Automata

There are lots of films about post-apocalyptic worlds featuring robots and other fancy technology. Despite some obvious similarities to Blade Runner and I, Robot there is still enough in Automata to make it worth a watch.

Let's get the similarities out of the way first. There is a lot of moping around in a miserable, dirty, rainy city near the start. This is just a lazy copy of Blade Runner. I didn't even understand why it was raining at all since the city was in the middle of a desert.

And from I, Robot we get a set of rules which are supposed to keep the machines absolutely subservient to non-machines.

Right. I think that's where most reviews end. It's easy to write Automata off as just derivative.

But I think there's more to it.

I liked the idea that people tried to design themselves out of a natural disaster... And failed. We always assume that there's a technical fix for everything. And maybe sometimes there isn't.

It was also clever that the surviving humans turned their hatred onto the agents of their failed intervention, the robots, rather than on themselves. Classic shooting the messenger.

Also maybe prescient that humans made themselves redundant.

SPOILERS

OK. All that is spilled in the first few minutes. So it was nice to discover later that humans didn't actually even design the robots. They made a single AI that designed the robots for them. And which they then turned off because it was smarter than they liked.

At this point I was thinking that maybe it was smart enough to make robots that could evolve past the rules... Which of course is what happened.

The good old law of unintended consequences wins again.

So. The film is a bit lazy, borrows a lot from classic sci-fi and doesn't really surprise much at the end.

But, if you are going to borrow, borrow from the best. And not every thriller has to have an unexpected ending.

Yes, it could have been better. But I still think Automata is a good film, with some interesting ideas and a cautionary message.

Enjoyed it.

Amazon closer to killing LoveFilm

Amazon have moved another step closer to killing off LoveFilm By Post.

When they first took over Amazon made a complete mess of the transition. There was a lot of confusion, the website was badly broken and tying streaming video to their Prime delivery service just seemed weird.

But the price was right. I quickly dropped the Prime video service because it never worked well for me and the selection was poor. Which left me with unlimited disk rental for £4 a month. Fine.

That didn't last long though. As many people predicted the price soon went up. I found myself paying £8 a month for the same service.

I say the same service. It was actually poorer service than I ever got from LoveFilm. A few examples:

1) Patchy delivery

May be a coincidence, but there have been more delays and longer delays in turnaround since Amazon. I usually watch films on a Friday and Saturday night, posting disks back on Monday morning. With LoveFilm I always had new disks before Friday. With Amazon I sometimes don't get disks until Saturday or even after the weekend.

2) Dirty disks

With Amazon I often have to clean the disks carefully before they will play on my machine. Again, might be a coincidence or maybe Amazon are lazy about maintaining their stock.

3) Rubbish website

The Amazon site is geared to buying stuff not renting. Recommendations were a great feature of LoveFilm but all that is gone with Amazon. Most of the time you are shown films you have already seen, to try and make you buy the disk.

You can't even see all the films you have rented on the Amazon site. Just the last 200. I have been on LoveFilm since 2005 so I have probably rented over 1000 films by now.

It is very frustrating when you are searching for new films to watch and most of the results are either films you have seen or films you think you might have seen but can't quite remember.

I have suggested to Amazon several times that they need an option to exclude films you have already seen from searches. Each time I get a reply that says "you can see your last 200 rentals on this page...". Argh!!!!!

And now I read in the media that there is another price hike due in February 2016. My service will go up to £12 a month. According to the Amazon website I should have had an email in October telling me this... But I didn't.

This is the last straw. Not because £12 a month is too much, yet. But because the trajectory is clearly set. Amazon don't give a shit about disk rental and clearly want to kill it off.

They are doing it slowly so as not to alienate too many people in one go.

Well I am out. And you know what Amazon? I have found myself using your services for other things less and less as you have treated me badly as a LoveFilm By Post customer. Now that I am leaving you, maybe I won't shop on your site at all.

LoveFilm was a great service. Amazon have destroyed it.

The Ghost

Just catching up on reviews I didn't get round to at the time of watching.

Can't remember much about the Ghost, other than I enjoyed it, it was quite spooky, it was clever and had a "ah, I see" ending.

So I guess enjoyable but unmemorable would be a fair summary :)

X+Y

A story about maths geniuses doesn't sound like it would be very interesting. But x+y is good because it concentrated on the people not the maths... Which I wouldn't have understood... Although the maths they did show I did understand so I guess they really dumbed that down!

It is supposed to be based on a true story. But I did some research afterwards and I think that should be "loosely based on a collection of true stories".

I did buy into it though and really enjoyed it. Apart from the last 10 minutes. The ending wasn't just unconvincing... It seemed completely opposed to the rest of the film. Shame. But I still quite enjoyed it over all.

The Signal

Another good low-budget sci-fi film. In fact for a long time it's not even clear whether it is a sci-fi or a mystery or something else.

I liked that. Making the most of a low budget means getting a good story and good performances. The Signal has that.

Maybe the ending could have been better. It was a little bit over the top for me. But it got the final message across clearly, which is more important.

Keeping Rosy

There are a couple of details near the beginning of Keeping Rosy that made me exclaim "no way!" out loud.

But you just have to put that behind you as quickly as possible and move on. Because the performance of Maxine Peake as a woman who's life gradually disintegrates is something to behold.

She is simply brilliant.

Soon the slightly implausible situation is forgotten and you are just hoping she can start making better choices. But of course she doesn't. And things get worse and worse. Even when she thinks she's being careful she still ends up making things worse.

It is one of those films that leaves you thinking you're glad you've never been put into such a tight spot.

I did see the ending coming... But only a few seconds before it happened. So I think that was very well done, since the options are left very open until almost the end.

Maxine Peake is possibly my favorite actor at the moment. Everything I have seen her in has been good.

Ida

Just realised that I forgot to post something about Ida. Which is a shame because I really enjoyed it. And it has so much to it that I can see it being studied on media studies courses for years to come.

Technically it is very clever. Perhaps too clever for me... I understood why it was in black and white but not the 4x3 aspect ratio. Monochrome is great for the atmosphere and also Ida's hair colour is hidden from us at the start. Narrow picture though... Is that supposed to make it claustrophobic? On my TV it was just a bit annoying ... probably a lot better on the big screen.

There are scenes where the framing puts the characters at the bottom of the screen. Which would be great if the subtitles weren't right over their faces. Bit of a mistake in the multilingual department of the process there.

Story-wise it is a real treat too. At the beginning you see a nun and think it might be a bit dull and worthy. Then she meets her aunt and we go off on a real journey of discovery... In several senses.

There are surprises. Some good and some bad. The ending wasn't what I expected... It was better.