Automata

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Dylan McDermott, Melanie Griffith, Birgitte Hjort Sorensen, Robert Forster, Tim McInnerny, Javier Bardem (voice)
Directed by: Gabe Ibanez
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An insurance agent (Antonio Banderas) who works for the largest robotic corporation investigates odd behavior in some of their robots, which leads him to stumble across a shocking truth.

Review:

Tim: I was looking forward to Automata. I knew nothing about the movie, but the trailer looked impressive and I really like robot sci-fi movies. Unfortunately, this film is a completely muddled mess. This is a film that offers up some big, heady ideas, but the execution of the exploration of those ideas is a bland slog. As much as I hoped I would like this movie, I really did not.

To start with the positives (because there's not a lot), I loved the cinematography of the film. It was stunning to look at- there were moments where I tried not to blink, because I just wanted to drink in everything on screen. The film is just beautiful and that is perhaps the greatest strength of the movie. The second thing I loved was the performance of Antonio Banderas. It might not quite be his best performance, but it's a really good one. There were a few incredible moments where I felt truly inspired and impressed by his acting. The film offered a meaty role for Banderas and I very much enjoyed seeing him in this role. The other positives were more in the intent- I appreciate this film trying to tackle some interesting ideas about artificial intelligence and what it means for humanity's future.

The biggest problem is that the movie just gets muddled down in the storytelling. Director Gabe Ibanez also cowrote the screenplay, but it just felt like something was lost in the translation to the screen. It's not that the story is especially complex, it's that the telling of the story is unfocused. At times, the film is bland and boring and I just had very little desire to keep watching. I was never completely disengaged, but it took effort to remain focused on what was happening on screen. There had to have been dozens of ways to tell a more compelling story that more firmly held our attention. As is, I felt only the smallest twinges of a desire to find out what was happening. The film just never gave me a reason to care- about either the human characters or the larger implications for humanity.

Automata isn't an especially long movie, but it didn't have enough to hold our attention for its 109 minute run time. I didn't hate anything I saw on screen, but my chief emotion was probably indifferent boredom. This is only Ibanez's second feature film, so much of the issues with this movie might come from his inexperience. There was definitely potential here, but Ibanez squandered all of that. This isn't a film that makes you especially happy you sat down to watch it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Hierro; I, Robot