‘The Posthuman Project’ Theatrical Review

With Marvel eating up the box office, and DC invading television, we’re not experiencing any sort of a shortage of superhero stories. From The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, to Gotham and Arrow, there are a lot of costumed heroes guarding our cities. If you don’t look too closely, they can all start to look a bit alike.

Enter The Posthuman Project, a movie described as a film with the heart of a John Hughes movie, and the flare of one by J.J. Abrams. I will be honest, I would have never put those two things together myself, so I felt like I had to see this film–if only to slate my curiosity.

posthuman

The movie centers around five teenagers, three of them about to graduate from high school. Like any good John Hughes movie, you’ve got your usual High School Kid stock characters–the cheerleader, Lisa; the cheerleader’s boyfriend (or ex, in our case), Denny; the jock, Adam; the nerd, Archie; and the rebel with a sad back story, Gwen.

Everything gets crazy when, on a last camping trip before graduation, the gang encounters a mysterious machine the gives them all superpowers. Our heroes are suddenly thrust into a world where they must fight to survive against a mad scientist, who happens to be Denny and Archie’s uncle, bent on harvesting the superpowers from our heroes (which would be a deadly procedure for the teens), taking the power for himself, and selling his powers to the country with the highest bid. All of this is happening while our heroes must also navigate the tumultuous road of adolescence, high school, graduation, and growing up.

posthuman cast

Before I jump into the guts of my review, let’s get something out of the way: the special effects in this movie are pretty awful. However, I had a really hard time holding that against the movie. The Posthuman Project is an indie film with a tiny budget. Because of that, docking points from them because it didn’t Michael Bay hard enough didn’t feel quite right to me.

That’s why I’m calling it out here. Yes, the special effects are really, really bad, but I chalk that up to it being an indie movie. If the movie was able to be redone with a big studio financially backing it, I have no doubt they could have made their green screen use a bit more seamless, the superpower effects a bit more dynamic, and their explosions a bit more realistic.

posthuman-fiery

The movie itself, however, was a pretty interesting ride. Like any good John Hughes movie, the film focused a great deal on those issues teens deal with in high school–bullies, graduating, breakups, trouble at home, and flunking. That part of the story was really the heart of the movie, far more than the superhero stuff.

Because of that, for about half of the movie, it sometimes almost felt like I was watching two different films. The superhero part of the story existed largely outside of the teens for a good portion of the movie. That paired with the filmmaker’s choice to take a page from Heroes and divide the story into chapters made the movie feel a bit disjointed for me.

However, it definitely had it’s moments. While the script often felt a bit formulaic to me, and it was straight-up cheesy in spots (for instance, there is a moment when all of the character break into song in the car), there were also some great one-liners and some genuinely meaningful moments between the characters. Additionally, the awkward flirting between characters was so very realistic that it really reminded me of my own time in high school–though that might just be me.

I was also a huge fan of the movie’s soundtrack. Whoever was in charge of picking songs for that movie did a pretty awesome job, in my opinion.

Overall, this film meets every expectation you have when you hear the words “indie superhero flick”. The script isn’t always the shiniest, the acting isn’t always the best, and the special effects aren’t great. However, the story is unique enough to make the movie a pretty fun ride. This maybe isn’t a movie I’d stand in a long line to see again, but I’m ultimately glad I saw it.

BRAND PARTNERS
Recent Posts