Sophie Barthes’ third film, The Pod Generation, feels dated in a post-Black Mirror world. Positing a near-future world where tech companies and AI have gamified and commodified virtually every human need, the film follows a couple (Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor) suddenly given the opportunity to take advantage of the new trend of egg-like artificial wombs, or “pods,” basically life-size Tamagotchis for your bespoke, corporate-sponsored GMO child. The way family planning is tied up with capital offers the film’s most enticing bits of speculation — PR flacks explaining away bugs like how the pod-babies never dream by responding, “dreams do not serve any evolutionary purpose.” Barthes is clearly concerned about the effect of such rampant techifying of our everyday lives and wonders what will happen to the natural world when people sublimate their natural human needs in favor of productivity. But that’s really all there is: despite committed performances from both leads, the main couple at its core lacks dimension, as if they themselves were birthed for the sole purpose of entertaining this experiment. And at 110 minutes, the premise starts to collapse under the weight of its own repetitiveness, resulting in a climax that feels pretty tame.