REVIEW: Netflix's 'Code 8' Is An Alright X-Men Heist Movie

'Code 8' - 68/100

I went into this movie with little to no expectations and wound up pleasantly surprised by this weird, Canadian Sci Fi movie. It's sort of a conceptual and visual combination of X-Men, Heat, and Chappie. It doesn't replicate any aspect of those three movies particularly well, but there is coherent enough plot and good enough acting to keep you intrigued. 

Robbie Amell (The Flash) plays Connor, a mutant that can't make enough money to get the surgery his mother desperately needs. In this world, mutants began showing up in the early 1900s, and were vital to building society before being phased out into destitution by robotics. Now, they can't get work and the government closely monitors and regulates mutants. Some of them turn to crime, like Stephen Amell's (Green Arrow) character Garrett, who Connor joins to make some money. Something about Amell's face just rings YA novel movie way too hard, but his performance was generally good. The other actor I want to shout out is Greg Bryk, who I think is poised for stardom as a bad guy. The first role of his that stuck out for me is in another Netflix joint, Frontier, where he plays an amazing bad guy named Cobbs. Since then, he's been in 'Ad Astra' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' and he played The Father in Far Cry 5. Some people just got the look and delivery to do crazy evil well, and Greg's got it. 

Like I said before, this movie follows a lot of beats from other movies. You have the basic powers of the X-men along with the general anti-mutant sentiment of the government. There is a big urban heist environment that reminded me at times aesthetically of 'Heat'. Lastly, you have robots that look almost exactly like the ones from 'Chappie'. Lots of Neill Blomkamp vibes are present in all the tech really. It's a little paint by numbers and nothing is going to surprise you too much, but you will definitely be entertained by it. Pretty impressive considering it's a crowd funded movie.