Archive
ARCHIVE, science fiction, not rated, 105 minutes, Apple TV, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV, FandangoNOW, and Redbox On Demand, 3 chiles
Set in a forested region of Japan in a near future where advanced robotics and artificial intelligence are a fact of life, George Almore (Theo James) works diligently to bring the security protocols of an aging engineering facility up to date. His superiors at the shadowy, corporate entity called ARM are dissatisfied with his progress on building a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence unit. But Almore has succeeded more than they know. He’s designed it in secret as a near-human replacement for his dead wife, Jules (Stacy Martin).
Archive is a fascinating look at how far one man will go to preserve what he’s lost, but it’s most effective in its exploration of the interpersonal relationships between its protagonist and a thinking, feeling, self-propelled robot called J2. She stays hidden when Almore is on conference calls with his boss, who is unaware of her existence.
ARM is unscrupulous and will resort to kidnapping and murder to stay at the forefront of AI technology. If Almore doesn’t deliver, it isn’t just the funding for his three-year research project that’s at stake, but his very life.
Almore’s wife died in a car accident just before he took the assignment. Her consciousness has been preserved in a digital archive that allows them to interact in real time. Almore is in the midst of constructing his third prototype based on Jules’ memories, emotions, and intelligence.But the archive has an expiration date.
Almore’s first prototype, J1, is a clunky, armless robot that communicates in clicks and whirs, and operates with the intelligence of a 5-year-old. J2’s maturity, on the other hand, is that of a teenage girl. She’s jealous of the advanced third unit, whose emotions and maturity, as well as her appearance, more closely resemble an adult human. Almore spends more time perfecting this third prototype. J2, who repeatedly expresses her desire to go with him on security checks around the compound’s perimeter and feels neglected. She dreams of him at night.
J3, for her part, is cognizant of who she was and what she’s become and reacts with horror and confusion.
Archive, a distant cousin to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), boasts some remarkable special effects. The somber story benefits from the setting: an isolated, cold, sterile environment in a winter landscape, accessible only by means of a chasm-spanning bridge. But it requires more than a little suspension of disbelief. How, for instance, was Almore, in a matter of days, able to create an AI unit so advanced that she’s indistinguishable from a real person? Why do the mannerisms of a mysterious operative that Almore meets one night in an urban lounge seem so unnatural? Who’s been sabotaging the facility’s security system?
Hold on. While the answers to these questions are never explicitly addressed, the truth can be gleaned in the film’s denouement and, in hindsight, have a kind of logic. The clues were there all along. But this reviewer couldn’t help feeling a little cheated. Granted, the conclusion isn’t quite on the level of, say, “It was all a dream,” but it isn’t that far off the mark. See this one for the emotionally charged interactions between the human and the robots. Especially J2. — Michael Abatemarco