Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone.
Following my reviews for both Den of Thieves movies, there was the first big 2025 movie I was looking forward to that I knew I had to get ready for, the latest project from James Wan’s collaborator from Saw, Leigh Whannell*.
Though I had not seen the first movie he directed (that being Insidious: Chapter 3), I had seen the two movies that followed, the first of which was this.
Much like the first Den of Thieves, I hadn’t seen these two since they came out, but I remembered more that happened in these than I did from that.
With all the hype that was there (at first; it seemed to have diminished more and more closer to release for reasons I’ll get to later), I knew I had to rewatch these, and I was so excited to do so, because I loved both.
For now, though, let’s get to where my history with his directorial efforts started.
Folks, we’re taking a look at one of the most overlooked sci-fi action movies of the past decade, with possibly the best performance to date from the lead.
If you were to take John Wick and mix it with elements of RoboCop**, you’d have this movie.
If that’s not enough, it did Venom better before Venom even came out***, and this better version is a gem known as Upgrade.
Set in the year 2046, the movie follows auto mechanic Grey Trace and his wife Asha. Asha works for a company called Cobalt, which specializes in cybernetic enhancements.
While returning a car to the home of one of Grey’s clients, tech genius Eron Keen, he shows them his newest project, a chip that can take control of one’s motor functions called STEM.
On their way back, they get in a car accident, and get attacked by four men, which results in Asha getting killed and Grey being rendered quadriplegic.
Grey then feels like he’s lost everything, but after a visit from Eron, he accepts his offer to have STEM implanted in him.
Though there is a catch, Grey is able to walk again, determined to find the men responsible for the attack.
What Worked: The cast, while not made up entirely of big names, has some people you might recognize.
The biggest name, of course, is Logan Marshall-Green, who plays our main protagonist. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because of foreshadowing I provided when mentioning him in my Carry-On review. Here, though, he looks more like you’d usually see him. You may also recognize him from his small role in Spider-Man: Homecoming or more easily from his role in Prometheus. This is probably his most likable character to date, because he’s vulnerable, so you sympathize with him even before he gets STEM implanted.
Then we have Betty Gabriel (Get Out, the upcoming Novocaine) as Detective Cortez, who is assigned to investigate the attack, and even though she becomes suspicious of Grey throughout the movie, I still really liked her.
Then there’s Harrison Gilbertson (Need for Speed, Oppenheimer) as Eron Keen, and it says something when he’s more convincing as a tech genius than Elon Musk is in real life. I’ll put it that way.
The other two most noteworthy are Benedict Hardie as the main villain, Fisk Brantner, and he’s perhaps the most interesting character in the movie. He’s also worth noting because starting with this movie, he’s appeared in every movie Leigh Whannell has directed.
The last one worth noting is Simon Maiden as the voice of STEM. He has this calm demeanor throughout the movie, which makes him all the more intimidating as a presence.
It also goes to show how unnerving the presence of AI can be.
Now for the technical aspects.
The look of the movie feels so slick for the budget it has, particularly with the effects. It’s one of the more recent examples of low budget movies that look more than they cost. Other examples include The Terminator (6.4 million, looks like (for the time) maybe 10 million), District 9 (30 million, looks like 100 million if not more), and the subject of my next review (I’ll go into it there).
The settings and vehicles alone look like they could’ve cost more to make.
This is something I’ll definitely be bringing up in the next two reviews: The sound design is excellent, because in every one of his movies I’ve seen so far, Leigh Whannell always has it on full display.
When STEM takes over or gives Grey full control again, you hear a very mechanical sound effect, and it’s always satisfying whenever you do.
It’s hard to describe, so I’ll just say you’ll know when you hear it.
It even catches you off guard with how they open the movie. Normally, you’d sometimes see opening credits before the title card comes up. They turn that on its head by actually just vocalizing it, and it’s brilliant. They do the production company credits, and then the title.
There’s no actual credits accompanying it or anything like that, and they don’t do that for the end credits, because it would’ve been excessive to do that. It’s done just enough to where it works.
It helps sell the futuristic setting, so I appreciate the attention to detail, which also shows in the gorgeous cinematography, Whannell’s direction and even his script.
Speaking of the script, even the occasional dark humor works, providing a nice break in between the outright insane action sequences. It’s also a nice touch with a couple Easter Eggs that show up. One of them is a Saw reference. The other is in a scene where Grey is taking an elevator, and the camera focuses on some names next to the buttons. One of them is a reference to James Wan, so be on the lookout for it****.
In describing the action like that, I’m not exaggerating.
Examples range from someone getting a kitchen knife put to their mouth and then pushed back to one person with a weapon implant having it turned against them in a pretty mind-blowing way. Both of these are cases where it’s even more brutal than it already sounds.
What Didn’t Work: I don’t really have many issues here. At most, I have maybe two, and they’re more like nitpicks.
One of them is how some of the character arcs are predictable.
The other one is how it just kind of ends. It also doesn’t help that for the poster and even the home media release (Digital and physical both have this), they used a shot from the last scene. I’ll say this: Compared to some other movies (this especially happens with horror movies), they don’t outright spoil the ending here. The shot they use may not be a spoiler in this case, but it’s dangerously close to one.
It’s not the worst case of this happening with these three movies in particular (the most egregious is coming later, and egregious might even be understating it).
Other than that, that’s really it.
Overall: For my first time seeing a Leigh Whannell film, I couldn’t have picked a better one to start with than Upgrade. I felt that way when it came out, and I feel that way now after rewatching it.
By the time I finished rewatching it, I realized how much I loved it even more than I already did when it came out. It’s among the best movies I saw in 2018, and it remains one of the most overlooked ones of the past decade in general.
With an impressive and visually stunning setting on a minimal budget, excellent sound design and action, some solid direction, writing, and humor, and great performances led by what is Logan Marshall-Green’s best to date, I don’t know what else I can say other than, simply put, this movie is awesome.
It also goes without saying that because of how unique it is alone, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Where You Can Find It: At the time of this writing, you can find it on Netflix. It’s absolutely worth checking out, because it’s one of those that deserves your attention. Regardless of how you seek it out, it’s more important that you do.
Next time, we take a look at the first of his two most recent projects… and let’s just say that it’ll likely have many more puns than that (intended or not).
*Fun Fact: Though the spelling of his last name was slightly off in the credits, he had a small role in The Matrix Reloaded. Look out for Axel, a character wearing a leg brace; that’s him. He would also appear in Enter the Matrix, which came out the same day the movie opened in theaters.
**It was also described as a mix between The Six Million Dollar Man and Death Wish, which is also pretty accurate. That’s also foreshadowing something that’ll come around again two reviews from now. I’ll leave it at that.
***It also did it with a significantly smaller budget of $3 million, and ultimately made $17 million, almost 6 times that, back.
****This probably led to James returning the favor by giving Leigh a cameo in Aquaman.