Here’s a question: Since the Trump era began, have films about our collective dystopian future gotten worse? I think they have, but does my perception arise from objective reality or the realization that dystopia is closer than it looks? 2020 was a crappy for film across the board; nothing is going to convince me otherwise, but it seems to me that films describing our collective planetary impending doom (such as 2067 and The Midnight Sky) aren’t terribly different than those of the recent past – but they have been received differently. Is it my flawed perception of artistic merit or have we as a society grown less tolerant of hearing stories about how humans have tied their own noose?
Today, we are in the year 2067. All plant life has died and we’re down to rooting for guys like Kodi Smit-McPhee, the Australian answer to Jeremy Davies. Desperately attempting to prove humans can still rock facial hair in 2067, Ethan Whyte (Smit-McPhee) and his dicey Prince moustache are symbolic of their age – weak, frail, and scared. Seriously, even on a good day, Kodi looks like he’s dying of leukemia. I dunno who’s idea was it to cast this guy in the lead, but it’s a good thing COVID happened so that Kodi could be spared the part where theater seats are empty because of him.
To be fair, sci-fi is rarely about the lead and 2067 is no exception. In this Hellscape, the lack of vegetation has decimated the options for long life. As a result, most of the people remaining seem to be either victims of black-hearted villains or instigators of a police state. But there is hope! There’s a time machine. What?! And it was discovered by Ethan’s deadbeat dad. What?! And upon invention, it returned one message from the future: “Send Ethan Whyte.” WHAT?!
Oh, and as 
if that isn’t enough, when he gets to the future, Ethan finds skeleton Ethan. What?!
Now that’s a lot of good stuff. And, yes, sorry for the spoilers, but –honestly- I only spoiled enough to make you want to see the film, which you shouldn’t want to do. Act III is one “huh?” moment after another. 2067 is a “wait a minute” film. Every time we hit a plot point, you first say, “ooh, cool” and then your brain kicks in with “wait a minute.” Like, if Ethan has traveled to the year 2474, how is there a centuries-old Ethan skeleton there already with a 2474 time log on him? I mean, just think about that one for a second … Ethan dies violently and then manages to travel back in time and leave his corpse undisturbed a significant distance from the time machine? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg … wait until the plot unfolds, then it really doesn’t make sense.
I truly wanted to enjoy 2067 because of its time travel funkiness. It just didn’t take. And when the time travel or the plot points didn’t work, I was left with the star power of Aussie Jeremy Davies. That’s not going to cut it.
It’s a dystopian future indeed
Where the only green left is greed
If the plants are all gone
I see the bright side, mon
At least I won’t have to weed
Not Rated, 114 Minutes
Director: Seth Larney
Writer: Seth Larney, Dave Paterson
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Kodi Smit-McPhee’s mom
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Time travel theorists
