Future World movie review & film summary (2018)

To say that “Future World” borrows liberally from George Miller’s milieu would be an understatement. He may want to look into royalty checks (although that implies this will make money, which seems unlikely). This ticks SO many of the “Fury Road” boxes, from extended sequences of masked men on motor bikes to the story of a kept woman who becomes empowered to a mythical place in this barren landscape that promises a better future called Paradise Beach. That’s where our hero Prince (Jeffrey Wahlberg) wants to get, believing that he will find there the medicine to save to his dying mother (Lucy Liu).

Prince’s journey takes him to a place called Love Town, run by futuristic pimp Love Lord, played by, of course, Snoop Dogg (casting is the most creative thing about “Future World”). In one of the film’s very few brief glimpses of creativity, the dancers and prostitutes of Love Town are literally controlled by clients and the Love Lord through the use of what looks like shock collars around their necks. And yet Franco and co-director Bruce Thierry Cheung don’t have much to say about controlling women in this future vision. It’s just an interesting concept/visual for them, and then they move on. Everything in “Future World” is skin-deep, shallow versions of deeper material from other films.

This is certainly the case with Ash (Suki Waterhouse), an android first awoken by the evil Warlord (James Franco) but who eventually escapes with Prince. Why? Because the movie says so. She has an awakening and revolts against her captor and those who would use her for sex or violence and she takes off with Prince to the find the medicine. Along the way, they run into mostly bad guys, including a scene-stealing turn from Milla Jovovich, who looks like she came from a more interesting movie but shows up way too late into this one to save it.