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Metaverse

average rating is 1 out of 5

Critic:

Joe Beck

|

Posted on:

Jun 10, 2024

Film Reviews
Metaverse
Directed by:
Sofia Ogneva
Written by:
Sofia Ogneva, Rich Monetti
Starring:
Gabriel Esparza, Lilia Gab

The Metaverse is something we’ve all become rapidly aware of over the past few years, as technology continues to advance at an increasingly rapid rate. It refers loosely to the creation of virtual worlds in which people can interact in a hyperrealistic manner, and which has its own social terms and customs, in addition to economic, monetary values. It’s widely associated with the use of virtual reality, and has become increasingly popular in recent times. ‘Metaverse’ as a deeply bland and unoriginal short film is deeply akin to something that may be created by Artificial Intelligence, another major development in technology that is closely linked to the metaverse.

 

‘Metaverse’ is a cold, robotic film, and not just in the performances of its actors. It all feels rather detached from the story its telling, steering painfully clear of either endorsing or condemning its key plot points in order to remain apolitical, however, this leaves it without nuance. It’s altogether rather passive, moving along at a rather serene pace with only the most minor events or hiccups along the way, and taking the most natural and expected decisions regarding story beats.

 

The film stars Gabriel Esparza as Daniel, a man so bored with his own life that he decides to create another life in the metaverse. His creation is a woman named Vera, played by Lilia Gab, who lives a fairly normal life in the metaverse, doing completely ordinary things like going outside that Daniel could very feasibly do in his own real life, but has, for whatever reason, decided not too. Eventually Daniel becomes so engrossed in his creation that Vera becomes a real, physical presence in the world. This has minimal effect on either of their lives, and is a completely wasted story beat, which sums up the lack of impetus that this film has in terms of developing the narrative.

 

It is terribly written by Rich Monetti and Sofia Ogneva, who fail to give their characters any personality, any drive, or anything to make the audience actually give a damn about them. The narrative lacks any spark, and seemingly just drifts between events in a lackadaisical manner with no connective tissue between them. It’s a collection of scenes cobbled together to form an incoherent and utterly boring plot which has nothing interesting to comment about its subject.

 

The writing doesn’t aid the two actors either, who each give performances that are only slightly less robotic than the lines of dialogue in the script. Ogneva is also the film’s director, which, whilst not to the same low standard as the writing, is uninspired and doesn’t help the monotonous tone of the film and poor pacing. ‘Metaverse’ is a bad film, lacking ideas, and, crucially, lacking the fundamentals necessary to create a good story.

About the Film Critic
Joe Beck
Joe Beck
Short Film
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