IR Film Review: THE POD GENERATION [Vertical]
The essence of futurism is changing the aspects of what we see as normal in our everyday lives. With "The Pod Generation", the context revolves the idea of procreating and identity, and the essence of self within that. Emilia Clarke, who is so expressive in many ways, is a really interesting actor to play the mother of sorts, who is trying to buoy both her marriage and her work in a changing world. Her husband Alvy (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a stable one but he has different ideas what can constitute nature. He is a stay-at home botanist and teacher so the traditional roles per se are reversed, It is an interesting discussion on the role of primality and biology since most people in the real world are dealing with this because of the societal shift primarily in the last 40 years. The pod refers to a baby being raised inside an artificial womb external of the mother and father.
Rachel decides to pursue this (because her work helps pay for the process -- which, like a surrogate, only caters to the rich). She does this not really consulting Alvy and what ensues is an interesting diametric on the notion of bonding and what procreating means. Ejiofor is alright in this role but nowhere near as affecting as his last role in "The Man Who Fell To Earth". This is more Clarke's foray and seeing her hurt when Alvy seems to bond more with the egg because she is at work is really well played. As the movie moves towards the ending, the corporate capitalism of the services it shows comes through more and the story swivels to more dealing with that. The more interesting part is the aspect too of the artificial intelligence therapy, the watching eyes and the adjustment in a way to make all kids free of harm and in a way perfect. It is not real life yet but we are entering a stage in our technology where these are all real questions that will come into play. What it ultimately shows in a way is that we could be thrown back into the dark ages and we would be alright (maybe in the long run) but at a price. But the key is how do we keep our humanity without having those specific processes that still make us human taken away. B
By Tim Wassberg
