Fast-paced political Sci-fi

JJ_Seb

DIVISION 19 begins with a man telling us we are idiots, evading our responsibilities daily while 'the world burns'. With climate changers on the streets of London, Gilet Jaunes in Paris and kids leaving school in Sweden to take up arms and legs and anything else they can super glue - these are interesting times. DIVISION 19 certainly falls into the sci-fi genre of fear. But this is not fear of The Other - but fear of ourselves. How inert we are in a world desperately in need of action - ours - to save it. Beginning with a look at prison TV Panopticon (a comment on far authorities will go to contain those who are not followers and possibly the jail also being a metaphor for the world we inhabit) and swinging wildly through a world of surveillance, target drones, crazed robots and the disenfranchised, Division 19 takes on a whole heap of subjects which could fill six hours at least. That said, all the perfermances are good (Draven especially good as the drugged hero of Panopticon TV Hardin Jones) and it looks absolutely great. But you have to concentrate. Halewood's message seems to be 'act now, or pay the price'. Maybe we get what we deserve.

score 9/10

JJ_Seb 22 April 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4796265/