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An espionage thriller is supposed to be engaging, full of twists and turns that you didn't see coming. Everything about 2013's Paranoia was visible right from the moment the movie began. It's really too bad that the audience is forced to sit through a mess of techno-babble and campy acting in order to realize this film is going nowhere.
A young hotshot tech employee falls into a grand scheme of lies and corruption, spearheaded by the two biggest billionaires in the industry. When he is tasked with stealing insider trade info, the young superstar must learn to play the part even if it could cost him everything.
When you put together of a film of this nature, it is expected that their be cheap thrills and little pay-off. This films talks about being original and being innovative, yet it does nothing to remain fresh and entertaining and generally succumbs to the same old cliches we have seen before. That starts with pretty boy Hemsworth playing a young hot shot looking to score big money and quickly. This is always the front first move in order to make us identify with the main character, because it paints them automatically as callous and superficial. Who really wants to buy into that world? Certainly not an audience hoping to be entertained by it. The second cliche was aiming the techo-babble at people who would see right through it. Fast talking about a bunch of things that are meaningless don't help sell your one dimensional characters, it just drags the film further away from having any emotional investment.
The biggest mistake that occurs in this film is even having Hemsworth or Heard in it at all. Amber Heard can act, she has proven that before in films such as the Rum Diary and The Informers. Except in this film everything that came out of either of their mouths seemed like a pathetic attempt at a romantic subplot in order to give the audience some much needed reason to care about these characters at all. The only reason we kept watching is too see Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman share a little bit of screentime together and that really wasn't even worth the near two hours this film runs at.
Everything about this film has been before, from the elaborate attempted heist, to the shady ruthless businessmen who will stop at nothing to be on top of the world and of course the pretty faces taking on the lead roles. Paranoia definitely doesn't serve itself as a delicious treat about how technology can be our worst enemy and used against us, it just reminds us that sometimes the younger generations are too caught up in the moment and fail to see how a good social interaction can be much more beneficial then trying to get to know someone via a mobile device. Perhaps even digging that far into the film was too much of a stretch, but that was perhaps the only message this film delivered, money and power aren't everything and the moment we loose touch with reality is the moment we lose track of who we are all together.
So far this probably the worst film of 2013, because of all the cliched elements involved in making a film that no one cares about after the first twenty minutes. The younger Hemsworth proves to be a stale draw and for much of the film he serves as the middle man between two actors who at least tried to add a little spark to a film that otherwise had none. Liam Hemsworth is not leading man quality the way his brother his. Perhaps it is not entirely his fault, some of it lies on the writers for boxing his character in so early on with a terrible opening narration and then a downward spiral that perhaps no actor could have saved. The younger Hemsworth could prove to be an asset to a film if they stray away from the pretty boy antics and into the zone of characterization for the young man. Definitely stay away from this film, it makes absolutely no attempt to more then a run of the mill espionage thriller, and espionage usually means well thought out and meticulous.
5/10
