In 2044, solar storms have killed 99.7 % of the world's population and only 21 million people survive. The ROC Corporation has designed and built robots called Automata Pilgrim 7000 to help to rebuild the world. These robots have two security protocols; they can neither harm humans nor alter themselves or other robots. When police officer Sean Wallace shoots a robot and claims that it was altering itself, ROC insurance agent Jacq Vaucan is placed in charge of the investigation. Soon he believes that there is a "clocksmith" illegally modifying the robots. Jacq wants to live in the coast and asks his boss and friend Robert Bold to transfer him with his pregnant wife Rachel Vaucan to the coast. Robert offers the possibility if Jacq resolves the case. Jacq and Wallace go to a brothel where the modified robot Cleo attends and Wallace shoots its leg, expecting that the owner will lead them to the clocksmith. They meet Duprè but she is not the clocksmith that is modifying the robots. Soon Jacq discovers who is the responsible for modifying the robots but the Powers that Be in ROC believe that Jacq is the one to be blamed. Jacq Vaucan is an insurance agent of ROC robotics corporation who investigates cases of robots violating their primary protocols against altering themselves. What he discovers will have profound consequences for the future of humanity. An insurance agent at a robotics company makes a discovery that has profound consequences for his family, A.I and the human race.<br/><br/>Director Gabe Ibañez offers a mix of high concept and subtle thought provoking science fiction. Autómata while having a sprinkling of explosions and shootout moves away from the Terminator-esque killer Robots, inevitably comparison can be drawn to the likes of The Machine, Hardware, Blade Runner, Silent Running and I-Robot to name a few but Ibañez offering has its own atmosphere. It's underlining slow burning tension drives it, refreshingly the clunky robots feel more real than today's saturated CGI driven movies and works in the films favour.<br/><br/>It leaves the impression of being a small and personal tale. It's superbly filmed with sweeping wasteland locations in contrast to the holographic adverts and crowded city streets that Jacq (Antonio Banderas' character) walks with trepidation. The old soundtrack tunes are fitting, harking back to a time long forgotten which compliments the score and sound design. <br/><br/>The casting is as diverse as the scifi elements, Tim McInnerny plays against typecast as the corporate villain. Banderas delivers a perfect washed up Jacq, with Dylan McDermott, Melanie Griffith and Robert Forester putting in fitting extended cameo performances. The stars of the show are the elusive robots themselves that tug at the heart strings as Jacq comes to terms with that these Robots may be more than just parts. Another "I Robot" clone and almost done right. I immediately was pleased with the setting and special effects; a world destroyed by a nuclear disaster surrounded by well done Asimov-esque robots to help mankind survive. The automatons decided to go rogue though.<br/><br/>Antonio Banderas' accent didn't help though. So I resorted to subtitles. Now I was able to concentrate on the plot, only to be confronted by an armada of plot holes. In addition, the grand finale resembled a script of any B-action movie writer. Although this wasn't a Hollywood movie, it definitely had the signature of it throughout, which includes the executive producers. That turned out not to be a good thing, other than the availability of a somewhat decent budget.<br/><br/>The introduced premise was interesting, supported by the movie's own Two Laws of Robotics. The special effects were done very nicely, as well as the artistic, almost noir-ish atmosphere. All of this goodness produced an expectation of an intelligent pursuit of the storyline. But soon enough my disappointment was triggered: it does not do that at all. Besides the aforementioned plethora of plot holes, the protagonist resembled a petulant child. Ignorant on what happened around him, despite being spoon-fed with reality and direct answers. I assume the movie makers tried to express Jacq Vaucan's contempt of robots (why?), but that wasn't executed well. The bad guys were stereotypes pulled straight from a catalog. The thugs are violent, the boss is heartless. Cliché galore at your disposal.<br/><br/>So here it is, a movie with tons of potential, thoroughly ruined by the same traits which many mediocre movies share. I think it's a must-see movie for a Science Fiction addict like myself, but I wouldn't encourage anyone to pay for it. That will only reward the system which does the same type of damage to any movie time and again. If my fellow SF fan, or anyone else, has the opportunity to see it for free, then I would like to inspire you to watch it. Otherwise I don't think you should bother.<br/><br/>I get it, criteria and tastes differ heavily amongst us mortals.<br/><br/>The acting was fine, the right actors were on the right spot. One is better than the other, but almost none of them bothered me. Antonio Banderas did. He aged notably, for the good though! Going by his looks, he was the right person to be the tired lone experienced investigator, put on Earth to tackle something bigger than all of us. But his acting was mediocre which was somewhat masked by his heavy Spanish accent and the calm demeanor the storyline demanded from him. He spoke softly to compensate for the accent. In turn the audio editors increased the volume of his voice, which awkwardly articulated the consonants. I've seen this technique before with the same effect.<br/><br/>The movie is rated "R". I have no clue why. It's bit of a deep movie, probably not aimed at 10-year olds, but the level of violence was very minimal and its nature wasn't worse than what you see in many mainstream TV-series aimed at the young. No sexual content either, other than some innuendo by a pleasure robot, who didn't look erotic at all. In fact, it looked funny. Some bad language is present, but nothing that needed to be rated "R". Having said this, here's more positive news about the movie: no senseless nudity! I have nothing against nudity and sexual exploits in movies, but the scenes are forced way too often only to sell, without adding anything else. It doesn't happen here. Bravo! <br/><br/>To conclude, this movie I rated five out of ten stars, which is almost a satisfactory six. The massive amounts of plot holes, inconsistent and unintelligent approach of the story and cheap action ending prevents me from rating it any higher. For me, it had everything in place for a seven or an impressive eight stars. That's how dumbed down the movie eventually was. The slow pace and fine scenery masked it somewhat. But it all started to add up, giving me nothing in the end. Antonio Bandera's acting, mumbling and accent was unappealing to me obviously, but I didn't involve it in the final score. Other issues heavily outweighed this.<br/><br/>To move this subject to a somewhat higher level, Good looking Autómata couldn't keep up the promise it made, resulting in a hollow narrative.<br/><br/>Happy New Year! Automata approximates the look and feel of idea-driven science fiction, but it doesn’t have any actual ideas. That future looks bleak.
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295 weeks ago