{"id":280089,"date":"2026-02-08T05:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/280089\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:01:10","slug":"matt-damons-2017-sci-fi-movie-wasted-its-unique-premise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/280089\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Damon’s 2017 Sci-Fi Movie Wasted Its Unique Premise"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n \"Matt <\/p>\n

Paramount Pictures<\/p>\n

It’s astonishing how a movie that has the accomplished Alexander Payne as its director, a stacked cast with Matt Damon (whom Hollywood spent more than $900 billion saving on the big screen<\/a>), a decent budget of $68 million, and a story filled with promise can go so catastrophically wrong. Of course, we’re talking about “Downsizing,” a “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”-esque\u00a0sci-fi<\/a> satire that opened in 2017 to mixed reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the presence of Christoph Waltz, Kristen Wiig, Hong Chau, Jason Sudeikis, and Phil Reeves, “Downsizing” ended up being a critical and commercial disappointment.\u00a0 Unable to even break even, the film made only $55 million worldwide at the box office in addition to being bashed by most critics (the feature currently stands at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The premise of “Downsizing” had potential for something strange and distinctive. The film concerns a scientific breakthrough known as “downsizing,” which shrinks organic material, including humans. It’s sold as a high-minded revolution to avoid overpopulation, reduce waste, and offer a completely new way of life to those who are brave enough to make such a change \u2014 since once you go through with it and become “small,” there’s no way to reverse the effect. The plot follows Paul (Damon) and his wife Audrey (Wiig), as a couple looking to be made small for various reasons. But once Paul finds himself on the other side, he soon learns that Audrey backed out at the last minute, and his plans immediately go off the rails \u2014 along with the rest of the movie.<\/p>\n

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Lackluster execution of an intriguing sci-fi fantasy<\/p>\n


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\n \"Paul <\/p>\n

Paramount Pictures<\/p>\n

The shrinking technology in “Downsizing” offers much to explore, yet the movie chooses to focus on political and sociological issues (like immigration, inequality, consumerism, and the meaning of life) that we’ve seen hundreds of times before. Of course, if done well, those themes could’ve been enticing and captivating, but “Downsizing” never really goes beyond scratching the surface with overused clich\u00e9s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As critic Andrew Lapin highlighted in\u00a0his review for\u00a0NPR<\/a>, “The sad thing about this movie is its core premise offers a solid glimpse of social satire, before Payne’s runaway toy train flies off the rails completely … It’s mind-boggling how little imagination, visual or otherwise, a movie about tiny people can have.” Peter Bradshaw of\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0called\u00a0the film “a movie overwhelmed by its own ecological and human implications.”<\/p>\n

“Downsizing” didn’t fare much better with general audiences either, as its average user scores on IMDb<\/a> and Metacritic<\/a> show. Overall, Alexander Payne (who wrote the screenplay with Jim Taylor) just couldn’t utilize this multifaceted, high-concept idea \u2014 at least not in the way that “Ex Machina,” one of the most terrifying movies about AI, did<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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