Featured Blu-ray Review: Reset

February 5, 2018

Reset - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray

Reset

Reset is a Chinese / South Korea co-production that made nearly $30 million internationally, but struggled in limited release here. It also earned exactly 50% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. So I’m going into this movie with mediocre expectations. Will the film be a pleasant surprise? Or does it really deserve that 50% Tomatometer Score?

The Movie

The opening text tells us that in the near future, the currently theoretical idea of parallel universes were proven. As a result, research into methods of traveling between such worlds boomed. We are then told that the two companies at the forefront of this research are IPT Lab, with Nexus Corporation in a close second place. In 2025, IPT started human trials, but something went wrong. The test subjects who traveled through dimensions were violently homicidal and they and the scientists were killed in a massacre, while the labs and data were destroyed. IPT managed to cover up the incident, but they have no way of beating Nexus Corporation, not unless they steal their data. Tsui Hu is hired to do just that.

All of this is told to us, mostly with text on the screen, in the three-minute prologue before the opening credits. It is not good worldbuilding and the movie suffers because of it.

After the credits, we see inside Nexus Corporation where the research scientists, including Xia Tian, are conducting their latest test. They were able to send a chimpanzee into a parallel dimension. After some celebrating, we cut to Xia rock-climbing with her son, Dou Dou. She gets a call from the Director; the meeting with the corporate executives has been moved up. There is a bit of exposition dumping, with two key pieces of information revealed. Firstly, this process is very delicate and any even slight problem can have disastrous results on living tissue causing cellular deterioration. They estimate it will take two months to fix this problem. Secondly, they were able to bend the wormhole around a black hole by a small degree in order to not only travel to a new dimension, but backwards in time. At the moment, they can only travel just under two hours, but it is a start. With further research and more power, they should be able to extend this time. The executives seem happy with this and ask for a private meeting with the director the next day.

While preparing to drive home to her son, Xia Tian is attacked by a man who yells, “Stop the research. I don’t want to die.” and then he dies. The police are called and she has to answer some questions. By the time she gets home, Dou Dou is asleep on the couch.

Flash forward a month and the research is continuing. However, while Xia Tian and the Director talk, we see Tsui Hu and his team infiltrate the Nexus Corporation. Xia Tian gets some bad news. The research team has found further problems with the cellular degeneration and the latest test will have to be pushed back. She decides to call her son, because it could be another late night. While they are talking, Dou Dou is kidnapped. Xia Tian races home, but while driving she is also captured by Tsui Hu and his team. She is given an ultimatum. Give Tsui Hu all of the research, or they will kill Dou Dou and she’s only got one hour to get it to him. She manages it, but Tsui Hu kills Dou Dou regardless.

Xia Tian has only one choice: Use the machine to travel back into the past to save her son. Will it work? Or will third time be the charm.

Reset has exactly 50% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and I couldn’t agree more. I mentioned above that the worldbuilding was particularly weak, and that’s not the only issue with this movie. It is reportedly the most expensive Chinese / South Korean co-production ever, but the special effects were not up to standard for Western fans, while the action scenes weren’t particularly well staged either. This made it really hard to be engaged with the movie.

This is a real shame, as there are some excellent elements here. I do really like the setup and Yang Mi is great in the lead roll. I hope to see her in more films. In fact, I might see her later this week, as I put in a request for Brotherhood of Blades 2, which comes out on Blu-ray next Tuesday.

The Extras

There are no extras. In fact, there’s no DVD release either, just a Blu-ray. There’s supposed to be a VOD release as well, but I can’t find it on Amazon. Sometimes their VOD entries don’t show up until right before the movie is scheduled to be released. This makes it hard to plan in advance.

The Verdict

Reset is a frustrating movie, because it has enough to work that I really wanted to like it, but enough doesn’t that I can’t really recommend it. Additionally, the Blu-ray has no extras, so it is certainly not worth picking up. Maybe give it a rental when it hits VOD.

Filed under: Video Review, Ni Shi Ying Jiu, Yang Mi, Shih Chieh King, Wallace Huo, Hummer Chang