesis or super-strength. This is the connection to The Tomorrow People. In that Robbie Amell series, he played a person born with super powers. In that series, the existence of super-powered people wasn't that long, probably under 50 years, so the world building didn't need to be so immense. Here, however, the existence of super-powered people goes back further. Therefore, the world-building had to be more immense, which would make it akin to X-Men (2000) or Watchmen (2009).

The world-building has limited super-powered people to just being an impoverished and marginalized group across the board. Despite having super-powers, it seems as if all super-powered people live in poverty. Many as a result resort to crime. This just seems like it can't be the case. Aside from a cop named Park, played by Sung Kang (Fast Five and Power), there doesn't appear to be anyone that likes or supports super-powered people, but that can't be the case either.

The film just feels like a flimsy excuse to have Connor be so desperate he hooks up with a bunch of criminals. Those criminals then do things like bank robberies. These criminals all have super-powers. A super-powered bank robbery sounds good on paper, but the execution of it isn't as exciting as it could have been. I don't know if it's a lack of budget or lack of imagination, but this film doesn't utilize these people expressing their powers in ways that are all that eye-popping or even all that memorable. The Tomorrow People didn't have great action scenes either, but it dealt with world-building and its ideas, as well as its characterizations better. It's not fair because if this were a series, it would probably have the space to provide more depth, but the first episode of The Tomorrow People provides way more than this film does.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 38 mins.

Available on VOD platforms and Netflix.