Any movie that basically has 1 actor had better be damn compelling... and this was. Clara Ruggard gave an outstanding performance as 'Daughter', raised from an embryo by the maternal robot 'Mother' in a secure bunker, time noted as 'post human extinction'. All is going well with Daughter raised in all manner of STEAM by Mother, becoming a well-rounded young woman on the verge of her 18th birthday. Then Swank as 'Woman' comes a-knockin' and shenanigans ensue. For nerds like me, I enjoyed learning that the robot was NOT CGI, but a carefully custom tailored body suit that gave more dimensionality to an otherwise lifeless form. The plot may be slightly cliche (is this robot truly benevolent? Is the Earth really devoid of all human life?), but still held my attention. Then I sat as the credits rolled and wondered what I just watched (the plot twist take a bit of thought). That's a good sign to me.
I’m surprised by the other comments for this. I was really pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed this. Great storyline!
I really liked this movie. You have to be OK with the SciFi aspects (robots, Dystopian future), but, if you are, this is a tremendous, slow burn thriller. People say it was predictable, I don't agree. That was the tension: Who to trust. Are there right choices? If you let it, it puts you squarely in the mind of Daughter, and that is where it excels. This is not about were it ends, its not about tying up all the loose ends, its about the journey. Great acting (Hilary Swank, as expected). But Clara Rugaard was a new talent to me and definitely someone for whom I shall be watching. Rose Byrne was the ideal voice actor for Mother. Ordinarily, I reserve ratings over 8 for films I'll want to see numerous time, but this film is a one-timer, its dynamic is in the not knowing, and I give this film a 9 (superb) out of 10. [SciFi THRILLER]
I enjoyed it. It wasn't great but it was good. While it was kind of predictable they were able to throw a few curve balls.
Definitely enjoyed the film. Excellent cinematics and an engaging story. I am not sure if others didn't really understand the ending properly, but I thought the film was well made with an interesting story. And in addition actually was different to other robot esque films. Here there is a huge difference in the robots motive, and at least personally is quite pleasant to see less focus on unnecessary action and more on the nuances that personally developed all the characters.
Interesting plot but the execution not so much.
Why even bother to keep humans around? We require food, we require nurture, and we are unable to overcome even our most basal instincts. We are a pestilence. AI is the natural successor to achieve what we can not.
I love Mother. Why are human teens so stupid.
A good idea for a sci-fi movie would be a robot who tries to save people, but they try to kill it because they think all robots are evil. A cliché idea for a sci-fi movie is I Am Mother. Sadly, I'm not teen enough for this film, which feels like a remake of Tau (but better) .
Another movie involving an AI who is smart. It's scary to think that an AI could be this possessive knowing that it has no "heart", couldn't really involve any emotion, yet, could manage to manipulate one human being.
As the movie progresses, you are increasingly disappointed. the final stretch of the movie is unfortunate
Bit weird. Often slow moving plot. Dull dialect. And somewhat wooden acting.
I'll openly admit that I have a soft spot for dystopian films, so they get more leeway from me. If dystopian films aren't your jam or if AI as a character turns you off, you're not going to be on board for this. But if you're even a casual sci-fi fan, you'll likely enjoy it. There's just enough mystery and plenty of good reveals to keep you invested, even if the overall final twist is a bit much to believe. However, the 3 main characters all elevate the material with great and believable performances. I'd say this is a worthy use of a couple of hours.
It's an original point of view of AI / post-AI future. Unfortunately not particularly intriguing. Two things i didn't like (no spoiler): how they managed, complexively, the relation between 'mother' and daughter (not that deep as they could have gone in a situation like this); and then the ending. I just can't stand anymore this kind of 'open' ending. Don't misunderstand, the film is concluded. Is just that they really needed to end with something like 'you know, there may be a sequel, but we are not that sure, so we are just gonna throw a few scenes here and there, but not really giving any clue about what may happen, let's keep those 20 million possibilities open'
Anyway i tend to focus on negative sides, still worth watching on an average week evening.
I was not expecting this at all from this film, and I hope there's going to be a sequel or series of sequels to it. I give it a 9/10.
