From the cyborg aggressors that look like overdesigned video game bosses (led by an unrecognisable Jackie Earle Haley), to the ripe dialogue and not particularly compelling romance, there are frequent unintentional laughs.
Only Ali gets to have some fun, as a baddie who’s the mouthpiece for a bigger, off-screen villain.
This is a grim, frequently violent world, but it’s also very, very silly, and Rodriguez might have fared better had he pushed it further in one direction or the other.
Throw in a few distracting cameos, and the result is an extremely bizarre mishmash that seems desperate to set itself up for a sequel, even though it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to spend much more time in this world.