The Gene Generation

A cheap cyberpunk thriller with very little to recommend it, THE GENE GENERATION is for all intents and purposes an amateur film. It features the ever-glamorous Bai Ling (DUMPLINGS) as a female assassin/fighter whose appearance and style is clearly indebted to characters like Milla Jovovich in the RESIDENT EVIL series.

Ling goes around dispatching various goons who threaten the wellbeing of her geeky brother. There's not much more plot to it than that, although the inclusion of some goofy CGI tentacle effects was a poor choice on the part of the filmmakers because they're lamentable. As you can guess, I wasn't a huge fan of THE GENE GENERATION, which is so poorly achieved as to be difficult to watch.

The whole film is far too dark which renders any action sequences rather pointless as you can't see what's meant to be going on. Ling's presence in the film is merely an excuse for her to fit into as many form-fitting and revealing costumes as is humanly possible. As for the random Faye Dunaway cameo, your guess is as good as mine...

The film is not all bad, it has it's charm but the good parts are too few and far between. The acting is generally very unconvincing, still Bai Ling and Alec Newman are more or less OK most of the time. Parry Shen is awful and overacts all the time, a shame since he has a big role in the movie.

The story is weak with terrible plot holes. The emotional development is rushed and very hard to relate to. Bai Lings hard core assassin with a yearning for romance feels like two characters pushed into the same person.

The CGI is very sub-par for a movie made in 2007, I've seen Xbox 360 games with more realistic graphics.

The movie seems to rely entirely on Bai Lings push-up costumes and she is heavily exploited throughout the movie.

The worst part, however, is the pretentious artsy cuts and slow scenes that wants to make this movie into a cult classic, all of which feels embarrassing considering the apparent weaknesses of the narration, pacing, acting and CGI.

Watch it if you're a sucker for the genre, like I am. But keep your fast forward button handy.

This movie is quite OK as a cyber-punk. It is not Oscar material, but I found it totally enjoyable on a quiet Sunday.

The story admittedly is a little thin, and some times too emotional but still it was nice to watch. The actors are doing an OK job, and the lead actress is a beauty.

The CGI is OK, and the sets have that dark gloomy mood to it. The action sequences was OK choreographed as well.

If you like CP movies, then why not. Just don't expect Bladerunner, though even that was deemed doomed in its day. This is a paced action flick, with some love and emotion in to it.

Generally speaking, films which are set in the future really have to be "futuristic" in some way, shape or form. "The Gene Generation" is offered as being precisely that, but in its emotional impact and effect it is more like a bad dream from the 1930s, except in color. Lots of color.

The first thing the viewer encounters in this bizarre tale of family loyalty and love lost, is the grim cityscape of the anonymous city where everything happens. There's nothing shiny or bright about it.

Perhaps that was an effort by the author and director to 'locate' the viewer or audience in something at least a little bit familiar. Too bad that the cityscape has approximately as much charm as East Berlin in the mid-1950s !! There's trash everywhere, stuff blows around in circles in the ( seemingly ) never-ending wind, and it's always dark.

It rains. It doesn't rain. It rains. That part of the subtext of this otherwise very ambitious movie really is doubly maddening.

People live in high rise apartment buildings where there's running water and plenty of electricity, and gadgets, but nobody to clear the trash from the hallways. Huh ? The street scenes are the same, with futuristic clutter and debris all over the place, except on the sidewalks where the heroine -- Bai Ling, ravishing at forty-two -- is either walking or running.

Transportation in this urban desolation appears to consist only of elevators and floating-on-air 'flying Dutchmen' type sailing ships.

It all looks really, really strange and inevitably that becomes a nasty impediment to the story line itself, which is actually rather good.

The heroine is an anti-hero, a paid assassin with a brother who is a gambling junkie and a self-destructive idiot. Even his best friend and comrade eventually jettisons him, literally turning his back and then walking away. So, yes, there are touching moments in this otherwise ultra-violent and ultra-cynical story of ultra-modern revenge.

It is hard to recommend this movie for the plot, which is so cynical, and so dark and twisted; but, it is hard not to admire the effort in art and in cinema design which went into creating this futuristic urban hell on earth. That part, or parts, are quite amazing. Is this city located on some other planet, one which merely resembles our earth ?

We will most certainly never know the answer to that question.

Seven out of ten mostly for the delectable and dexterous Bai Ling and also for one truly nasty, skulking-around-places gangster-type villain.

A device is invented know as the transcoder. It can reform human DNA in order to cure a disease or to kill them. But it has fatal results for everyone who uses if except it's creator. The story centers around Michelle an assassin who is trying to maintain a stable life in a corrupt world, and her gambling brother Jackie who is in denial of his problems and thinks they can be quickly fixed. Solemn (the villain)wants the Transcoder for himself to save his wife and will use deadly force if need be. Not knowing what it is Jackie steals the Transcoder from Christian. Yada yada yada... The Transcode changes hands a couple of times. Then the plot gets a little confusing, but stays entertaining.

this movie is gem among those low budget straight to video sci-fi flicks. The acting is good and so is the directing. Although the cgi, production and camera work is the same as other straight to video films, i.e. ten years behind. The look is awesome and heavily influenced by H.R. Giger art. Many think it's suppose to be set in the future, but it is actual set in an alternate reality since there are no advances in technology except the DNA hacking. Bai Ling's out fits are unconventional and look great. She really kicks ass in this movie.

The plot is a little confusing and has a few plot holes. This movie is not for everyone. If you like techno punk futuristic waste land sci-fi movies then you will like this.

I give this film a 7 out of 10. The movie was entertaining by need work on the plot.

Get Your Body Beats, Let Your Blood Flow