If ever there were a film that I was either too smart or too stupid for, I think it's E.X.T.R. The premise is fairly simply, but the overly stylized scene transitions and mediocre characterizations make this film difficult to sit through"”and it's only 80 minutes.
Bix the Bug is a DJ struggling to attain higher recognition from the EDM crowd. When Curtis, a former MIT classmate, appears with a Teslascope, an invention by Nikolai Tesla that supposedly can communicate with extraterrestrials, Bix's world shifts dramatically. The scope is actually receiving sounds that Curtis hopes Bix can translate. Instead, Bix incorporates both the sound and the scope into his show and becomes an overnight success, much to the excitement of Bix's manager. Hijinks ensue, including a shady potential buyer and an extreme political group.
The story moves so slowly and is so bland that I almost forget what I'm watching. Most of the scenes are so darkly filmed that it's almost not worth trying to figure out who's in the shot. While the characters in the film are clearly meant to be very suave and almost too cool for the film, that doesn't translate well for this film, especially with so many characters trying to fit into that stereotype.
There is a slight commentary (in the tongue in cheek sense) about how EDM is all the same, but that's not enough to salvage this for me. E.X.T.R. isn't for me, but maybe you'll find it worth your time.
E.X.T.R is currently available via Netflix.
