Automata (2014)

January 14, 2015 8:56 AM

Bladerunner meets I, Robot meets AI. 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. (IMDB)

Automata is a 2014 science fiction action film starring Antonio Banderas. The film is directed by Spanish director Gabe Ibáñez and co-written by Ibáñez with Igor Legarreta and Javier Sánchez Donate. Along with Banderas, the film stars Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Melanie Griffith, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster and Tim McInnerny. (wiki)

Now available on Netflix.

posted by valkane (6 comments total)

This movie has a lot of problems; but it's still a lot of fun. I think it's cool as shit that Antonio and Melanie still work together. But that's just me.
posted by valkane at 8:59 AM on January 14, 2015

I found this one to be pretty good. They throw as much into the plot as they can. The budget's only 7 million, and you can really see it in the sets. Also, and this is the go see it selling point to me, most of the robots are done using puppets rather than CGI. Yeah, it's "I, Robot" rehashed shamelessly. (Though it's miles better than the big budget Will Smith version of that story.) But for low budget sci-fi this is a fine, satisfying meal.
posted by Catblack at 10:39 AM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Was that damn turtle really a shout-out to Blade Runner? I'm more amused than affronted at the temerity since I'm not a fanboy of BR anyway.

This was a pretty shitty movie. No offense to y'all who loved it. Why attempt to murder Jack (stuff their spelling) because he filed a report saying "hey, I'm working on the problem; I've got a lead." And the stupid robots. Wow. I can fix my legs and upgrade my power source but giving myself wheels or the ability to run would be too much.

The Sopranos extras were amusing, though.

Melanie Griffith certainly looked . . . different than I remembered.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 9:28 PM on January 14, 2015

I, Robot certainly wasn't perfect but I'd take it over this any day of the week.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 9:31 PM on January 14, 2015

Bleah. I have this unreasonable expectation that people in movies will act like human beings. The best way I can describe the characters in this script is that they all seemed drunk all the time.

Was the robot bug at the end supposed to be the next generation of automata, not limited by human design?
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:25 AM on January 15, 2015

Harvey, I think so since it was the one who killed the baddie. Didn't "mommy" say something about it being able to breathe (?) like Jack?

Was this supposed to be a commentary income inequality how fathers can't help killing themselves once they've brought a kid into the world--even if they're a robot? If the first computer was so smart or "unlimited" why couldn't it have programmed the future corn kernels to eventually become unlimited? The show lost me at the first rule, frankly. Harm no living thing. Well, we harm minuscule living things everyday when we walk on them, accidentally ingest them, etc. Really, Asimov they (the writers) are not.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 6:14 AM on January 15, 2015