HEART-IFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
THIS robot drama is assembled from very familiar parts, but at least they’re put together in an interesting way. Like 2014’s Ex Machina, this is the story of a mad scientist doing questionable things with lady androids.
We’re 30 years in the future in a remote lab in Japan, where unrealistically handsome tech genius George (Theo James) is holed up with a boxy-looking robot called Number 2.
As the unimaginatively named droid has what looks like a 90s’ computer monitor for a head and is complaining in a crackly voice, George’s credentials as a genius seem a bit questionable.
And her lumbering, bleeping “sister” Number 1 is even worse. She’s just a wheelie bin with legs.
But the genius lies in their wiring. It turns out they both experience emotions, though their levels of intelligence correspond to the sophistication of their bodies.
Number 1 is a toddler and Number 2 is a moody teenager. But when a secret hatch reveals the ladylike torso of the half-built Number 3, we twig why Archive Systems’ chief engineer has been dodging his boss’s video calls.
He’s building himself a walking, talking robo-lady. And not just any lady.
Like countless tortured movie hunks before him, George is tormented by flashbacks of the accident that killed his wife.
Before Jules (Stacy Martin) died, the sneaky scientist downloaded her brainwaves into a giant hard drive. Now, with her signal fading and Toby Jones’ investigator circling, he’s desperate for her to walk back into his life.
A more versatile lead actor and a more inquisitive screenwriter could have teased more out of this dark premise, but it’s stylish, intriguing and the tension builds to a very clever ending.