User reviews

After witnessing his girlfriend Ash's (Cara Gee) murder, a man Joe (Peter Mooney) risks everything - including reality itself - to discover the truth of why she was killed.

I watched this because Cara Gee was in it, I'm still not sure if that was a good decision or not. This film is basically a remake of Inception: But nowhere near as good. Indeed you would not expect it to be given it's budget, but I'm unsure why they took on such a task with a limited budget. The film isn't bad, I don't think, but I got a bit lost off as to what was happening and who was who. I suspect this is one of those films that reveals it's true self after more than one viewing.

You need to concentrate and follow the nuances, and my mistake early on was thinking that Hunter and Oliver were in fact the same person. By the time it dawned that they weren't, the rot was in and I never got back up to speed. The CGI was ok but there was times it showed a lack of quality, but that would not affect my rating unless it was super dire, which it was not. The dialogue was a little clunky, I think because the film tries to shoot above it's league, and fails. So far I've given it a 5 and that was being generous. But after a couple of re-watches I'll come back and alter this if it improved after more watching. If you live and breath Sci Fi you will probably love this anyway.

Interesting concept, the movie was a bit slow to get to the really interesting parts, and spent way too little time exploring the full potential of what was possible. I blame the budget for the budget for this. That being said, the film as watchable. I wold also want to add that the entire idea was a bit derivative, but also had its own unique twist. A movie version of platos allegory of the cave, are we real? Are our dreams real?

At some point these matrix like remakes will get it jst right and create something that will shine a new light on exitence as a whole.

I particularly liked the perfomance of David Hewlett, I have liked his roles ever since Stargate Atlantis. He was the main reason I kept watching. The lead female role was also done well. CGI could have been better.

A mish mash of themes and tropes from movies that done them far better. There really isn't anything remotely original. The writing is flat and the actors don't seem to be very invested, I've seen far better acting during daytime soap operas. Cara Gee did OK but even she seemed to be phoning it in.

Nothing feels lived in, it feels like it is, them on a bad set with bad lighting and bad set design with no budget.

The special effects are early 90s level of bad. Lots of unnecessary lens flares and really, really, really bad green screen backgrounds. There's a weird soft fuzzy filter over everything.

The pacing is slow. It's really not exciting at all. Trying to be futuristic everything they touch bleeps and bloops.

As a hard core lover of everything scifi this was really disappointing. It doesn't even fit into "it's so bad it's good" territory.

There is nothing gained from watching this movie.

Other reviews contrasting this Canadian production (presumably lower budget, but unsurprisingly good acting) with Free Guy and Matrix aren't wrong, but what we see with this entry into that universe is not only visually appealing (all three films have had mind-bending special effects), but shows a bit of heart and soul. It feels less mass produced. So what was needed was a bit more work on the development of the characters, a bit more plot development. I acknowledge the criticism of another reviewer that the exposition feels a bit dogmatic, but davka (actually, for me) that is necessary for the precious little character development we do have here, so I wouldn't have edited that out. Rather, I'd have added to the run-time a bit, to flesh out all of the characters, precisely because, in a digital universe, personality and individuality begins to matter in this one. Perhaps...our choices do matter.

Welcome to the future, where everything is computerized but Siri still sounds like a computer from the 80's. I almost turned off the movie solely based on that annoying Siri voice.

"Levels" is the brainchild of Adam Stern and I think would do fairly good as a book, but here the casting is just horrible, it seems like they just took the first two actors that were available and the pacing of the movie is too slow and gets really boring at parts. The actors are not horrible, but here their performance is flat, and their chemistry is non-existent.

Adam Stern's got some hurdles to overcome before he can deliver a real blockbuster. For now, it's a niche indie film, likely drawing in Cara Gee fans from The Expanse, but unlikely to reach a broader audience.

Watch if you are a hardcore indie/sci-fi fan, I don't think I would recommend this otherwise it's just a dull watch. Exact score: 44 / 100.

Whilst the script could have used refinement, some of the visual gimmicks were heavy handed, at the heart of this story is real substance. Unlike a lot of Hollywood movies, especially in genre adjacent stuff, this movie feels like it has a genuine human element as well as a sort of wistful philosophy befitting the subject material.

The special effects are beyond what one would expect from a low budget, and indeed so is the acting, which successfully sells the premise. On the downside there's a little too much exposition and as mentioned before reliance on visual gimmicks.

But where you can watch most blockbuster movies and feel like you've been exposed to no real new ideas, or effected by the premise, the heart this movie has makes the sci-fi experience more personal - as science fiction should be, a reflection of our human experience.

All told, worth a watch IMO.

Good acting, interesting premise, good special effects (for it's budget) this movie has it all except that it is utterly boring. It's like Free Guy after they sucked every ounce of fun out of it. Cara Gee (the Expanse) couldn't save this movie from being bland but she is definitely a good watching point. The premise is interesting and while we have seen similar premises in Free Guy, Matrix and Inception we have never seen this exact premise in any movie that I know of. It could be a very interesting movie but it failed. I am being generous giving it 5 stars because it was made competently but it is so boring and after you know what is going on then it is just unbearable to watch and the final twist doesn't make up for it even though it's quite clever. This movie is barely watchable once, I would never sit through it a second time.

This is an excellent science fiction story, with competent production values, and a great performance by Cara Gee (The Expanse). If you appreciate science (the first part of Sci-Fi), then this movie is for you. The story and EXCELLENT conclusion, present cogent scientific principles which are far more compelling than the movie it initially appears to analogize.

It is unfortunate in this day and age that the consumer market demands the simplicity of a comic-book videogame superhero plot, which has little relation to actual science, but remains misnomered as "Science Fiction" -- hence rebranding of the SyFy channel to preclude actual science, for monsters and sharknados. And yes, halfway through Alien: Romulus, I found the story about as interesting as a Scooby-Doo cartoon, and stopped watching. Sorry to those of you who imagine that monsters, demi-gods, and over-the-top violence are "science."

The fact that this movie has multiple "LEVELS" (thus the title) and a sophisticated ending does not make it mediocre. Rather, it is viewer dissatisfaction with a primarily cerebral story which apparently garners fewer stars.

My husband and I really enjoyed this film, and I'm not usually into scu-fi. The cinematography and special effects were very well done and the romantic angle was intriguing. The actors portrayed their characters well, especially the actress who played Ash and Erica, who played the assistant to the bad guy, and don't let me forget the Oliver character who, come to think about it, was so good you could forget that he was acting.

I wish that more independent filmmakers had the opportunity to present their work in major theatres because, as this movie proves, there is a lot of incredible talent out there.