Netflix has these frequent releases, and one of them was something called Code Eight: Part Two. Immediately, I was like… there was a Part One? How did I miss this? When did I miss this? Well, a few years back, Netflix decided to release a superhero themed original starring the Amells (Robbie and Stephen) and I guess it checked a metric for them. I never remember this happening. But at the speed it took for this sequel to come out answers the question of why we still haven’t seen that Old Guard sequel that was green lit. That means I needed to watch both. Truthfully, no one needs to watch either.
Code Eight: The Franchise has audio description by International Digital Center, written by Dakota Green, and narrated by Jamie Lemcheck. It focuses on a world where super powered people are the minority, downtrodden, and discriminated against. Unlike other superhero franchises, the humans have the clear upper hand overall, and have the kind of technology required to keep these powered people under thumb. It is an interesting premise, it just goes nowhere.
The first film becomes a bit of an Ocean’s Eleven type film where Robbie Amell is trying to be a good supe but he can’t seem to make enough money to get by, so he willfully joins a crew that is planning a heist. Then it becomes this whole other thing that feels like commentary on class warfare, and police brutality, and it just is all dark and not a fun film to watch. the follow-up just features a reformed version of that character protecting a girl who witnessed an execution of a powered friend, and how he’s able to keep her safe, and just how dangerous her powers may be.
Like, it sounds cool, and I can understand why you would want to see this, but it plays out in the least interesting way possible. there’s no flash, pizazz, or displayed level of skill here. It’s just something that feels like the kind of film that gets shuffled into Netflix’s rotating slate of films that you can put on in the background. I can’t see a single reason to continue this franchise.
I don’t have a problem with the audio description. It is a film about powered people, and I thought the powers were described rather well. But the film is so inherently boring, both of them, that following the audio description isn’t nearly as big of a challenge as just staying awake. I can’t remember a film about this genre that was this slow, and had me less interested. There certainly are worse movies overall, but at least some of those films pop with a fun performance, a cheesy action sequence, or something. I’d rather watch Batman and robin twenty times before this again. It does for superhero films what Thor: The Dark World almost did for the MCU, by completely sucking the fun and life out of the series. The difference here is that it was never alive.
Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell both deserve better, and have been in better projects. Dakota Green’s audio description is thanklessly perfect in a film I can’t imagine anyone cares about, or even knew existed.
Final Grade For Both Parts: C-
