Robin Michaels

Watchable enough, if you can tolerate the unpleasant main characters, a confused plot that sets up an interesting concept in way that makes no sense, and an ending that depends on the "hero," Greg , making an unconvincing 180 degree change at the last second. The central question of what is real and what is illusion is never really answered: the too-idyllic "real" world begins to behave like the gritty "simulation," and we get a laughable explanation (a drug taken IN THE SIMULATION is making the simulation leak into reality) and a throwaway hint (real world referred to as "next layer up) that is never followed up, and we get strong suggestions that Greg may be hallucinating. His supposedly not-real daughter has a whole subplot without him present, in which she is trying to find and save her sick dad. But if that is real, then Greg's participation in magical mayhem and slaughter of (supposedly unreal) characters never happened . In which case, why does the whole police force turn out to capture him? That part would have to be real, since the daughter is involved. So what did he actually do? I hope this really was meant to be a film about mental illness, since as science fiction it's a failure . As psychological drama it's merely flawed.