Movies News Talk
Many sci-fi tales center the world of virtual reality and artificial intelligence technology as it expands and gets more immersive. VR and AI may be applied for a range of themes and storytelling, whether it is for the more provocative Black Mirror episodes or the Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One blockbuster getaway. James Croke's Latency makes not only the film's precise meaning a mystery but also the absence of thrills is as perplexing.
Under Sasha Luss, Latency focuses on Hana, a professional gamer with severe agoraphobia who hasn't left her apartment for years, working from home and supporting all from game testing to tournament participation. She seems to be simplifying her life and her gaming improves when she is given the chance to test an experimental equipment that links to her brain waves. Her unusual experiences inspire her to wonder about the nature of the technology.
Originally successful in the modeling industry, Luss has been steadily developing her cinematic profile over the past several years, starring in Anna, Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Plansets, and the psychological thriller Shattered. Unlike her previous cinematic appearances, in which the focus was just as much on other characters, Latency is almost totally driven by Luss's lead performance and she shows herself to be a fairly competent actress.
Luss deftly catches these layers when the film strives to portray Hana and her emotional background. Between the pain her character experiences over her past—which is little discussed—and the yearning to develop and interact with the outside world, the actress deftly touches every feeling. Her performance demonstrates much of learning and development with each successive role, even though there are undoubtedly times when it seems a touch stilted—particularly in relation to the gaming events shown in the movie.
Apart from Luss's excellent starring role, Latency gains some advantage from James Croke's visual approach to the science fiction thriller. Though the film is only his second directed attempt, the director shows a remarkable ability to create a live-in, immersive environment with Hana's flat. While the actual production design of the set results in a few successful shocks, the darker lighting of the film nicely fits both the atmosphere a gamer would find most fit for their lifestyle and someone unprepared to encounter the outside world.
Croke's method of approaching Latency's mind-bending delights also shows a chic way to hold us captive on the progressively hazy line separating tech-induced illusion from reality. Between quite literally blurring images of ghost-like figures to artistic lens choices presenting kaleidoscope-like images to parallel Hana's own growing disconnect with the real world, Croke exemplifies some stylish directorial choices that point to a promising future, though only if he has the right material to work off of.
Though some of these nice aspects exist, Latency can never really overcome its clearly undeveloped and uninteresting narrative. The main weakness of the technology that drives the plot of the movie is finally its nature as, by the time the story ends, too many unresolved issues surround it. None of these things are made obvious where some films might at least provide information as to the device's designer, aims, or at least set up worldwide disastrous effects in spite of a horror story like Hana's; they're not even hinted to.
Latency also fails to provide any interesting thematic themes about people's relationship to technology, or any significant revelations for Hana to get some form of character growth from. Though the increasing reliance on technology presents many chances for Hana to break free from her bubble and better embrace the outside world, Croke's script seems content with delivering reality-questioning thrills rather than offering anything meaningful to keep audiences thinking beyond the 90-minute running time, or even inside the movie. Although I might contend that some of the likes of Ready Player One have thrived without more in-depth social dialogues, Latency loses out from having a whole virtual reality universe loaded with pop cultural Easter eggs. Though unlike any episode of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, the film gives few significant messages and much less answers regarding everything that leads up to its anticlimactic climax, therefore it takes a more realistic and psychological approach to its possibly unique subject.
A science fiction thriller, Latency investigates the thin line separating the virtual world from reality. The movie centers on Hana, a professional gamer asked to test a new gaming equipment linked to brain waves. The distinction between truth and fiction starts to blur as Hana gets more and more engross in the virtual world. Latency begs issues regarding the possible risks of technology and their effects on our minds and perspective of reality.
Though its concept is interesting, the movie's execution falls quite short. Although Sasha Luss's acting and the visual approach of the movie are appealing, the plot is finally weak. Latency fails to explore thoroughly the thematic implications of its concept and raises several unresolved issues. Though it has shortcomings, Latency is a movie that will keep spectators on the tip of their seats and might not inspire much thought long after.
Comparatively to Black Mirror, a well-known anthology series examining the sinister side of technology, latency has been likened. Black Mirror and Latency both examine ideas of technology, solitude, and the possibility that it can negatively affect humanity. Black Mirror shines, though, in providing provocative analysis of the moral and social consequences of technology. Conversely, latency seems happy to just provide thrills and tension, therefore compromising depth and significance in the process.
Black Mirror has been hailed for its keen social commentary and capacity to get viewers to consider the possible fallout from technology developments. Latency finally falls short of Black Mirror's genius even if it tries to convey some of the same suspense and mystery. Although the movie presents a peek of a time when technology blurs the barrier between fact and imagination, it falls short in providing the kind of provocative and powerful narrative that Black Mirror has become a global phenomenon for.