‘Expired’ VOD Review
Stars: Ryan Kwanten, Hugo Weaving, Jillian Nguyen, David Field, Michael Chan | Written and Directed by Ivan Sen
Set in a crowded and pulsating urban metropolis, our story begins with Jack (Ryan Kwanten) – a demoralised and demotivated assassin who aspires for more and struggles to define his place in the world as he moves from one assassination to the next. His monotonous days are filled with robotic lovers and a lack of intimacy – but when Jack meets soulful karaoke geisha April (Jillian Nguyen), life as he knows it changes forever… As he and April’s relationship grows stronger and stronger – Jack grows mysteriously weaker. Just as Jack’s life seems to come together, it begins to fall apart – and his body begins to break down. In need of answers – about both his inexplicable present and unknown past – Jack turns to enigmatic scientist Dr Bergman (Hugo Weaving). Can Dr Bergman help Jack before it’s too late?
Filmed on the streets of Hong Kong, and doing its best to look as cyberpunk as possible, you cannot help but compare Expired (also known as Loveland) to the classic Harrison Ford starring dystopian sci-fi film Blade Runner. And that is Expired‘s downfall.
But that’s what Expired is so desperately wanting to be, another Neo-noir slice of sci-fi that rivals Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, only it could never be that and by trying so desperately to try and capture that same magic that made Scott’s film such a beloved piece of sci-fi cinema. Only Blade Runner wasn’t that beloved at first, the fandom came over time – so to copy that formula out of the gate seems a bit naive.
From the get-go we get the same voice-over narration from lead Ryan Kwanten, who mumbles and stumbles through existential discussion on his life, all while killing people in his job as an assassin and then sleeping with sex robots. Yeah… Talk about try-hard. To be fair to writer/director Ivan Sen, Expired looks superb – the mise-en-scene perfectly captures a dystopian, neon-lit future but looking the part is not nearly enough. The film needs to have substance to back up the bucketloads of style it clearly has. But there is no substance to the film beyond “it’s inspired by Blade Runner.”
At least Expired gets the pacing right. This film is sloooow, painfully slow. As slow as Blade Runner felt the first time I saw it as a teenager. The kind of slow that, back then, made people unappreciative of Ridley Scott’s film. And it will make people unappreciative of this film too. As will the bleak, almost soulless, performances. I get it, the future is an empty, soulless place and our characters reflect that. The fact that two people can find love in this society is a thing of joy and wonder but the journey we take to that point and what follows is, unfortunately, far too bleak. As bleak as the world this film shows they inhabit.
In the end that bleakness, the dystopia of the world this film lives overtakes all aspects of Expired, making this a chore to watch. This means I very much doubt Ivan Sen’s film will ever find its way to be reevaluated and appreciated in any future – let alone the one we see here!
* 1/5
Expired is out now on digital from Reel 2 Reel Films.