There's a lot happening in this movie (i mean a lot), The things happening aren't very significant, so i wouldn't say it was a magnificent movie. I'd say it's a mediocre sci-fi thriller (because c'mon, it felt like I've already watched the movie)
dang this is a great movie.... very surprising. and awesome performances by the cast..... I give this a 5/5
I don't mean to disrespect you mother, but your care of my movie-going senses was a little on the underwhelming side. You waffled on too much tbh, and you didn't let me get outdoors enough to fully explore the world around you.
Crap ending don’t waste your time. Just a rehashing of other movies you’ve already seen.
Good but with have scored higher if the ending was better.
SPOILERS
The ending was a mess. Mother was killed but is alive. Woman had a purpose but we'll never know anything about it or her life. Girl opted for a life with brother, can she also create humans or will they just die out? What about the other robots?
Like a lot of SF movies of the past 20 years, this look like an extended episode of The Outer Limits. There is nothing really original anymore in the idea, nor in the plot, nor in the ending. However that does not mean it was not well done. The story is told in an interesting way, acting is pretty good, visuals are very nice. A pretty enjoyable watch.
You've seen the premise and plot of the film in other sci-fi films before. Yet it still manages to be intelligent, not spoon-feeding (which explains why the film is lost to some viewers), while still simultaneously thrilling and plot-twisting.
I've seen the twist miles away: that the robots are creating a better version of humanity, a typical sci-fi cliche but the film remains interesting along the way. It continuously straddles in showing the Mother in heartwarming scenes and pose her as a commanding presence that you keep trying to figure out what her true intention is. But the best part of this is to me the stranger-Woman herself. You've seen her archetype in every other "beware of outside" films out there (10 Cloverfield Lane comes to mind) but what makes her as a perfect setup for this film is the way she is presented: her casting, her interaction with the Daughter, her memories. All points out to the fact that she is the original daughter. The film started with saying that 38 years have passed, yet we have only a teenage Daughter. Then we are shown that 3 embryos are missing, and 1 of them being "failed", not "aborted" like the rest. Then we are shown the Daughter recalling vague memories of her past. Last, the one that was a dead giveaway to me: the Woman looks very similar to the Daughter. It all makes sense in the last scene with the stranger-Woman, as the event finally unfolded.
Of course, the film still stumbled here and there. The typical plot of unstable teenager where curiosity gets the best of them is a bit annoying as it is a tired cliche (although admittedly that's just teens being teens). The whole idea that the Mother is an authoritarian AI trying to make humanity in a better form is also a tired cliche. Given the fact that Daughter is still a teen, her taking the mantle of Mother is also unconvincing, as I'm not sure how perfectly ethical she is educated, that she can raise a kid - perhaps that's also a point of contention that the film tries to raise? What is maturity when you are breeded to be perfect?
But the intelligent way the film is presented, and most of all, the performance by Clara Rugaard as Daughter makes the ride totally worth 2 hours. I like how Daughter started as a curious, naive teen to a lady with conviction (while still retaining her naivety) by the end of the film. It's partly due to the great makeup and lighting and general cinematography, but Rugaard's acting really established the performance.
All in all, this is in no way a masterclass in sci-fi, but still an enjoyable watch to think and discuss about. Especially with the advent of ChatGPT, we may want to talk again how much we want to technically intervene societal problems, and if those problems warrant technicalization in the first place.
You had an amazing Robot Mother, and this is how you treat her? Mother should have killed that woman sooner and her daughter too... pffff....!
MOTHER DID NOTHING WRONG! I mean outside of letting Hilary Swank live as long as she did.
I enjoyed the tension build throughout the entire “doubt”-ark. Who’s telling the truth? Who’s lying? To what extent?
It slacked a little toward the end I feel. Still good but I guess I would have preferred some HUGE reveal or badumts toward the end.
(I mean what I’ve been suspecting was that the woman and daughter are sort of the same person, or that the woman also used to be an embryo that mother released into the wild at some point. Since they looked so similar.)
What we’re getting is a “I am mother and I am everything and I constructed absolutely everything to make way for a perfect humanity… including orchestrating the woman coming into their life”… kind of thing. I haven’t backtracked the entire thing, but that’s what mother is implying, no? “You’ve served a purpose” etc. To show daughter how it really is outside and that humans can’t be trusted? With all the nuances? And maybe it was just an extension of her exam really. I guess she’d have failed if she had tried to stay outside.
