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It's 2039, and human life has become gouverned by social media -
including the prison system. Now it's no longer up to wardens and guards
to hand out rewards and punishment but to the paying public, who can
decide what convicts eat, who they fight, and they can of course watch
them 24/7. The favourite among the crowd is Hardin Jones (Jamie Draven)
who's doing time for manslaughter, but his good looks and right attitude
have won over the crowd - and without knowing it, he has become an idol
for millions, and is used to advertize pretty much everything there is.
Eventually, he's to get his own spin-off, where he is introduced into a
model town and start a new life - but that town, Newtown, is of course
100% controlled by the TV network, who will throw chances and temptations
in his way, just to keep the audience entertained. However, he never
arrives in Newtown as his brother Nash (Will Rothhaar) and Nash's gang of
cyber rebels spring him from the prisoner transport. The main concern of
thse cyber rebels is to revolt against the system of total surveillance of
which Hardin's a poster boy. Thing is, especially after learning how he's
been abused by the media, Hardin doesn't want to be used by the resistance
as well, and he makes an escape to what's believed a media-free sanctuary
- but he can't really stay away from things when he learns that his
brother Nash who has freed him has since been arrested and then sent to
Newtown for "rehabilitation". So eventually Hardin figures the
only way to end this all is to assassinate the very people behind Newtown,
using their own methods to get to them ...
Now I will say this, Division 19 is a movie that
probably needs to be viewed more than once to be fully comprehended, as it
just seems to be crammed and goes into many directions all at once,
action, science fiction, cyber punk, social commentary, satire, and
whatnot, and with quite a large cast of key characters, it's hard to
follow all character arcs and subplots at the same time. But even after
just one viewing the film manages to have one captivated, as it really
succeeds in world-building and telling a compelling story - with all the
action in all the right places of course. And very cool imagery and a
directorial effort that always keeps things flowing nicely help to make
this into something very watchable.
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