TALES OF TOMORROW

The '90s were when the internet emerged from the underground and became a thing everyone was expected to hack into. Like all new media, the 'net was subject to a lot of hype, and a lot of trepidation. Movies began using cyberpunk tropes to explore virtual reality, hacking, cybercrime, and questioned what this brave new virtual world was going to do to the human spirit. de Lima Marques' film embraces these tropes wholeheartedly, reflecting both the optimism and anxiety about the boundless possibilities of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, it also shares the flaws common in the genre - most notably, some Johnny Mnemonically bland characterisation and sluggish pacing.

Despite a few similarities between their basic premises and titles, 'Tales of Tomorrow' is the anti-'The Tomorrow War'. It's a muted small-scale drama, and the special effects in the Joss Whedon-esque dystopia are well-utilised on what was obviously a tight budget. There is no overload of unrealistic "travelling through the mainframe" animated sequences or anything like you'd find in 'Hackers' or 'The Net'. There aren't any elaborate battles sequences pitting humans against atonally laughing killdroids in 2165. There is no Chris Pratt pulling a Rambo face in slow-motion. Instead, 'Tales of Tomorrow' flashes between the past and the future until de Lima Marques is prepared to reveal his clever twist, which manages to reconfigure the entire film. Not in some major 'The Matrix' way. If anything, it's somewhat reminiscent of a teen-orientated take on Josef Rusnak's 'The Thirteenth Floor'.

Despite some decent low-budget effects and an unexpected turn of events leading into the final stretch, the screenplay for 'Tales of Tomorrow' holds it back from being a story that you'll be thinking about the next day.