Review of 'Code 8'

Caught Code 8 the other night on Netflix. It's at once a story of people with superpowers, robot cops, human cops, and criminals. The people with superpowers are feared by normal humans, with the result that most of the superpowered have become criminals. None of this is particularly original, but Code 8 is lifted by a real humanity that infuses the narrative.

The humanity in the people with superpowers -- different superpowers -- is propelled by Mary Reed, whose superpower is freezing, and her adult son Connor, whose superpower is electrical. Again, we've seen all of that before, in Heroes on television, and in countless movies. But what starts to separate Code 8 from the pack is Mary is also suffering from a brain tumor, which is killing her by scrambling her control of her freezing power to the extent that she's freezing herself to death. Connor of course is determined to save her, first by making enough money through crime to pay for Mary's operation, and then by getting Nia, whose superpower is healing, to cure his mother. The problem, though, is that Mia heals by taking unto herself the ill that she's curing. And that's where Code 8 shows its mettle, in the form of real heart.

Most of the movie are sequences of good shoot-em ups, displays of superpowers, and members of the superpower gang double-crossing each other as members of gangs with no superpowers are prone to do. All of that is fun to see, but nothing close to memorable, In contrast, the ending, where we find out just how far Connor is willing to go to save his mother, is an excellent treatment of the classic philosophic conundrum: if you see two people drowning, and can only save one, which one do you save? Is the answer, save the one you love, by sacrificing someone you may care about, and is certainly innocent?

See Code 8 and decide what you think. And if you enjoy this action movie charged by a fundamental ethical question, thank Jeff Chan, who wrote and directed the 2019 feature-length film, based on the 2016 short version of the movie, which Chan also directed and wrote (Chris Pare shared in the writing in both versions), which I didn't see.