Automata (2014) Review

My opinion of Automata is sat very firmly on the fence. I'm not comfortable being there, I want to go one way or the other, but I will probably never know whether it's a good or a bad film.

Automata stars Antonio Banderas (Puss In Boots) as an insurance agent working for ROC a company that built robots shortly after solar flares wiped out almost the entire population. One of these robots was found altering itself, a big no no as one of the only two rules that govern the robots is that it's not allowed to alter itself. Banderas as Jacq Vaucan has to investigate why it has done so thus leading him on a moderately interesting yet ultimately confusing journey.

Automata feels like a rare film. It's probably because films like Automata are few and far between. Automata is a gritty sci-fi noir in the same vain as Blade Runner. It features a dystopian cityfilled with the dancing hologram ladies, huge skyscrapers, and rain. Except where Blade Runner felt it would be a good thing to stay within the city limits, Automata decides to venture out into the rather uninteresting and bland desert. It's unfortunate too, because the city, at least on a surface level, has so much to offer.

And while the desert is Automata's biggest shortcoming, even there the cinematography shines. It's the best bit about the film; it captures everything I love about these films, the lush dry desert landscapes, claustrophobic streets of a neon-lit city, and the rain-soaked industrial areas. Tons of sweeping pans, beautiful wide shots capturing cleverly framed vistas. Everything is right here when it comes to cinematography, and the effects are great too. The robots look awesome, their design while uninspired fits really well within the universe; the city looks suitably sci-fi, dirty, gritty, full of character and charm, the holograms while seemingly random and pointless always are a treat to see. But this low budget title is not without its visual flaws. There are a few bad special effects here and there, most notably a robot introduced at the end, and there are some pretty shoddy looking buildings, but honestly, I was blown away by some of the visual effects in such a low budget movie.

Automata's story, writing and message on the other hand are iffy at best. Its story is confusing, yet simple. It's a man on the run, unwillingly at first and yet willingly by the end. All of the pieces seem to come together, but are pieced together in a really strange way. The pacing is a bit over the place. Sometimes it's paced really well, mainly the investigation at the beginning, but it slows down when they get to the desert which is about an hour of the movie. It's not so slow it's unbearable, it's just boring at times. The writing in this movie isn't perfect either, villains are villains for the sake of it (power and money I guess?) Their motives are never really shown; I think they think Banderas' character has betrayed them, but why they go through all the effort to hunt him I'm not sure. There's some crap dialogue, mainly when it's trying to convey its message, but it's never so bad that it becomes really noticeable. The message too is unoriginal and uninspired. I guess it's about racism, about what makes a human, and life/death. These are themes that we've seen done to death in better sci-fi movies, and this film doesn't really add anything to the discussion. It often feels that the message is shoved to the side and that the film isn't that bothered about looking into it further.

The action in this movie is sparse, but what's there is your standard fare, it's not bad, it's not good. There are some really thrilling moments at the beginning of the film, mainly during the investigation. I think these scenes are handled well and are written well. We get a sense of who the characters are and their motives (not the villains the good guys) and there are some dubious characters who either redeem themselves or don't.

Just as a quick side-note, there's often what seems like bad dubbing which is rather distracting. I only noticed it a few times, and I'm not really sure if it even is bad dubbing, but there was absolutely something off about it (perhaps they got lazy and didn't sync it properly) Also the range of accents, while fitting for the story, can be annoying at times, sometimes incomprehensible, sometimes just distracting, leaving me lagging behind in the conversation.

One thing this film does excell in is world building. Whether it's the brief descriptions of the world from the other characters, or what I assumed was condom's on the mortician's fingers (it makes sense in the context of the world as they wouldn't really be a need for birth control as I imagine they'd want to repopulate, although the mystery of the missing gloves may be a considered sequel), the world building is pretty stellar here. I like the ending, it adds to the overall world building, not much mind, just enough that I had a little smile on my pretty content face.

This film has left me with completely mixed feelings. I enjoyed it, it's not a bad film and it has really good moments, but there are some really bad aspects of this film that make it somewhat boring. Pacing seems to be a problem with these sorts of movies (Blade Runner: 2049 suffered from this quite a lot), and the forced message also didn't sit well with me or make me think (once again Blade Runner: 2049 had the same problem). But I wasn't always bored and I did enjoy it for the most part. I'd recommend it if you need your sci-fi noir fix, and if you only stay for the opening city segments then at least you'll have likely enjoyed those.

4.5/10