“Future World” is a post-apocalyptic low-budget film. I don’t even know if James Franco or Bruce Thierry Cheung could have done much with this film, as it seems that the storyline’s weakness was probably crafted as a workaround to keep the budget down. There are no major visual effects, so a lot was put on the shoulders of the costume designer, set designer and art design to make this film feel as if it was created in a post-apocalyptic world. While I’m not going to say this film was terrible, because I did find aspects of the film to be entertaining, I will say “Future World” is a film worth the rental, if you don’t have high expectations.
TITLE: Future World
FILM RELEASE: 2018
DURATION: 88 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 2:40:1, English DTS-HD Master Audio Audio 5.1, Subtitles: English and Spanish
COMPANY: Lionsgate Premiere
RATED: R
Release Date: July 10, 2018
Directed by James Franco, Bruce Thierry Cheung
Written by Jeremy Cheung, Jay Davis, Bruce Thierry Cheung
Produced by Monika Bacardi, James Franco, Andrea Iervolino, Vince Jolivette, Scott Reed
Co-Producer: Laura Bates, Ray Martinez
Executive Producer: Julien Favre, Jason Garrett, Wayne Marc Godfrey, Martin Guigui, Robert Jones, Jean-Alexandre Luciani, Luca Matrundola
Music by Toydrum
Cinematography by Peter Zeitlinger
Edited by Alex Freitas, William Paley
Casting by Cynthia Huffman
Production Design by Eve McCarney
Art Direction: Patrick Jackson
Set Decoration by Sandra Skora
Costume Design by David Page, Johnny Pray
Starring:
James Franco as Warlord
Suki Waterhouse as Ash
Jeffrey Wahlberg as Prince
Margarita Levieva as Lei
Snoop Dogg as Love Lord
Twin Shadow as Ratcatcher
Method Man as Tattooed Face
Lucy Liu as Queen
Milla Jovovich as Drug Lord
Carmen Argenziano as Grandfather
Scott Haze as Gutter
Rumer Willis as Rosie
Ben Youcef as Rico
Wilmer Calderon as Skinny
Lee Coc as Fatty
n a post-apocalyptic world, where water and gasoline have long since dried-up, a prince from the oasis (one of the last known safe-havens) must venture out to find medicine for the ailing queen (Liu), but along the way he gets mixed up with the warlord (Franco) and his robot Ash (Waterhouse), which leads to a daring journey through the desolate wastelands.
For the latest film co-directed by actor James Franco and Bruce Thierry Cheung (a cinematographer for films such as “The Adderall Diaries”, “Don’t come Back from the Moon”, “Zeroville”) comes the post-apocalyptic film “Future World”.
Written by Bruce Thierry Cheung, Jeremy Cheung and Jay Davis, “Future World” would star James Franco (“127 Hours”, “Pineapple Express”, “The Disaster Artist”), Suki Waterhouse (“Insurgent”, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, “Love, Rosie”), Mark and Donny Wahlberg’s nephew Jeffrey Wahlberg (“Don’t Come Back to the Moon”, “Counterpart”), Lucy Liu (“Chicago”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “Kill Bill”, “Elementary”), Milla Jovovich (“Resident Evil” films, “The Fifth Element”), Margarita Leviva (“Adventureland”, “The Lincoln Lawyer”, “The Invisible”), Snoop Dogg (“Training Day”, “Putch Perfect”, “Starsky & Hutch”), musician Twin Shadow and rapper, Method Man.
The film begins with a voice-over that mankind’s technology has evolved to the development of artificial intelligence and robotics which would lead to global war.
Remnants of humanity struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland while surviving machines are hidden.
A cruel warlord (portrayed by James Franco) and his men raid a settlement and steal an android girl named Ash (portrayed by Suki Waterhouse) from the settlements high-tech lab. He activates Ash and controls her via a handheld radio remote.
Meanwhile, in an area known as Oasis, a young man named Prince (portrayed by Jeffrey Wahlberg) and Rico (portrayed by Ben Youcef) make a decision to save Prince’s sick mother, the Queen (portrayed by Lucy Liu). The only clue he has of where the medicine may be located is a postcard of a place called “Paradise Beach” and so Prince and Rico go out to find the place.
