AUTOMATA on VOD 27th April & BluRay and DVD 11th of May ✭✭
Automata
On Demand 27th April & Blu-ray and DVD
11th May, 2015
Automata takes you to a period where the majority of the
world is uninhabitable due to radioactive deserts. The world’s population has deteriorated
to a mere 21 million and they are all living in walled cities. The surviving
humans are served by robots built by a company called ROC and installed with
certain protocols that prevent them from altering themselves or from harming
any form of life.
Jacq Vaucan, (Antonio Banderas) plays an insurance inspector
for the company ROC, whose wife Rachel (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), is about to have a baby. Rachel
believes in a future whereas Jacq does not and all he wants to do is escape the
city and find the ocean.
Automata is directed and co-written by Gabe
Ibáñez, this movie has a very familiar tone and storyline to I, Robot,
even down to the supposed rules that the robots have to live by, which of
course some of them don’t.
The story kicks off with Jacq having to investigate a case
where a dog has been killed by a robot, which would mean the second protocol
has been breached. Continuing with his investigation; whether robots are
breaking free of their protocols, Jacq stumbles on to a whole heap of trouble and
ends up in the desert, being pursued by thugs sent by his company.
Antonio Banderas with his shaved head looking very glum
throughout the entire movie, struggles some what with the script, you know what
is going, but your almost bored by it, nothing was truly thrilling.
Reaching the half waypoint of this movie you’re in the
desert with Jacq, who has pretty much had all the life sucked out of him and so
has the movie.
Visually this movie is top-notch. The life like robots have
been done really well, the surrounding landscape fits the story beautifully. In
all honesty something never quite sits right with this movie, the only thing
that comes in to mind is the script. Given the great way this film visually
looks it a shame the scrip and storytelling wasn’t quite matched, very robotic,
pardon the pun.