‘Mute’ Review: The Highly Anticipated Netflix Sci-Fi Film Is A Disappointment
By Chris Evangelista/Feb. 23, 2018 7:00 am EST
Duncan Jones’ passion project, the sci-fi film Mute, has finally arrived on Netflix – but was it worth the wait? Our Mute review answers that question below.
Mute
At long last, Duncan Jones’ highly-anticipated Mute has arrived. The Moon and Source Code filmmaker has struggled to bring his dream project to the screen for over 12 years now, and the good folks at Netflix were nice enough to help make that dream a reality.Mute is yet another film in the recent Blade Runner revival trend that seems to be booming in sci-fi. Blade Runner 2049 kept the franchise going with a bleak, beautiful tone poem (that audiences mostly avoided). Netflix’s Altered Carbon created a trippy science fiction series that seemed to be set within the same neon-lit, constantly-raining Blade Runner universe. Now Mute brings it all home, with another gorgeous-yet-bleak future-scape. Neon lights buzz, streets are constantly wet, and tech is used in soul-crushing ways. In Mute, the future is even more depressing than the present.Jones’ considerable skill with cinematic language cannot be denied. He fills every inch of every frame with riveting, hypnotic detail here. The world of Mute feels alive, and more than that, it feels lived-in. Netflix’s recent Altered Carbon had a far-too-synthetic vibe at times. Yes, it looked great, but almost nothing seemed solid, or tangible. It came across as a world concocted by a very talented computer artist. Mute, in contrast, is humming with life. There are wide-open shots of skylines cluttered with glimmering, shimmering neon-lit structures, and every single one looks real. It’s a feast for the eyes.Sadly, it’s not enough. There’s nothing I wanted Mute to be more than a return to form for Jones. The filmmaker released the one-two-punch of Moon and Source Code, two of the best science fiction films in recent memory. He stumbled slightly with Warcraft, a charmingly weird but ultimately clunky adaptation of the popular game series. Warcraft was the biggest film Jones had made to date, and there was hope a return to a smaller sci-fi story like Mute would rekindle his cinematic magic.But that’s not the case. Instead, Mute is a disjointed, nihilistic trip through two distinct storylines that have almost nothing to do with each other – save for the fact that they inhabit the same world. Slowly, these storylines do come together, but never in a convincing or satisfying way. The end result is a frustrating film – one loaded with potential, but lacking distinction.
‘Mute’ Review: The Highly Anticipated Netflix Sci-Fi Film Is A Disappointment
By Chris Evangelista/Feb. 23, 2018 7:00 am EST
Duncan Jones’ passion project, the sci-fi film Mute, has finally arrived on Netflix – but was it worth the wait? Our Mute review answers that question below.
Our Mute review answers that question below.
Mute
At long last, Duncan Jones’ highly-anticipated Mute has arrived. The Moon and Source Code filmmaker has struggled to bring his dream project to the screen for over 12 years now, and the good folks at Netflix were nice enough to help make that dream a reality.Mute is yet another film in the recent Blade Runner revival trend that seems to be booming in sci-fi. Blade Runner 2049 kept the franchise going with a bleak, beautiful tone poem (that audiences mostly avoided). Netflix’s Altered Carbon created a trippy science fiction series that seemed to be set within the same neon-lit, constantly-raining Blade Runner universe. Now Mute brings it all home, with another gorgeous-yet-bleak future-scape. Neon lights buzz, streets are constantly wet, and tech is used in soul-crushing ways. In Mute, the future is even more depressing than the present.Jones’ considerable skill with cinematic language cannot be denied. He fills every inch of every frame with riveting, hypnotic detail here. The world of Mute feels alive, and more than that, it feels lived-in. Netflix’s recent Altered Carbon had a far-too-synthetic vibe at times. Yes, it looked great, but almost nothing seemed solid, or tangible. It came across as a world concocted by a very talented computer artist. Mute, in contrast, is humming with life. There are wide-open shots of skylines cluttered with glimmering, shimmering neon-lit structures, and every single one looks real. It’s a feast for the eyes.Sadly, it’s not enough. There’s nothing I wanted Mute to be more than a return to form for Jones. The filmmaker released the one-two-punch of Moon and Source Code, two of the best science fiction films in recent memory. He stumbled slightly with Warcraft, a charmingly weird but ultimately clunky adaptation of the popular game series. Warcraft was the biggest film Jones had made to date, and there was hope a return to a smaller sci-fi story like Mute would rekindle his cinematic magic.But that’s not the case. Instead, Mute is a disjointed, nihilistic trip through two distinct storylines that have almost nothing to do with each other – save for the fact that they inhabit the same world. Slowly, these storylines do come together, but never in a convincing or satisfying way. The end result is a frustrating film – one loaded with potential, but lacking distinction.