While they stop in a place known as “Love Town” which features sex slaves are maintained by a pimp named “Big Daddy Love Lord” (portrayed by Snoop Dogg), but when they start asking about Paradise Beach, this catches the attention of Warlord and the Raiders.
When one of the Raiders tries to threaten Prince and Rico, Rico kills the man using his handgun, which happens to be a rare and valuable weapon, which the Warlord wants to know where these weapons are from.
As Big Daddy approaches Prince and Rico, he tells him that someone can help him with what he is looking for and he brings in the android, Ash, who is under the command of the warlord.
But it’s a trap and Ash kills Rico and Prince is beaten and tortured as the warlord tries to get information from him where Oasis is located.
While they drive off to Oasis, Ash somehow manages to break away from the warlord’s control. Both Prince and Ash are able to escape, while an angry warlord tries to look for the two.
As Ash suffered damage to her abdomen during the escape, Prince finds a way to transport her and drag her until he finds an area near the ocean. Believing he found “Paradise Beach”, but while there, he is knocked unconscious and held prisoner by the settlement’s “Drug Lord” (portrayed by Milla Jovovich), who offers to give Prince a cure for his mother, but at a cost.
VIDEO:
“Future World” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:40:1). Picture quality is very good as a lot of the film is shot outdoors. Many scenes have clever uses of color, especially during the drugged out sequences featured in the film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Future World” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The film features quite a bit of action and utilizes the surround channels during the more action-driven sequences and also ambiance during crowd scenes. Dialogue is clear and for the most part, a good lossless soundtrack.
Subtitles are in English, Spanish and English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“Future World” comes with a Behind-the-Scenes Featurette with an interview with James Franco and a trailer.
EXTRAS:
“Future World” comes with an UltraViolet digital code and a slipcover.
I wasn’t sure what kind of film James Franco and Bruce Thierry Cheung would be creating with “Future World”. Would it be a lower-budget version of “Mad Max”? How would the sci-fi be implemented with the subject of artificial intelligence and androids?
After watching “Future World”, there was no doubt a focus on costume and set design to create a feel of post-apocalpytic chaos on Earth but when it comes to featuring an android, the most you are going to get is Suki Waterhouse’s character, Ash, having different color contact lenses and trying to show an internal wound in her circuitry and how prostitutes are kept in check with these neck weapons which pimp, played by Snoop Dogg, can control.
But part of the problem with “Future World” is not its execution of trying to showcase a post-apocalyptic world, but it’s the overall flow of the film.
Lucy Liu’s part in the film (despite being featured on the cover) probably is less than 3 minutes. The casting of young Jeffrey Wahlberg as Prince seems off considering he looks too young (and also not as muscular as his uncles when they were teens) and watching him trying to make out with android Ash, doesn’t seem right.
While James Franco was fine as the film’s antagonist, the other antagonist is played by Milla Jovovich, as the drug dealer who has the drug needed to help Prince. Probably the least flattering character role I have seen of Jovovich, it was interesting to see her play a crazy drug lord. Both of these characters were fine, but you can’t help that overall storyline and character execution was lacking. Snoop Dogg also does well, playing a pimp.
Does the film make you want to care and root for Prince? Not really? While his character is no doubt the story’s protagonist, much of the story focuses on the android Ash and throughout the film, you wonder what was so important about Ash? She is no doubt strong but the film tries to introduce some sort of romance, first between Prince and Ash and then second, with another character, Lei (portrayed by Margarita Levieva) who falls for Ash. I felt too much time was wasted on non-important scenes.
Even the final battle was lackluster and if the film had a larger budget, visual effects to take the android to greater heights as a killing machine and weaponry, perhaps the film would be even better.
Overall, “Future World” is a post-apocalyptic low-budget film. I don’t even know if James Franco or Bruce Thierry Cheung could have done much with this film, as it seems that the storyline’s weakness was probably crafted as a workaround to keep the budget down. There are no major visual effects, so a lot was put on the shoulders of the costume designer, set designer and art design to make this film feel as if it was created in a post-apocalyptic world.  While I’m not going to say this film was terrible, because I did find aspects of the film to be entertaining, I will say “Future World” is a film worth the rental, if you don’t have high expectations.
