Automata (15.)
Directed by Gabe Ibanez.
Starring Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sorenson, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, Tim McInnery, Andy Nyman, Melanie Griffiths and the voice of Javier Bardem. 106 mins.
When Banderas popped up to do a cameo in the Spongebob Squarepants movie I think we all thought, good on you Tony for being a good sport; but tempered just a little with a worry that maybe that was the only job he could get at the moment. Other than working with old buddies like Roberto Rodriquez and Almodovar his most recent roles have been animation voiceovers and joining The Expendables, and now he's starring in Automata, a sci-fi thriller that is heading straight to DVD/blu-ray despite having enough stars you'd have thought to prevent that.
This Automata review comes to you as part of a review one, get a second review free deal offered me by the publicists. I went looking for a copy of Bad Land to review and got this thrown in. Considering what a clunker Bad Land was, hopes weren't high for this but it isn't too bad, hovering in the realms of interestingly OK, but not quite good enough to recommend.
We are in dystopian future again, this one being the result of sun flares which has reduced the world's population down to the population of Australia, and with a similar lifestyle – they crowd together in hi-tech cities that are surrounded by inhospitable deserts. A breed of robots have been built to help humanity survive. They have two basic protocols – they can not harm a living being and they cannot adapt themselves. Banderas is a humble insurance agent investigating a case where he suspects a protocol may have been breached.
Automata has ideas to explore, a certain level of intelligence and is relatively effective as a Neil Blomkamp-style piece of sci-fi. The robots are based on the ones in Bjork's All Is Full Of Love promos, but have been given a vertical slit for a mouth, just like the cartoon people in the London Underground poetry information adverts, (apologies for the London-centric reference.) In terms of special effects it is pretty accomplished for its moderate budget,
It doesn't quite come off though, always wandering around seeming to be on the verge of getting going, but never quite doing so. It just goes back and forth before ending up in a ludicrous finale that fritters away any goodwill drummed up in the previous hour and a half.
Banderas seems wrong for the role. His character has a cool name - Jacq Vaucan, so cool that the script makes sure it gets said as often as possible. Vaucan is supposed to be a little guy who stumbles into something huge but you never really get that. He has gone for a Bruce Willis-as-Deckard look and consistently seems too big for the role.
Directed by Gabe Ibanez.
Starring Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sorenson, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, Tim McInnery, Andy Nyman, Melanie Griffiths and the voice of Javier Bardem. 106 mins.
When Banderas popped up to do a cameo in the Spongebob Squarepants movie I think we all thought, good on you Tony for being a good sport; but tempered just a little with a worry that maybe that was the only job he could get at the moment. Other than working with old buddies like Roberto Rodriquez and Almodovar his most recent roles have been animation voiceovers and joining The Expendables, and now he's starring in Automata, a sci-fi thriller that is heading straight to DVD/blu-ray despite having enough stars you'd have thought to prevent that.
This Automata review comes to you as part of a review one, get a second review free deal offered me by the publicists. I went looking for a copy of Bad Land to review and got this thrown in. Considering what a clunker Bad Land was, hopes weren't high for this but it isn't too bad, hovering in the realms of interestingly OK, but not quite good enough to recommend.
We are in dystopian future again, this one being the result of sun flares which has reduced the world's population down to the population of Australia, and with a similar lifestyle – they crowd together in hi-tech cities that are surrounded by inhospitable deserts. A breed of robots have been built to help humanity survive. They have two basic protocols – they can not harm a living being and they cannot adapt themselves. Banderas is a humble insurance agent investigating a case where he suspects a protocol may have been breached.
Automata has ideas to explore, a certain level of intelligence and is relatively effective as a Neil Blomkamp-style piece of sci-fi. The robots are based on the ones in Bjork's All Is Full Of Love promos, but have been given a vertical slit for a mouth, just like the cartoon people in the London Underground poetry information adverts, (apologies for the London-centric reference.) In terms of special effects it is pretty accomplished for its moderate budget,
It doesn't quite come off though, always wandering around seeming to be on the verge of getting going, but never quite doing so. It just goes back and forth before ending up in a ludicrous finale that fritters away any goodwill drummed up in the previous hour and a half.
Banderas seems wrong for the role. His character has a cool name - Jacq Vaucan, so cool that the script makes sure it gets said as often as possible. Vaucan is supposed to be a little guy who stumbles into something huge but you never really get that. He has gone for a Bruce Willis-as-Deckard look and consistently seems too big for the role.
