In 2003, The Corporation pulled back the curtain on all the ways in which companies are hurting the general public.

It was a landmark documentary, and it forever changed the way we would view corporations and the brands we look up to. Now, with this sequel 17 years later, we check back in, and the prognosis isn’t good.

On the surface, things are better, but there are insidious things lying underneath it all. The idea that corporations are now protectors, with green initiatives and money put toward activism and helping out in the world, they have a great facade.

But the inequality, income chasms and issues that are faced in the world shows that corporations — seen under the law as people — are, quote, “psychopaths” in the eyes of the filmmakers.

Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott direct this incredible, albeit late, sequel to The Corporation. The problem, however, is it doesn’t pack the same punch. With Black Lives Matter, COVID-19 and the general greed of businesses threatening the world, you’d think this would feel more imminent.

I don’t know whether we’ve become more numb to it, or whether it’s just too late, but The New Corporation — while sometimes shocking — feels mostly too little, too late.

Overall, it’s a fight for equality in a world that has little of it, and a call for change, but the time it’s taken has gone way too long. This necessary sequel seems like a bit of an afterthought.

3.5/5 Stars