Netflix's latest movieaddition, 'ARQ', is a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie that stars Robbie Amell and Rachael Taylor; two actors whom fans should recognise from the Flash and Netflix's own Jessica Jones. With Netflix gaining a growing reputation for producing high quality original content, ARQ is an embodiment of that growing reputation.
The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic environment and centres around two characters, Renton (or Ren for short) and Hannah, who are stuck in a time loop which is caused by a device called the 'ARQ'; a device that seemingly could be invaluable to humanities survival.
Together they must fend off masked assailants and protect the ARQ while trying to solve the time loop situation and discover the cause.
Minimal set-up
While the post-apocalyptic/science fiction genre has been exhaustively used in recent years, ARQ brings about a more simplistic concept while still being able to satisfy most sci-fi geeks out there.What the movie ingeniously does, is it uses a very genericpost-apocalyptic storyline instead of trying hard to create its own unique background and reasoning for humanities decline. Doing this allows the movie to concentrate in developing its own story with twists and turns to full effect, rather thandeveloping the world the story is set in. It is to the point and concise, which a lot of movies lack nowadays.
The time-loop concept has been used before such as the Groundhog Day, but the ARQ uses a much more scientific reasoning behind it, and its concept makes for an interesting plot. It can be argued that plot is not adventurous or ambitious, but its simplicity and effective storytelling gives it its value and credibility as a movie.
No need for CGI or big budget sets.
So often do movies nowadays rely on CGI or outstanding sets to impress viewers, and while movies like Avatar or Star Wars: Force Awakens use it to great effect, ARQ relies on its story to impress, which Hollywood sometimes forget can be just as important as a big budget. The whole movie is set within a house and laboratory and only ever explores the outside world on one occasion.
All the scenes are played within these sets but the story allows it to work without fear of repetition.
While not being the most adventurous movie in terms of concept, the ARQ is a very neat movie in it's own right and does not require a big budget and glossy scenes to impress. So often do movies now use it's big budget to make the movie impressive in terms of its CGI or big action sequences to then fail to inspire in its story or fail to truly entertain the viewers. The ARQ however, reminds us that movies are not just products of multi-million dollar productions, but in essence is just a way to simply visually tell an interesting or original story.
