Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bionic’ on Netflix, A Brazilian Action Movie With Bolt-On Sci-Fi Parts 

In Bionic (Netflix), the Brazil of an imagined near future is full of elite prosthesis athletes. A tech company’s brain-fluent software and custom, solid-fiber-crafted artificial limbs have created a new level of available human power, and while that’s exciting in many ways, it’s very dangerous in lots of others, and two sisters, Olympic-level long jumpers Maria (Jessica Córes, Invisible City) and Gabi (Gabz, Summer Heat), find themselves on both sides of what the new prosthetic tech can do. Bionic, directed and co-written by Afonso Poyart (2 Coelhos, Solace), also stars Bruno Gaggliasso and Christian Malheiros.     

BIONIC: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: It is 2035. While Maria watches from the sidelines, Gabi’s nearly fifty-foot jump (!) at the Pan-American Bionic Games becomes a new world record. Their mother was an Olympic long jumper before them, and the sisters both trained with her as kids. But she died when they were young, their father Ricardo (Nill Marcondes) saw to Gabi, an amputee, being outfitted with a brain-integrated Solid Limbs prosthetic leg, and now Maria watches her sister enjoy bionic A-lister athlete glory while she runs the old fashioned way at a dilapidated hippodrome. “I feel at home here,” she tells her youngest brother Gus (Malheiros) when he stops by. “I think it represents the current state of regular athletes: abandoned.”

Gus brings trouble in the form of low-level criminal Heitor (Gaggliasso), and Maria is soon involved with this roguishly-haircutted guy, who wants to topple the monopoly Solid Limbs holds over its prosthesis tech. She’s kinda also sorta in it for the jealousy, though, because in time Maria is also the recipient of a new, super-powerful right leg prosthesis. (The “NIM” microchip is the other integral component in this future tech; it’s the key electronic link between a user’s noggin and her custom-crafted extremities.) Does Maria use her stompy, jumpy, propulsive-y leg unit to compete at the professional long jump level her sister Gabi reached, and beyond? Yes. Does she also use it, unwittingly or not, to further the nefarious, violent aims of Heitor and his gang? Also yes. Oh, and are there also two police detectives tracking Heitor and Maria’s movements? Also yes!

Bionic is heavily concerned with what Heitor is plotting, which can be a drag. His scheme is the least interesting thing here, and tonally at odds with the parts of the film that probe the new boundaries of human endurance. But Bionic does raise a few provocative science fiction questions inside the world it’s built, about the evolution of a tech-addled humanity, how and when a level of “superpowered” is reached, and issues of control in the development and use of human enhancements. For Maria and Gabi, the choices they make will come from how they’ve always seen themselves, whatever the technological add-ons.    

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Bionic renders its near-future world with stylish Blade Runner 2049 touches – here, the towering 3D holograms feature Gabi in ads for Solid Limbs prosthetic tech – and the less visually interesting, cement colors and random burbling flat screens aesthetic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Performance Worth Watching: The energy is electric between Jessica Córes and Gabz as sisters Maria and Gabi. They are lifelong competitors – with everyone, but especially with each other – and their dynamic keeps Bionic moving whenever its storytelling software stalls out. 

Memorable Dialogue: Whenever Bionic descends into the surgical centers and performance labs of Solid Limbs, the dialogue enters vague but also important-sounding Future Medical Science mode. “The symbiosis between mechanical and organic is impressive…implanted in the motor cortex region…thirty percent more strength and speed…the neurotransmitters!”   

Sex and Skin: Sleek, super-powerful prosthetic limbs: not just coveted by the criminal who would use their power for ill, but apparently part of his turn-on, too.  

Our Take: There’s a weirder, more strange and gruesome, probably David Lynch-ian movie to be made out of the notion in Bionic that in the future, self-mutilation might emerge as a new form of sports doping. When formerly elite, but still regular old human-powered athletes see themselves replaced on the world’s athletic stage and dumped as recipients of big time sponsorships, what would stop them from causing the accident that would lead to an upgrade of their most moneymaking limb? This is an aspect of Bionic, but only one, along with another unexplored prompt, the concept of black market, DIY-produced prosthetic limb tech. (It veers into Elysium territory, but doesn’t stay there.) Instead, Bionic allows too much time for its non-bionic, regular old human-powered roustabouts to make their rickety plans for a hostile takeover of the prosthesis company’s proprietary assets. As Heitor, Bruno Gaggliasso might project cult leader vibes with his harsh mullet and piercing blue eyes. But his whole angle is also pretty see-through.

What works best in Bionic is the popular emergence of this new tech, and how their intimacy with it informs the decisions Maria and Gabi make, both separately and together, as athletes, and as sisters. 

Our Call: Bionic is a STREAM IT. Yes, its range is a bit limited. But the human element is enlivened by Jessica Córes and Gabz, while the tech stuff teases some interesting looks into the future.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.