For a guy who does a crummy quadriplegic, Logan Marshall-Green is pretty good at “the robot.” And for a film that started out as a poor man’s RoboCop, Upgrade evolved into a poor man’s The Matrix. You’ll have to take my word that this is a significant improvement.
Grey Trace – wow, that is a great movie name. No, I’ll never remember it, but kudos; I’d expect a movie that invested so little in actors to skimp even more on naming. I don’t know how that works; I just know the movie names you remember tend to belong to actors you can name. Logan Marshall-Green is going to tax my memory by the end of this sentence. Anyhoo, the film opens to our collective cyber-future and Fifty Traces of Grey here is a throwback, a man who tinkers with muscle cars for exclusive clientele while his plugged-in wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo), gets chauffeured home by her own solar e-vehicle.
As a surprise to his power-maven spouse, Grey delivers the muscle car in person to Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), the Bill Gates of our story. I don’t exactly know what kind of acting Gilbertson was going for here, but I can only describe it as what he thought Leonardo DiCaprio might do with an autistic Steve Jobs impression. On the way home, the Trace get traced, maced, and aced. Our hero awakens a widower and quadriplegic. Introduced to three iffy actors and plot aiming for RoboCop, I was prepared to hate Upgrade. A lot.
That’s when Upgrade upgraded. Trace’s spinal-cord infused computer chip allows movement. Yeah, we expected that. It allows superior movement. Yeah, we probably expected that as well. OK, but did we expect it to have a personality and mind of its own? Quadri-Trace stops by the police office to find the cop on his case has essentially done nothing for three months. Good job, po-po. But the chip gets results, immediately discovering a lead, tracking 
it down, and invading. Even with his usual array of movement, Trace is damn near useless in the criminal underworld, but the chip allows him to be a lightning fast ninja. Ah, but there’s a catch; to behave in life-saving mode, the chip needs autonomy and that thing is nanobot Dirty Harry.
Upgrade is a classic embrace technology/fear technology film, not unlike literally dozens of films before it. And like many sci-fi films before it, I’m quite sure Upgrade will develop a cult following, albeit a small one. While neither shot nor acted especially well, the film presented a handful of sharp moments, like the partially hidden entrance to Eron Keen’s seascape lab/domicile/evil lair and a look at VR dens as the crack houses of the near future. Most of all, however, the film gave more as it moved along, which is rare. I swear it started in the “Who cares?” place and by the end I wanted more. Do I want a sequel? Not sure. Only if it’s an Upgrade.
A quest for the inventor chronic
Merge tech and man in harmonic
These powers bedevil
Like a big boss level
Better hope he doesn’t meet Sonic
Rated R, 95 Minutes
Director: Leigh Whannell
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who first “discovered” The Matrix
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Cyberphobes
