been looking forward to some science fiction at nziff 2015
though actually this film not too far removed from current reality
as in it features a robot with advanced ai interacting with humans
but before that the scene is set - a young man is in a busy office
an email arrives - eureka - he has won the prize - workmates gather
he is ushered to a waiting black jet helicopter and is whisked away
deposited in a field and told to follow the river - you can't miss it
before long he comes across a luxury home overlooking the river
passes the advanced security system and is then inside the house
stunning - lots of glass and steel and views of the river and bush
on the deck a bearded man is working out - introductions are made
he - nathan - developer of a search engine with 94% global penetration
his guest - caleb - one of his employees and selected to win the prize
nathan admitting caleb's skills, personality and background perfect
his mission is to perform the turing test on a newly developed robot
that test to see if it exhibits behaviour indistinguishable to a human
i'm excited - the scene is set for what should be a fascinating film
'ava encounter number 1' is then announced in text on the screen
caleb in a room and an attractive young female is asking his name
he replies and asks her - ava - and natural sounding banter follows
ava the robot is a fine figure of a female - but with opaque limbs
and here we are asked to stretch our imaginations quite a lot
we know there's an actor and cgi combining as ava the robot
caleb meanwhile is conscious of doing his job - the turing test
his first impressions are - wow - but not us - she is a human
thinking - i look forward to a film with an actual ai machine
and - maybe this is not going to be as good as promised
more so as the attempts to provide authenticity fall flat
in a workshop we see odd shaped objects on bench tops
nathan picks up a piece of opaque plastic and says it's a brain
very average props actually and no sign of any high-tech stuff
even the dialogue does nothing to convince that nathan is a genius
and also - he is constantly downing beer, vodka, whiskey or wine
he has a japanese woman waiting on him - hmmm - or a robot?
strange things happen at night - power cuts and cctv voyeurism
the sessions continue with caleb who of course falls for her
she announcing her dream to stand on a city street corner
having never seen the outside world - will you help me caleb?
nathan is watching every interaction and warns of her motives
want to fuck her? you can - there are sensors in the right places
and advising she will be turned off and updated soon enough
so far - concept - great - delivery - na - interest level - waning
and the big climax - caleb has hacked into the security system
allowing ava to escape but she turns on both caleb and nathan
the maker is stabbed to death and caleb is locked in a room
she (it) walks out to freedom, blue sky, and well who knows
so in the end - yep - the turing test has been passed convincingly
kind of liked the ending - a good twist - kind of liked it all really
though the concept delivered like a late model dr who episode
not a bad thing - just short of a fully impressive sci-fi flick...
