In Bionic (Netflix), the Brazil of an imagined near future is full of elite athletes with prosthetics. A tech company’s brain fluidity software and artificial limbs custom-made from solid fiber have created a new level of available human power, and while that’s exciting in many ways, it’s very dangerous in many others. others, and two sisters, Olympic-level long jumpers María (Jessica Córes, invisible city) and Gabi (Gabz, Summer heat), are on both sides of what new prosthetic technology can do. Bionic, directed and co-written by Afonso Poyart (2 Coelhos, Comfort), also stars Bruno Gaggliasso and Christian Malheiros.
BIONIC: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: The year is 2035. As Maria watches from the sidelines, Gabi’s nearly fifty-foot (!) jump at the Pan American Bionic Games becomes a new world record. Her mother was an Olympic long jumper before them, and both sisters trained with her as children. But she died when they were young, her father Ricardo (Nill Marcondes) saw to it that Gabi, an amputee, was fitted with a brain-integrated Solid Limbs leg prosthesis, and now Maria watches her sister bask in the glory of one. Top level bionic athlete while running. old-fashioned at a ruined racecourse. “I feel at home here,” she tells her younger brother, Gus (Malheiros), when he passes by. “I think it represents the current state of regular athletes: abandoned.”
Gus brings trouble in the form of low-level criminal Heitor (Gaggliasso), and Maria soon becomes involved with this guy with a rogue haircut, who wants to overthrow the monopoly Solid Limbs has on his prosthetic technology. However, she’s also a little into this out of jealousy, because eventually Maria also receives a new, super-powerful prosthetic right leg. (The “NIM” microchip is the other integral component of this future technology; it is the key electronic link between a user’s head and their custom-made limbs.) And her leg drive to compete at the professional level of long jump that her sister Gabi achieved and beyond? Yes. Does she also use him, unknowingly or not, to further the nefarious and violent goals of Heitor and his gang? Also if. Oh, and there are also two police detectives following Heitor and Maria’s movements? Also if!
Bionic he’s very worried about what Heitor is up to, which can be a bummer. His outline is the least interesting here, and is tonally at odds with the parts of the film that explore the new limits of human endurance. But Bionic raises some provocative science fiction questions within the world it has built, about the evolution of a technology-addled humanity, how and when a level of “superpowers” is achieved, and questions of control in the development and use of human enhancements. . For María and Gabi, the decisions they make will depend on how they have always seen themselves, whatever the technological complements.
What movies will it remind you of? Bionic presents your near future world with style Blade Runner 2049 touches (here, towering 3D holograms feature Gabi in advertisements for Solid Limbs prosthetic technology) and the least visually interesting, the colors of cement and the random aesthetic of the bubbling flat screens of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Performance worth seeing: The energy is electric between Jessica Córes and Gabz as sisters María and Gabi. They are lifelong competitors (with everyone, but especially with each other) and their dynamic keeps them going. Bionic moving every time your narration software stops.
Memorable dialogue: Whenever Bionic descends into Solid Limbs’ surgical centers and performance labs, the dialogue enters a vague but also important-sounding future medical science mode. “The symbiosis between the mechanical and the organic is impressive…implanted in the motor cortex region…thirty percent more strength and speed…the neurotransmitters!”
Sex and skin: Sleek, super-powered prosthetics: not only coveted by the criminal who would use their power for evil, but apparently also part of their turn-on.
Our opinion: There is a weirder, weirder, scarier movie, probably David Lynch style, that will be made from the notion in Bionic that in the future self-mutilation could emerge as a new form of sports doping. When formerly elite, but still normal, human-powered athletes find themselves replaced on the global athletic stage and abandoned as recipients of huge sponsorships, what would stop them from causing the accident that would lead to an improvement in their most profitable business? ? member? This is an aspect of Bionic, but only one, along with another unexplored message, the concept of DIY-produced limb prosthetic technology on the black market. (He turns towards Elysium territory, but it doesn’t stay there.) Instead, Bionic leaves too much time for his old non-bionic, human-powered pawns to make their rickety plans for a hostile takeover of the prosthetics company’s proprietary assets. As Heitor, Bruno Gaggliasso could project cult leader vibes with his rugged mullet and piercing blue eyes. But the entire angle of it is also quite transparent.
What works best in Bionic is the popular emergence of this new technology and how their intimacy with it influences the decisions Maria and Gabi make, both separately and together, as athletes and as sisters.
Our call: Bionic It is a TRANSMISSION. Yes, its scope is a bit limited. But the human element is animated by Jessica Córes and Gabz, while the technological stuff shows some interesting looks into the future.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.AA
