Seobok is a science-fiction thriller that presents a handful of intriguing ideas but the execution only gets 60% of its maximum value.
In this South Korean thriller, Min Gi-heon (Gong Yoo) is an ex-agent of the intelligence agency who is terminally ill and tasked with protecting the life of Seo Bok (Park Bo-gum) who is the first human clone. Seobok is believed to possess the secret for eternal life, but there is more than one organization that wants to get its hands on him. The duo gets entangled in dangerous situations as several forces want to take control of Seo Bok who is quite the weapon but it comes at a cost, his life.
Seobok puts a lot of money into some impressive set pieces early in the film. The problem comes when the story’s character development turns into a paint by numbers relationship between the two characters; one wants to give up on life but gains a newfound purpose when the other wishes to wipe out humanity.
Despite being a South Korean film, the plot inserts a shadow organization full of American mercenaries portrayed as the antagonists. These individuals turn out to be cannon fodder for our title character who is a borderline X Men with telekinetic powers from radical genetic engineering. The lack of personality from Seobok is ultimately what hurts the movie because he is written to be a robot but he doesn’t have the charm or wit to play a fish out of water character.
The story of creating artificial life that almost immediately turns on its creator is not an original idea and sadly there isn’t enough action or humor to make the audience bypass the lack of originality.
2.5/5
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