Quick Reviews: The Humanity Bureau (2017)

Another Film checked off my Netflix Queue/List. This time, it is a DTV Film with Nic Cage that was clearly designed to be like a more memorable Film...

It is 2030 and the World is in shambles. Climate Change has wrecked things and the titular group is in charge of deciding whether people get to stay or not.

Cage is one of the men in charge and he is beginning to have his doubts.

The second group we see him look into is clearly not going to be allowed to stay, but he delays his action.

Is there a personal reason for this?

He's forced to choose between his current lifestyle and the family. He chooses the latter.

He goes on the run with them, taking this young kid with an obvious connection to him towards the Border for freedom.

Have you figured out what this is yet?

As he tries to escape, his former partner/friend (naturally!) looks into the family and digs up the truth, while also trying to catch Cage...eventually.

Can they make it to freedom? Will they all live to see freedom? What is the secret the Bureau is hiding?

To find out, stream this on Netflix like I did.

You must have figured out what this is by now, right? It's Logan. It doesn't have Mutants and a conspiracy to get rid of Mutants. Instead, it has people that don't 'add to society' and a conspiracy to remove them. Cage is Logan here, a reluctant and beleaguered hero. He is trying to get an important child out of the United States. Granted- we don't have a dozen Films (give or take) with Cage as a normal hero to see the contrast here. No, Con Air doesn't count. We also don't have another Cinematic World to compare this to, like Logan did. Now to be fair, Nic Cage actually does try to act here, not just going into crazy mode. He tries to be subdued and never goes too far. He seems to be into this one. The one caveat is that the Film has a very strong message about Climate Change, but they managed to never got Cage to say any of it. People around him say it and he doesn't dispute it. It's part of the reason that I speculate- based on nothing- that this was likely pitched to Bruce Willis, but he turned it down. Be honest- you can see it! When all is said and done, the Film doesn't have the Budget to make this work 100% of the time. The Green Screen Effects while driving look like they are from 1977 and not 2017. The focus of the story is so small that you really don't get the sense of scale that you should here. It is still decent and all, but it needs a major Studio, a rewrite or two and some general polish. Ironically, while the Film is clearly aping Logan, this Asian Poster is clearly trying to be Blade Runner 2049!

A decent Film that could be so much more. It is just on this side of generic, unfortunately.