The Bad Batch is the worst film ever and I love it

Suki Waterhouse starring as main character of The Bad Batch in 2016 during the early stages of her acting career.

Suki Waterhouse. Jason Momoa. Keanu Reeves. Jim Carrey. These names might sound like the cast of an overstimulating action movie but the case is actually far from it. The Bad Batch is a 2016 dystopian thriller about a group of degenerates who are banished to an unincorporated wasteland where there are no laws in place anywhere. It bombed at the box office, making only $200,000 worldwide on a 6 million dollar budget, and received moderate-to-low ratings from critics. It later moved to Netflix several months after its theatrical release and was kept as a Netflix original.

Opinions about it from the people who do know it are mixed, with some saying it is extremely hard to watch, startling, and simultaneously boring, while others say it is the pinnacle of visual storytelling & worldbuilding, and is a beautiful film. 

Confronting

My personal opinion is that this film is not for the faint of heart. There are some scenes that are absolutely insane, and should you choose to watch it you’ll know exactly which ones I’m talking about. But that is obviously the goal of the film. 

“The Bad Batch will not sit well with everyone, and it is not designed to. But it’s refreshing in a summer movie season that seems agonizingly designed to please everyone”, one Rotten Tomatoes critic said.

Movies like All About Lily Chou Chou, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Get Out, among many others, are all hard to get through which is what makes them great films.

All About Lily Chou Chou was a hard watch for most people, but that's likely what made it loved among many. (photo: Penny Lane)

Perceived as boring by some, but insightful by others

Depending on your attention span, this might not be the movie for you either. Many scenes feature little to no dialogue, and a barren desert wasteland isn’t exactly stimulating either. It’s not crazy hard though. If you have a good tolerance for expressionistic, experimental films then you'll definitely be able to enjoy this.

Summary

I don't really need to say more. The Bad Batch is not loved by all and it's designed this way intentionally. Good art challenges it's audience and the film is designed to make the viewer question it. The fact that this movie is so hard to understand is what makes it good. Every second you spend watching this movie, you're trying to figure out what the metaphor of the story is, and to this day, no one really knows.