Avast! Thar be spoilers ahead!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

THX 1138


THX 1138 is the protagonist's name. He and his roommate Luh 3417 live in an underground society that is heavily regulated by drugs and all seeing cameras. They rebel by failing to take their regulation drugs and by having sex. Both are criminal offenses. In addition to sedating the citizens, the drugs also allow workers to engage in complicated and dangerous tasks for extended periods of time. He is imprisoned, intially alone and then with others after a brief visit with LUH. The prison is an enormous white room whose walls are indistinguishable from its floor and ceiling. THX escapes but loses fellow inmate SEN and hologram SRT. He discovers that LUH's name and number have been given to a fetus, implying that she has been killed. THX elludes the police until the cost of his recapture exceeds the recommended budget. THX makes it out of the underground city and into the sun.

The movie is beyond clean, it is sterile. There is little in the way of a set. The images on the television screens are blurry, flickering in and out. It is a bland movie to watch. Normally, dialogue or emotion would feel the empty spaces but this movie falls flat. I don't need action, car chases, laser shoot outs, but I do need a more satisfying plot. I suppose that this, combined with the shaved heads, robotic police, over medication, are supposed to creep me out but it makes human life seems like a science experiment gone horribly boring.

No comments:

Post a Comment