The Gene Generation is the story of jaded assassin who gets pulled into trouble with a variety of bad people by her brother’s gambling problem. When he steals a dangerous tool used for genetic manipulation, she must destroy the object before it falls into the wrong hands. This all takes place in the seething underbelly of a city doomed to lose its remaining atmosphere and filled with dangerous “DNA Hackers,” murderers who steal and alter their victim’s DNA in order to get a ticket out of the city.
The Gene Generation stars Bai Ling (The Crow), Alec Newman (Children of Dune) and Parry Shen (Fairy Tale Police), with a brief appearance by Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown) as a villainous scientist. None of the performances are particularly bad… well, some of them are pretty bad, but the larger problem is that none are quite good enough to overcome the awkward writing in the script.
The Gene Generation isn’t a particularly classy or high budget movie, but despite the corny dialogue and the heavy handed CGI, it still has its moments. It is dripping with Cyberpunk style, especially in the costume designs, and contains some brutal gun battles, assisted by the aforementioned heavy handed CGI. The writing is pretty bad as well, both in terms of dialog and poor structuring of the film, which is most evident in the romantic subplot, which seems jammed into the story without much justification.
The special features aren’t that great either, though there are a lot of extras. There are several interesting features that lend some insight into the development of the film: deleted scenes, storyboard/film comparison videos and videos examining the development to the visual effects. One of the most potentially interesting features was an interactive issue of the comic that came out the film, which is unfortunately displayed in a way that makes the text completely illegible. While the issue on the DVD isn’t a great feature, the comic, The DNA Hacker Chronicles, actually looks pretty good, taking the style of the film while leaving most of its weaknesses behind.
Ultimately, while The Gene Generation doesn’t come close to being an A-list blockbuster, it is very successful as an independent cyberpunk movie, with all that it implies, including the cheesy acting, horrible dialog and rough CGI. While it is a little rough around the edges, and might lack long term appeal, the intriguing setting and cyberpunk style make it worth a try.
ComicsOnline.com gives The Gene Generation 2 out of 5 genetic mutations.
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