Dulull – who directs and co-writes with Gary Hall – fits in with a group of busy, ambitious, handmade s-f filmmakers that includes Shane Carruth (Primer), Duncan Jones (Moon), William Eubank (Love) and Daniel Fitzsimmons (Native) if 2036 Origin Unknown isn’t among the best of this mini-boom, it’s because the ideas might be big but are also a bit on the familiar side, and the actual plotting is sometimes clumsy. Following The Beyond, this is a voyage to the future with big ideas about the place and fate of mankind and the rise of AI that still boils down to something which could be put on stage in a small theatre above a pub … albeit with the kind of seamless effects that used to be the exclusive province of big studio cinema. Long-serving British visual effects creative Hasraf Dulull (Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, Storage 24, Poldark) has shifted focus to become the auteur of low-budget, idea-driven, somewhat po-faced space opera. My notes on the science fiction film 2036 Origin Unknown (2018), released On Demand/DVD August 13.
