Antonio Banderas is an insurance man trying to find a reason as to why some robots have broken protocol in the futuristic Automata. Review for Automata after the jump.
The trailer for Automata arrived a few months ago, with some film fans declaring the movie to possibly be a film to rival Blade Runner. It sadly doesn’t live up to such high expectations but it is still a movie worthy of your time.
Antonio Banderas plays Jacq Vaucan – an insurance investigator for a robotic firm. Yes, we are in the not-too-distant future, where solar flares have nearly killed of the Earth’s population. The humans have built robots to help make the place habitable. Each robot has two built in protocols – they cannot hurt a human, and they cannot attempt to mend or upgrade themselves.
Dylan McDermott plays a drug addicted law officer who comes across a robot self-mending and destroys it, which in turn leads to Vaucan’s investigation.
A huge cover-up then comes into play as Vaucan learns that some robots are now acting on their own instructions.
What really stands out from Automata is how well director Gabe Ibanez has done on a relatively small budget. Okay, roughly $15 million isn’t cheap, but it is in movie standards and the film looks very expensive. The robots all look impressive and the city in which they inhabit looks great too – with giant advertising holograms as big as skyscrapers taking up the skyline.
Banderas does well and is convincing in his role, as is Robert Forster and Melanie Griffith. The film does lack from having a strong supporting cast though as some of the actors in smaller roles are a bit wooden.
The film looks really nice and the score sounds great. The story does sometimes go at a slow pace, but overall it’s an enjoyable 110 minutes. Best sci-fi of the year? No, that still goes to Edge of Tomorrow, but Automata is a good flick and deserves a watch.
