“Mad Genius” is a maddening mix of everything you’ve ever seen in a sci-fi movie. Lots of MRI brain scans, evil imagery of war and pollution, improbable cyber tech, alter ego projections, wavy-laser pain inducers, the list seems endless. And aside from the message that polluting corporations are bad and natural humanity is better than artificially programmed humanity, the film is a bit rudderless.
We’re introduced to confused and troubled twenty-something Mason (Chris Mason) and Finn (Scott Mechlowicz), his mental projection. Wise-cracking Finn is Mason’s hipster alter ego. He dogs him everywhere, spouting advice on everything from getting laid to the evils of big industry. “Society’s rules are vapor. They mean nothing,” exclaims Finn. We learn that Mason is part of a cyber club of stoners, tech freaks and anti-establishment warriors, led by Sun Moon (Gbenga Akinnagbe).
When brilliant cyber-tech warrior Nickola (Levy Tran) dies wearing a headset, Mason tries to get some cranial source code from junkie and cyber coder Zip (Brandon Scott). Mason meets Sawyer (Spencer Locke), a beautiful blond who tells him to “go make something.” Have they met before? Will they hook up in the future?
Mason’s goal is to find the original spark of life and re-write human brains to prevent people from waging war on themselves and the environment. How they plan to “correct” the minds of 7.6 billion people is never really explained. But I digress. Megalomaniac Eden (Faran Tahir) has the cranial headset needed to harness “the code” and turn everyone into a docile “Mr. Rogers.” Besides, Eden’s brain is wired for something quite nefarious. He needs the code to input not so nice thoughts into mankind’s pathetically weak mind. So the race is on to unite that pesky headset with the elusive code.
Mason (and Finn) track Eden to the deep bowels of a nuclear bunker. But because they’re wearing some very silly, homemade ‘cyber-wolf’ masks, “Mad Genius” takes a weirdly comedic turn. Mason “mind-projects” Finn through a concrete wall, then Finn’s projection mysteriously sends Mason through the same wall. Both are now in Eden’s vault-like lair. (This bit of deus ex machina is loosely explained in middle-school science terms.) We see Eden wearing a “Tron”-like headset that projects his digitizing brain onto a giant screen. Side note: His lair is the best set in the film.
Mason takes Eden’s headset and rushes out of the lair, whereupon he encounters Sawyer again (this last scene starts but goes nowhere). Then we’re back to drug use, silly masks, declarations of changing the world, and the intricacies of the human brain. Mason dons the headset and gets a “Krell” brain boost that sends him back to the ether world of Sawyer. Here, we have more lectures on the brain, its code of consciousness and the original spark of life. “Humans are programmed to destroy. I just want to fix people,” says Mason.
When Finn reaches up into the suspended ball of Mason’s consciousness, he suddenly becomes a real and separate person, still arguing with Mason. This sends us into a segue of Finn getting drunk, stoned and laid in a nightclub—things that Mason experiences in an out-of-body sort of way. Finn’s fall into depravity is life changing and he confronts Mason with his enlightened awakening. “F**k saving the world. People aren’t worth it, there’s more to life, enjoy yourself,” spouts an enlightened Finn. We learn that Mason needs to fix himself (no surprise there). Finn tells him, “You are the human problem.”
Like the energizer bunny, “Mad Genius” just keeps going. Evil Eden reclaims the headset, ties Mason to a chair, and asks him if mankind is a vile creature. He intends to use Mason’s mind as a map. Eden’s goal: recreate the Garden of Eden—before the filth of mankind ruined everything. But all is not lost. Sawyer again entreats Mason to stop his mad quest to perfect humanity, “No machine can fix us. The solution is within us.”
I give “Mad Genius” an E for effort as it tackles a difficult and important subject matter with the best of intentions. That said, the message gets buried in somewhat senseless tech-speak, distractingly silly “cyber-wolf” masks, and a little too much arrested-development goofiness. The editing is rough and disjointed with confusing segues in and out of the story that interrupt its narrative flow. Hopefully “Mad Genius 2” will be better.
Check out the trailer.
Alex A. Kecskes is a published author of "Healer a Novel" and "The Search for Dr. Noble"—both now available on Amazon. He has written hundreds of film reviews and celebrity interviews for a wide variety of online and print outlets. He has covered red carpet premieres and Comic-Con events for major films and independent releases.
