Nowadays, I am stumbling on at least a day-old film on Netflix. This is because I am mostly seeing films these days to pass the time and not necessarily to be entertained, thrilled, or anything like that. So if whatever I pick is great, that's awesome. But if otherwise, mehhh... I'll only see it through just to pass the time if it isn't unbearable.
The Takeover is a 2022 film that was just released this Tuesday, the 3rd of November, 2022. It is an action thriller about a hacker who gets into trouble and has to find her way out. We'll get into it in a jiffy.
I love computers, code, and basically sci-fi stuff like that. So yeah, I thought to see it for particulary that reason. As always, I did see the film's trailer, as they often do not suffice for me.
𝔸𝔹𝕆𝕌𝕋 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕄𝕆𝕍𝕀𝔼
Mel Bandison, a prodigy computer genius, spends most of her time in the day on her computers, working as a debugger for companies. At night, however, she works with her team to run Robin Hood operations by hacking fraudulent schemes and sending the spoils to charity.
The day comes when she messes with the wrong set of people. And now, her life and those she cares about are in grave danger. At the same time, she is being framed for a crime, and the police are not on her side.
With help from the very few people she trusts, she tries to save her life and clear her name.
𝕄𝕐 𝕋ℍ𝕆𝕌𝔾ℍ𝕋𝕊 & 𝕆ℙ𝕀ℕ𝕀𝕆ℕ
The film opens with a brief introduction to the main character's background: how she was able to hack a secret government organization "easily" at the age of sixteen. This then transposes into the present, when she is all grown up and the story actually begins.
At this point, my brows were raised over things that just did not sit well with me. There is this cliché around hacker-type films. Some things are just overrated to me, making them unreal. But I guess entertainment is the aim for these producers, as for some other types of viewers.
The Takeover is supposed to be a hacker-type film that introduces action in its scenes while also delivering thrills to keep its audience on edge. However, I felt very far from all that through many parts of the story. Many things just did not add up for most of the film.
sᴛᴏʀʏʟɪɴᴇ
What kind of hacker gets hacked twice and has their location compromised? I mean, isn't that "not" supposed to happen? It seems rather counterintuitive that someone who intends to hack government protocols and all that could easily be tracked, and worse of all, wouldn't know.
Well, I am no hacker. I have only little experience in programming. But I'll say that it seemed convenient for them to circumvent something that wouldn't really happen just to open the floor for what's to come—the action in the chase.
That aside, the main problem for me with The Takeover is that it lacks originality in its story. It has the kind of story that we have seen many times over in similar films over the years. It lacked ingenuity, creativity, and imagination for me.
It pretty much starts in a fashion that isn't fantastic and ends in a manner you'd expect... pretty generic and overly ingeminated in this type of film.
ᴄɪɴᴇᴍᴀᴛᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ
A lot of fancy tech stuff was going on in the film. There are a lot of lines of code that 99% of its viewers will not understand, but they put it in any way to make the film cooler. It's what they do in films, and that's cool. These types of things are exciting for some people.
Other than lines of code all over our screens, what we have in terms of camera dynamics, color, visual effects, and all that was nothing out of the ordinary. They are just sufficient to tell the story.
ᴀᴄᴛɪɴɢ
Always, a good story can only shine if its actors are just as good or maybe even better. And for such a terrible story, well, there's not much that they can do. Nonetheless, actors play the biggest role in selling the characters of a story to the audience.
The cast is largely fine. The main actors did a really good job with their characters. It probably is what made the film bearable for me—not having to see terrible acting with an average story.
They may have needed much better scripting, but that's not in their hands, and they did just fine with what they had.
𝕄𝕐 𝔽𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕃 𝕋ℍ𝕆𝕌𝔾ℍ𝕋𝕊...
Again, I stay till the end, not because I had my interest piqued, but because I was only looking to while some time away. So yeah, I'd consider this film more of an escapist film. This is not to say that escapist films are bad.
Although the majority of this film was uneventful, The Takeover is still a watchable film. It just isn't one that is breaking any new ground. If I, however, had seen a much better option to try, I would have jumped at that instead.
I will give it a rating of 𝟝/𝟙𝟘.
★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Interested in more of my reviews? There's a truck-load, but here are a few.
:)
ɪ ɪɴᴠɪᴛᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ᴊᴏɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ɪғ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ғɪʟᴍ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡs ʙʏ ᴀᴡᴇsᴏᴍᴇ ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀs.
ℍ𝕖𝕪, 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕠𝕪𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥, 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥, 𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕘, 𝕠𝕣 𝕦𝕡𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖. 𝕀𝕥'𝕝𝕝 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕓𝕖 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕.
𝒮𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉 . . .