Rating (1 out of 5)
This was a movie that someone asked John Cusack when he appeared here in Austin, why he did it. His answer was a very simple, “They paid me”. I had to see for myself what this movie was about.
The plot, is an AI created by Elias Van Dorne (John Cusack) analyzes and decides man is earth’s problem and humans must be eradicated from the planet. 90+ years after the AI called Kronos wipes kills most of mankind from earth there are still a few people alive, and Elias/Kronos is trying to find their final hiding spot, Aurora. So he creates a new human looking robot, Andrew Davis (Julian Schaffner) who befriends a young girl Calia (Jeannine Wacker) human survivor. Together they struggle to survive and make their way to Aurora.
What I Liked: The opening overview was done well.
What I Didn’t Like: OMG, they fall in love. I could have told you that in the first few minutes. The movie tried too much to be cookie cutter. Horrible script writing. This is making Beyond Skyline look like a masterpiece.
The acting was horrible. I was thinking about it, after a debate with my son. The debate was it the acting or the directing or the script. While all 3 sucked, it was obvious from watching John Cusack. While his performance was by far superior to everyone else, even he wasn’t good. His lackluster performance just proved that the remaining issues with were direction and writing.
Custom design was lacking. Seriously, it has been 93 years since there was a mall or leather factor. She is clean, no ripped jeans, leather jacket is off the rack quality. To me that was just horrible. And her crossbow, looked like it just came out of the package.
How the robots didn’t find this girl was amazing. The idea that robots have to be large is fascinating to me. I think it might be the only thing that AXL got right. You would just need thousands of little drones and they would detect the noise or heat signatures very easily. Especially after 100 years, you think the technology advancement to be far greater.
The story was very mechanical and clunky. The story didn’t flow seamlessly from one section to the next. And parts weren’t explored in more detail. For example, they come across a group of humans. Why would they be so aggressive to other humans, and how did they manage to stay away from robots?
At the end, they suddenly come across a spaceship that takes them to a different planet called Aurora. They just sort of find it. It was all very sudden.
The last scene shows Kronos sending ships from Earth to go to Aurora. They setup a sequel (remember they made a sequel of Skyline, so anything is possible) at the end of the movie.
Conclusion: Put this movie on your list, you won’t get anything out of it except for what not to do in a movie in making a movie.