What happens when a crisis breaks out in a town full of people too foolish or indifferent to handle the issue? Can a society even function once apathy becomes the norm?
These are the questions at the heart of Ick, a stylish sci-fi comedy from director Joseph Kahn. Kahn uses an alien invasion to examine a nation where any crackpot episode of The Joe Rogan Experience can have more social sway than the Surgeon General.
Hank (a digitally de-aged Brandon Routh) is the textbook definition of the all-American teenager. He’s a handsome star quarterback dating his school’s prom queen. He’s on track to make it to the pros and become the nation’s next golden boy athlete.
Hank’s dreams go up in smoke after a freak accident on the field, when a tendril of “the Ick” sprouts from the ground and snaps his leg like a popsicle stick. The Ick is an invasive vine-like plant that emerged all over town years ago. Despite its mysterious origins, it poses more of a nuisance than a threat. No one showed concern as it spread around town like weeds.
Flash forward two decades and Hank’s life didn’t go as planned. The dashing high school athlete is now a corny high school science teacher who fails to command his students’ respect. It’s their loss since Hank is the only person equipped to tell them how to survive when the Ick turns deadly.
By cover of night, the once harmless plants develop a ferocious bloodlust, maiming and absorbing anyone within reach. As the town plunges into chaos, the level-headed Hank must hatch a cunning plan to survive among the anti-authority townsfolk who only make matters worse.
Casting Routh was a stroke of metanarrative genius. Twenty years ago, Routh was an up-and-coming actor who landed the role of a lifetime as Superman in Superman Returns. His career was poised to rocket into the stratosphere until Superman Returns underperformed, derailing Routh’s ascent to megastar status.
Routh is the most exciting aspect of a film that has little else going for it. Despite his leading-man looks and imposing 6’3 frame, Routh brings a charismatic underdog energy. He’s effortlessly likeable, and easy to root for even as the film doesn’t always play to his strengths. His committed performance reminds me of the band playing on as the Titanic plunges into the Atlantic.
Ick throws out a lot of big ideas but never settles down long enough to interrogate them. It touches on the weaponization of woke culture, and the way people wear it as a self-righteous badge of honour to hide their problematic behaviour. It also draws parallels between the Ick attack and the COVID pandemic, attempting to skewer anti-vaxers and conspiracy theorists. In fact, Kahn introduces plenty of intriguing ideas but fails to thoroughly interrogate them so their inclusion feels superfluous. Thematically, Ick is a knotted ball of yarn with plenty of half-pulled threads.
I don’t have enough time to explain all the ways this film misses its mark. The fast cutting and murky visuals make the action sequences incoherent. But it wouldn’t matter if James Cameron handled Ick’s visual effects because the story lacks any sense of drama or suspense. So much happens from scene to scene, but the events don’t carry any emotional weight. As I sat there watching the film breathlessly careen from scene to scene, it felt like the cinematic version of rapidly scrolling through Instagram reels.
Routh’s charismatic turn isn’t enough to salvage this total misfire. Ick is an incoherent action film, a trivial social commentary, and a sci-fi flick that has style in spades but lacks imagination.
