Film Review: "Spiderhead" (2022).

"How Far Would You Go to Fix Human Nature?" This is Spiderhead. This science fiction thriller film directed by Joseph Kosinski, adapted by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and based on the dystopian short story Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders. A prisoner in a state-of-the-art penitentiary begins to question the purpose of the emotion-controlling drugs he's testing for a pharmaceutical genius.

In February 2019, a film adaptation of Saunders' short story, that was first published in The New Yorker in 2010 and in collection of short stories Tenth of December in 2013, was announced with Kosinski set to direct, and Reese and Wernick penning the adaptation. By early November 2020, Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Charles Parnell and Nathan Jones were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and took place throughout Queensland, Australia.

The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Charles Parnell and Nathan Jones. The cast entertains in this intriguing sci-fi flick that is full of twists and turns. However, Teller has more chemistry with Hemsworth than with any of the female performers.

Filled with amazing post-apocalyptic spectacle, and a heady story of twists and turns, the challenge of the film is whether or not you, as the audience, can allow the strong visuals to make up for the weak narrative. A grab bag of ancient (in movie terms) sci-fi ideas, the film is a sharp-looking film that will, through its own paucity of invention, be quickly consigned to history. On a pure surface level, the film is well made, but this seems like it was aimed at an audience that has never seen a science fiction film before. Because the film borrows heavily from other sci-fi films, it lacks distinction in making the film truly it's own. You could do a lot worse than this movie, that is clearly trying to bring the many classics and best of science fiction together with new ideas, gorgeous visual style and an exciting cast. Kosinski creates a good-looking film, with sweeping landscapes and some nice special effects that keep the audience interested. But that interest wanes as the story begins to unfold. There's something sturdy and likable about the way Kosinski tells his big story around just a few characters, drawn together across an mysterious island. An emotionally-barren and tediously convoluted film, brimming with risible dialogue and plastic performances. The story here can veer into the preposterous at times, as stories of this sort often do. But more important, it provides Hemsworth lots of opportunities to look cool. Although opulent, ambitious and populated with fine performers that try to breathe some creative life into the sporadic script, the film is stiff thematically and fails to deliver a premium-plus pulse of twitchy intrigue and surging suspense. Although it looks spectacular and boasts some pungent ideas, the surprise-to-running-time ratio is out of whack. Kosinski's film is far from original and instead acts as yet another genre rip-off that looks shiny and expensive, but is hollow and lifeless where it counts.

Simon says Spiderhead receives:

Also, see my review for Top Gun: Maverick.