Gore Verbinski has been out of the director’s chair for nearly a decade. After perfecting the blockbuster with his Pirates of the Caribbean films, he fell from grace with the commercial and critical failure of 2013’s The Lone Ranger. Since then, he has only made one film, A Cure for Wellness, which also divided audiences and critics. Eight years later, Verbinski bursts back onto the scene with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, a large-scale sci-fi adventure that brings him back to his roots.

The film follows a time traveler, played by Sam Rockwell, who is forced to recruit a combination of people at a diner to join him on a mission to defeat an AI that will take over the world in the near future. From a grieving mother to a couple whose relationship is unstable, a random group of strangers accepts the time traveler’s request and goes on an adventure that they will never forget.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die immediately hooks the audience with its abrasive style, poking fun at bombings within seconds of the film’s beginning. This perfectly sets up the film’s dark humor, which includes jokes about school shootings, abusing children, and deaths in general. Jokes about harming others can easily come across as ill-intended, but the film finds inventive and purposeful ways to integrate them into the plot. Although some bits of humor serve solely to make the audience laugh, most tie into the story in some way, which is exactly how humor should be used in a film.

The humor isn’t the only aspect of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die that is shocking. The film is told in a nonlinear structure for the first two acts, delving into the backstories of the strangers in the diner in a similar vein to Weapons. Each backstory operates like a Black Mirror episode, focusing on the different ways media has consumed humanity. From AI recreations of people to cell phones turning the younger generation into zombies, writer Matthew Robinson comes up with extremely creative and shocking ways to depict the current trajectory of our society. Even though the film sets up its central premise in the opening scene, Verbinski and crew do an excellent job of making it impossible to guess what direction the film is heading.

Sam Rockwell has always been great at delivering sarcastic, charismatic humor, and that carries over in his portrayal of the Man From the Future. His character is in a Groundhog Day-type scenario in the film, constantly jumping back in time to find the right group of people to help save the world. Because of this, it is extremely understandable that he is so sarcastic about everything that happens. Rockwell’s usual schtick could’ve easily been tiresome, but because the film justifies his personality within the movie, it made for an entertaining experience from start to finish.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is entirely nonsensical, in both positive and negative ways. While it is refreshing to see a film care so little about logic, there are times when it is unnecessarily confusing, especially in the ending. The film is always throwing twists at the viewer, but the ending was too over-the-top, completely taking me out of the movie. Sci-fi movies should never feel grounded, but there should always be a sense of competence, and there were times when this film lacked it.

The film nails its commentary and attempts at entertainment, but it desperately needed heart. Although the characters are given empathetic backstories, especially Haley Lu Richardson’s Ingrid, the movie failed to deliver characters worth truly caring about. The film is almost entirely focused on its satirical elements and shock value, with moments of levity appearing few and far between. Although it tries to tug on an emotional cord in the final act, the lack of emotion in the first two acts makes it harder to care about where the characters end up.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die may not have landed in all aspects it was going for, but its ballsy, inventive nature made it a relentlessly entertaining experience from start to finish. In a world where franchise and IP movies rule the film industry, Gore Verbinski returns with a capital “O” original movie that is bound to make an impression on viewers, whether or not everyone likes it.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die will release in theaters nationwide on February 13.

Rating: 7/10

Oscar Prospects:

Best Visual Effects