It's also secretly the best Venom movie

Compelling sci-fi dystopias are few and far between in movies these days, which is why it might be surprising that one of the best is hiding in an underrated action movie from 2018. Upgrade, which arrived on Netflix this week, is full of bone-crunching, genuinely fun action, but it's also secretly a great thriller with an excellent sci-fi world hiding beneath the surface.

The film follows Gray (Logan Marshall-Green), a mechanic living in the not-too-distant future. Early in the film, Grey's wife is murdered in a seemingly random robbery that leaves him paralyzed, but he finds an opportunity for revenge thanks to an experimental cybernetic implant, called a STEM, that allows him to walk again. But that implant seems to have a mind of its own and talks to him almost constantly.

This dynamic between STEM and Gray (voiced by Simon Maiden) gives Upgrade a surprisingly welcome dose of comedy that most action films or thrillers don't have time for. Since STEM can't read Grey's mind, Gray has to say everything he wants to tell STEM out loud, leading to hilarious fight scenes that leave the villains (who also get their asses kicked) completely baffled. It's all the fun of Tom Hardy's Venom, without the limitations of comic book characters holding anything back, and with the added comedy of cold, emotionless machining that helps make the violent decisions faster.