Division 19

While I think it’s good that cyberpunk hasn’t fully gone away, I feel like there’s been quite a bit of stagnation in the genre. The themes and messages today all seem to be copying those of bygone decades. Admittedly, many of the fears and issues raised by cyberpunk works of yore persist to this day, but even the methods of illustration have become rather staid and played out. Case in point: Division 19.

The plot here revolves around hacktivist (I couldn’t think of a better term for a guy who seeks to break the control of an all-encompassing governmental organization via hacking and whatnot), Hardin Jones, who is said to be hugely influential in the anti-system community. He’s initially imprisoned, the “star” of a reality television program centering on watching the everyday lives of convicts (think Big Brother After Dark only more drawn-out and somehow less interesting), but he’s broken out and proceeds to go on the run, evading the ever-watchful eye of Central Control. It’s not gonna be easy for him, though, ‘cause the eyes in the skies can track retinas, tattoos, chips, and so forth.

Immediately, we’re presented with the same old list of bad stuff springing forth from the confluence of expanding technology and the hunger for power and control: Anonymity is outlawed, prisoner fights are broadcast on huge screens littering city skylines, automation has run amok, and society is stiffly stratified, with a wealthy, powerful class maintaining order through hefty and constant manipulation of the masses. It’s all decidedly on-the-nose, including the TV service about convicts being called “Panopticon TV”, and there isn’t much novel commentary beneath the obvious surface-level stuff. Hell, I’ve never seen such blatantly pointless inclusion of robots, as they do very little but walk about (and even dance!) and help us to remember that we’re supposed to be in the 2030s. Worse, I can’t for the life of me fully understand the idea that people would be excited about “adopting” a convict, basically leasing a human Tamagotchi with even worse interactivity, or even watching the drudgery of one’s entire time in prison. Sure, chalk it up to “That’s just how people get in the intervening years,” but it just feels like an awful stretch to me. Moreover, why would these people become celebrities due to incarceration? Is this commentary on the capriciousness of fame? Or on society’s inability to latch onto “proper” role models? I don’t think I should be having to ask these questions, especially after flicks like Gamer already lacklusterly explored these ideas, but here I am.

Cinematographer Ben Moulden opts for a brown and slate tinting scheme for the majority of the film, and I can see where he’s coming from, emphasizing the cold, brutal, emotionally-draining world, but it’s so prevalent and prominent that it becomes tiresome after a short while. Ostensibly to emphasize the fact that we’re in the future (also possibly to emulate J.J. Abrams), he also litters the frame with obstreperous lens flares, succeeding only in being just slightly less obnoxious than the remake of Total Recall. There is some method somewhere, though, as the use of wide-angle lenses, complete with straight-line distortion, underlines the surveillance theme by evoking images of security camera footage. Jessica Brunetto’s editing is decidedly more suspect, with wide shots being held on for extended periods before finally cutting to something else. These shots aren’t the layered tableaux Kubrick was known for, but rather empty, lifeless snags on the plot’s momentum. The film is pocked with both these odd stopovers and fades to black, making me wonder if the film was either designed to be shown on TV with commercial breaks or was a collection of short films cobbled together into a franken-narrative. The rest of the editing is overactive and repetitive, which, combined with the oppressively drab color scheme, makes the film a chore to actually watch. Not that there’s too much to see, as the film’s city’s streets are usually rather empty, and those who are present barely register reactions to whatever’s happening on the mammoth screens. On the plus side, the visual effects are generally pretty good, if a touch static, and it looks as though the limited budget wasn’t much of a constraint for the artists.

Much of the film’s downfall, though, falls at the feet of the spark-less script. Not only have we essentially seen this film before, but the more novel ideas it introduces are weak and lame. I mean, come on, “Parkour Police”? Gimme a break, guys. And even the familiar stuff isn’t communicated all that well: It feels as though the supporting characters are forced to remind us on many occasions that Hardin is some powerful and/or influential muckety-muck not because it’s such an awe-inspiring fact, but because we never see him do all that much. He’s barely established at the start, and even then it’s more of the same, people expositing at length just how dangerous he is. Not that any of the other characters fare much better, with most of them occupying the spaces of cardboard cutouts of cyberpunk and dystopia tropes (the land is run by a sniveling corporate overlord, the surveillance system is controlled by a posh and maniacally cold lady, etc), but it’s all the more glaring with our protagonist. And then there’s the problem of the underground rebellion that doesn’t look to be having much trouble in screwing with the authorities, moving about with relative ease (what with the biometric monitoring all around and whatnot) and causing havoc at will. The stakes don’t feel very high, and as a result we barely care about what is happening.

All told, Division 19 certainly tries to do something, to add to the dystopian/cyberpunk genre in some way, but it unfortunately doesn’t have all that much to say that hasn’t been said better before, and the delivery is all rather muddy and stuttery. It’s nowhere near the worst thing I’ve seen so far in this downer of a year, and it’s always refreshing to see some effort put forth, even if said effort doesn’t strictly succeed, but there isn’t much at all to recommend this one.