Well. Mother raised her well.
What a desolate life though, holy shit.
An amazing sci-fi movie, that revolves around an Extinction Day Protocol driven by Robotics and AI. The Humanity is dead. Long live humanity!
Didn’t like it. Not a problem with open finals or intelligent wannabe movies. But there were soooooo many “why’s” left, that almost 50% of the movie doesn’t make sense at all…
It was good but the ending left too much open or out or something. Can't put my finger on it. It started slow and then I got the feeling like the two humane were definitely related. I don't know. It's good for a sci-fi movie, but not stellar.
Great movie!
Great acting, great setting and several mindfukks along the way.
The cake is a lie.
Let me start off by saying that I'm extremely open minded when it comes to movies; and my tastes are pretty eclectic. But, this movie right here, has got to be one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen. In a nut shell, it's about a young girl's relationship with a freakin' toaster oven!
Great movie, I’m a sciencefiction lover and this movie exceeded my expectation of it.
Its not only a sci-fi movie, it really concerns about ethics and moral circumstances, trust and artifical intelligence. I assume that on the first watch, some fine details could be missed, as the answer to the upcoming questions throug the set cannot be given - as they aren‘t clearly solvable even by humans. Wonderful setup, not an action movie to watch without brain headache though :thumbsup:
nice movie. shitty ending. sad.
Great sci fi movie not predictable new original more like from Netflix
It is quite predictable and with errors fixed to fit the story. Still lets see to spend the rest
Not much originality, but in general pretty well done until the end. What a crock - it was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie - good well produced buildup to a naff ending :-( ]
this Should have had a better ending. Very weak.
I’d of loved a little more to it but other than that it wasn’t a bad film and plenty of good action and ending definitely could of had more..
good movie. at beginning i kinda think that i could have guessed the end. even if the end was similar to what i think, it's different of what i had initially. the movie does not surprised me, but i liked the end. it makes you think that all the bad that happened, happened for a good reason, making a great analogy with the theoretical medical dilemma in the middle of the movie.
It felt like an episode of The Outer Limits padded out to 2 hours.
+Storyline: reboot humanity
+Theme: learning and manipulation
+Bottom line: go watch it!
All my life I tried to stay alone she should consider herself lucky
Very intriguing and interesting movie. Well worth a watch.
I really enjoyed the movie. Well made!
Was nice to see this spin on the "robots took over the world" theme. Though, I wouldn't wish my mom was a super-consciousness like Mother.
Review by WardVIP 8BlockedParentSpoilers2022-01-01T22:25:41Z
This was a good film, though i was nearly always on mother's side.
Really one of the only ethical problems was the whole her killing the children that were "imperfect" though we don't get any clarification.
What if she was killing children who had inoperable brain defects which would make them murderously violent in later life. And now that the human girl will allow any child to live, that may happen. Even if mother may later tell her that will happen, daughter won't do anything and let it happen or keep the person contained in later life, i guess. I don't know.
But yeah it's most likely she was killing children who weren't perfect in other ways, which of course is wrong and mother should have known it was wrong for logical reasons, but the writer wanted the story or this aspect to be more against mother's side, so it's written this way.
So if you take away mother killing the imperfect children, you don't have much reason to be against mother's plan.
Restarting humanity as a utopia. With the best education and resources. And even if the mines were real, it would be full of flawed humanity and they may all starve to death or destroy each-other. Plus, in the facility, they would have the technology to one day research maybe how to destroy the droids (if mother was actually just an independant care droid).
So i was nearly always on mother's side as the movie progressed. The final twist didn't alter much.
The line of dialogue "I saw them (the droids) torturing babies" doesn't make sense given mother's plan and personality. Especially given it's supposed to be one consciousness, or something.
I kinda liked that mother planned for that woman to arrive at the facility. That cleared up a contrivance that the woman just happened to arrive at the facility at that specific time.
Mother's plan was a bit convoluted. But still, it was alright. I don't fully buy the independance angle at the end, from daughter's or mother's side, but i'll roll with it. I still think humanity would be better guided by mother, and as humanity grew she would take on a more advisory role, or something.