A satirical film about technology isn’t the most original idea these days, so trying to make it unique and actually funny is hard. “The Pod Generation” shows promise with its cast and competent worldbuilding, but it doesn’t make a lasting impression.

Rachel, played by Emilia Clarke, and Alvy, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, are a well-off married couple in New York. Rachel is the breadwinner in the relationship with her office job, and Alvy is a botanist who educates students about nature. Rachel’s boss offers to set her up with a company that will allow her and Alvy to nurture a fetus in a pod instead of going through a natural pregnancy. The first half of the movie is the most interesting. The whole pod process is presented as a process that’s supposed to empower women, and of course, it has cynical undertones because the real purpose is to swindle rich people out of money. 

This movie’s vision of the near future is narrow yet realistic, with intrusive AI being intertwined with everyday life and the functions of the pregnancy pod being controlled through an app. A lot of movies that have near-future settings take place in New York, which is the easiest example of a modern city that is detached from nature and has a populace that is easily fooled into following trends. The drawback is that it’s hard to tell what life is like for those in the rest of the country. We’re already in a reality where the coastal elites are obsessed with technology, while also yearning to return to nature in order to fulfill spiritual needs, so the events of this movie are both believable and unexciting. 

The plot plays out in a predictable way as Rachel, who was the one who wanted the pod pregnancy, starts having doubts, and Alvy, who was initially reluctantm starts to embrace his unborn child in a way modern men often can’t.

There’s no dark or exciting twist or climax, and things end on a nice yet flat note. It all makes for a movie that lacks impact and carries a message people have already heard: that “humans should live with nature” and that the isolation of big cities is harmful. 

While “The Pod Generation” isn’t the most biting or interesting satire, it’s still a movie that gets a lot out of its main cast. Things get boring in the second half, and while I wouldn’t call it a trainwreck, it felt more like watching a speeding car come to a slow stop before parking safely. You’re left wishing that something more exciting had happened.

Author Bio:

Ulises Duenas is a senior writer at Highbrow Magazine.

For Highbrow Magazine