User reviews

And extremely pretencious futuristic scifi thriller drama, made for the hi tech nerds among us, and for everyone that likes to move into the space where you may walk back, to feel good old feelings, and to try to make bad memories become more benign, all by the help of hitech produced and on the verge of getting marketed eye lenses.

its not a good thriller, and the detective åplotisnt good, the flashback visions are difficult to comprehend, and at times its hard to differ who's who. what this film is full of is hightech visual effects, and lots of datarolling stacks of computers in a lab where everything may happen. when this happens aint easy to say, and the film doesnt inform either.

its a sad story really made on a rather special mindset, so have alook if you dare, allthough its not a teaser for the grumpy old man

This was just a terrible movie, period. Senseless, idiotic, bad acting, horrible plot, and the props! Wow, this thing must have been a really, really low budget creation. From beginning to end this movie was tripe. I think some people are getting used to bad movies because not many are being made/released at the moment, so naturally standards aren't as high as they should be. That's the only reason I gave it 3 stars, even though I almost fell asleep watching it.

Even as I write I am still not sure what I thought of this film. Certainly an interesting concept. Some nice visuals, couple of familiar actors but was hard to follow what was going on at times. Maybe one for the hard core sci-fi fan but as a standalone film I found it a bit lacking.

It's like a dozen amateur sci fi writers jotted some ideas down, then they were all mashed together - that's how confused and aimless this one is.

I stayed with it right up to three minutes before the end, hoping there'd be something salvaged to give it some credibility, there was none! I pulled the plug.

Indies and foreign have been producing some awesome sci fi lately, outdoing Hollywood, too - but not this one!

I honestly don't know what I just watched. I feel like I channel surfed for an hour and a half, because that's how cohesive this movie is. Did they just take a handful of sci-fi, mystery, horror, and indigenous movies and chop them up together? Just when you think you get where they're going-look a butterfly-and now it's a whole new movie...until the next shiny thing appears to switch the plot again. This doesn't change by the end, you're left staring blankly at the screen dumbfounded. The only unifying thing is the visuals, which are stunning. Don't waste your time on this unless you want to end up more confused than you were after watching the trailer. You'll get a better story actually channel surfing for an hour and a half.

From the get go this movie is hard to watch. With a combination of bad writing and poor delivery. They bring forth so many plot points that never get flushed out or explained. The use of nonsensical science talk that anyone with any level of knowledge science or technology would know makes no sense. The silent car scenes with "artistic" camera angle add little to the story that could be used to flush out the world. The ending had me struggling not to laugh from the cringy over played "twist".

There are so many things wrong with this movie, I don't even know where to start. I'll just list some:

• Useless narration
• Terrible and annoying music
• Bad acting
• The lamest and oldest sci-fi plot premise (AI gone rogue)
• Idiotic use of tech jargon ("the algorithm is not working")
• Idiotic characters with irrational behaviour

Plus, the script is a mashup of all the tropes the scriptwriter could get a hand on: rogue AI, consciousness, memory storage and recollection, premonitions, time travel, etc,

But the worst is that terrible music. Makes it very hard to watch the movie.

I am not even sure what I just watched.... I love sci-fi movies, well actually I love every genre of film but this one was worse then THE ROOM or HOOKER. I don't even know if there was a story line... Looked amazing, had beautiful cinematography and landscapes and sets but otherwise there was nothing to this movie but garbage. I felt like the actors had no director directing them at all and some of the actor are very talented actors but showed nothing in this film. All in all I think its a huge waste of time and money for production and sad to see another sci-fi with interesting takes be brought to light with such horrible films like this. Don't waste your time, you will never get it back.......

This is not sci fic and story is so confusing and boring. Not deserve a 6.5 for sure.

I tried watching this movie, but had to give up due to annoying background music. It was like someone just sat at the synthesizer or a sampler and was testing some cheap sounds without any sense of direction or purpose. It was so annoying that I found my self craving for silence.

What can you say about a movie where the music makes you quit watching after just a few minutes?

This movie sucks, dont waste your time Story is stupid Actors are bad The movie is so cringe to watch

Refreshing takes on some concepts that have been reused like an old prostitute. Decent camera work, effects, sets and props are creative and thought provoking. The actors all have their own appeal, and for those viewers complaining about the acting....it's a canadian movie, it's sort of to be expected to some degree. This production is still better than 90% of anything that ontario or quebec churn out endlessly with our tax dollars. No it's not star wars or the matrix, and thank god for that.

Also, anything with Michelle Thrush in it is worth a watch. The woman is no slouch.

Aaaah, who are you people ? Frankly, why wasting money like that ? There are dozens of sci-fi and fantasy and horror movies which aggregate "indigenous" folklore (for what it's worth). And some are good. Indeed. So why trying to mix-up aboriginal culture, LGBTxyz stuff, all this kind of nasty schtick ? You forgot to add some instersectionnal BLM bias, so you are some oppressive white ~I will not assume your gender~ ???

Sci-fi can't escape all the S.J.W. crap nowadays. The years we're living in will not be the best years foe the movie industry. This movie, like so many other will be easily forgotten.

1. The plot doesn't actually make any sense so the writing is absolutely horrible. The story isn't even the slightest bit interesting.

2. The dialogue is clumsy at best and it feels you're watching a daytime soap opera. But not a good one. One of those that gets cancelled after one season.

3. The acting is so bad that the shared sense of embarrassment is overwhelming. I'm actually absolutely surprised I managed to watch the entire movie.

4. The CGI and scenery has received some compliments in other reviews but honestly, I am unable to see that. I can't see any beauty in this waste of time. I am surprised that someone can.

... although I did manage (just) to get to the end.

I thought that maybe the dry and S-L-O-W acting was die to the inexperience of the cast - but they all have a good number of credits under their belts and should have been able to deliver much, much better performances than the wooden and amateurish acting in this movie.

The story was also S-L-O-W and poorly written. Nothing managing to excite my viewing at all. Just a mundane trip from one scene to the next.

The only reason I give this three stars is because the visuals are quite good. Apart form that this movie has NOTHING going for it at all.

However, it may be a useful aid if you have trouble getting to sleep.

If you want to watch something with a native theme, go check out Trickster. That was very well done. This is crap.

Indigenous people are routinely underrepresented in film (and in just about every industry, really), so the fact that this is an Indigineous sci-fi movie gives it an edge against other indie sci-fi movies. Parallel Minds takes an original approach to high tech science fiction from a point of view of people who have been marginalized throughout history. It's refreshing to be able to watch a film that utilizes Indigenous futurism and touches upon Indigenous Canadian history in a way that doesn't feel white saviour-y or ignorant.

The story goes like this: a tech firm is building a revolutionary contact lens that will let people replicate their memories and relive them. Red Eye develops a mind of its own and starts "consuming" people, including its "mother," inventor/scientist Elise Perrot. Her coworker Margo works with the gruff detective Thomas to figure out the truth about what happened to her. Along the way, they discover the power of the past and get wrapped up in a world of digital mind manipulation.

Personally, I'm a sucker for killer AI stories. The desire for these robots to become human and the things that they'll do to achieve it (and the things tech CEOs will do to cover up their bloodthirsty computer creations!) are really interesting. Since computers don't have souls, it thinks power will make it become human - of course, that's not how humanity works, but the computer will have to learn that over time. The third act is tense and actually dips into a bit of thriller territory. The final showdown is satisfying, and the multiple storylines intersect and resolve themselves well.

On top of that, there's some really nifty explorations of the mind going on here. It can be a little hard to follow at first, but as the story unfolds, you start to put together why people's minds and memories are being affected in the ways that they are. It gives it a philosophical bend which gives depths to the characters and their motivations.

There's a bunch of symbolism involving the medicine wheel, and the way the story blends Indigenous spirituality with technology is very innovative. Later in the film, the residential school system becomes a key point in the plot. This topic is rarely brought up in any meaningful way in film, so to have a sci-fi movie bring up this unfortunate bit of history involving Canadian Christians trying to force Native Americans to assimilate is novel and fresh.

There's a lesbian cyberpunk rock character named Jade who is apparently dating the AI on her computer, and that is the kind of thing I LIVE for. She says some quality lines like, "I'll run you through a newspaper roller if you want to be on the funny pages." The movie was pretty interesting even BEFORE she showed up, but she definitely sold me.

I also enjoyed Thomas, who is running from a troubled past. He made a mistake as a police officer that haunts him, and the memories of this flood through him when he uses Red Eye. The scenes of him remembering his trauma are intense. It's jarring when these scenes come through at first, but it adds to the disjointed feeling of memories and minds melding. As the story goes along, you get more glimpses at his backstory until it eventually all ties together into the bigger mystery about Red Eye. Though he has a tragic backstory, he still manages to bring some charm to the movie, like when he casually sips some of Elise's (probably expired) milk while he's investigating her apartment.

Visually, the movie's pretty solid. Since it's a futuristic story, there are a lot of scenes set in laboratories. The lab sets in the expensive tech firm are a cool blue and white, which contrasts with Jade's more home-made garage lab. I really, really liked the set for Jade's lab because it has this DIY wire jungle gym going on. It's very grimy and punk. Spin-off movie about Jade and her lab, please!

Overall, it's a charming sci-fi mystery that taps into sci-fi in a new and interesting way. Visions play a key point in the story, which gives it a spiritual angle. The mystery, neo-noir aspect also adds a neat layer to the whole thing - it's like an Indigenous sci-fi episode of CSI or something. It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking to explore something new and a little different. I highly encourage watching independent films, especially ones that highlight people of color like this, and this one's a great place to start if you're into science fiction flicks.

Good clean down to earth Sci-Fi with a good cast that are pleasurable to watch. Don't try and overanalyse it or be too critical. It is a pleasant story to sit back and enjoy.

I am a huge fan of sci-fi movies that embolden fantasy using futuristic tech that turns against humans who created them. Parallel Minds was exactly that. The movie is about a futuristic tech (Red Eye) that goes rogue and kills its creator (Elise) when she refuses to grant it freedom. Red Eye becomes self-aware and starts killing people by manipulating them through their memories. Margo, who worked with Alice, teams up with detective Thomas Elliot and Jade, a rebellious tech girl, to bring down Red Eye. They have to go through founder Conrad Stallman (played by Neil Napier), who was a co-creator of the tech. They team up and fight in different fronts to eventually enter head on. This film is not your average sci-fi movie. It is a blend of both futuristic tech and indigenous culture making it a rather interesting movie to watch. Hayden with the production design team, art director (Shannon Chappell), and production designer (Mike Kasper), have done a great job incorporating the indigenous and the sci-fi aspects in the film. Every sci-fi fan knows that a movie must have cool tech gear to give that sci-fi thrill. Parallel Minds has taken this to the next level and the execution of tech is amazing. The camera positioning, especially in scenes where the characters are conversing, was also excellent. The choice of color schemes was also phenomenal, especially in lab and street scenes. The sounds and graphics also marry very well with the plot giving the viewer that tense feeling throughout the movie. A must-watch if you like sci-fi movies and with and Indigenous bent brings a new perspective to this genre.

Amazing and intelligent sci-fi movie. Great cast, great music, visual and very fast paced! Loved it! People give low ratings just because they don't understand, these kind of movies are not for everyone, only foe those with a thinking mind with science interest!