Parents' Guide to Future World

This movie's energy is as low as its apparent budget, and it's barely written. The film takes place in a post-pocalyptic future world, so of course it's called Future World. If the title and character names (Warlord, Drug Lord, Prince, Queen) weren't enough of a hint, it has aspirations to the metaphorical and mythic. But its dual painfully obvious "hero's journey" narratives don't rise above the film's bargain-basement Mad Max trappings. The characters are all precisely what the exposition tells us they are, with no depth, exploration, or believable interactions. There are no stakes because there are no rules. This society can't manufacture bullets, but it can power a strip joint with neon signs and maintain motorcycles that withstand BMX-style chases (with apparently endless supplies of gasoline). Ash is prized as a killer, but she isn't very good at it when the story needs her to be weak. The sex and violence aren't organic but feel stapled on for effect. The film unabashedly objectifies women, scrambling to make up for it at the end with a "bad guys get theirs, good gals go free" ending. There are no new ideas, and the dialogue couldn't be flatter.

Franco co-directed with Bruce Thierry Cheung, the cinematographer/director who helmed the acclaimed Don't Come Back from the Moon, which starred Franco and Wahlberg. Future World does include some appealing images, some of which actually match the score by Tindrum. It's somewhat surprising that the production landed Liu and Jovovich. At least Jovovich seems to be having fun, and her fight with Franco is amusing. But Levieva deserves bigger roles in better movies. Future World may be intended as an art film masquerading as an action movie -- or vice versa -- but it succeeds as neither.