Automata

Following a series of environmental catastrophes, mankind has been reduced to one single sity of 20 million souls living under an umbrella of artificial clouds that do what they can to provide rainwater. Determined to reclaim some of their lost territory, the ominous "ROC Corporation" creates it's latest robot - the "Pilgrim" to try to help humanity. It has two rules: it can't harm or allow a person to be harmed and it cannot harm or alter itself or another android. Pretty watertight security protocols, eh? Sort of like in "iRobot" (2004) eh? Anyway, when one of these mechanical critters is shot by sceptical policeman "Wallace" (Dylan McDermott) who suspects that some altering was indeed going on, the company drafts in investigator "Vaucan" (Antonio Banderas) to get to the bottom of things. This man has an ulterior motive in taking on this job, as he wants to be able to relocate his heavily expectant wife "Rachel" (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) to the seaside. A visit to a brothel introduces them to the blue haired "Cleo" and thence to scientist "Dupré" (Melanie Griffith) who advises that it might well be that the robots don't need any human intervention to change their programming, but that a natural evolution might be possible enabling them to become self aware and then, obviously, to take steps to advance their own species whether human beings liked it or not. Needless to say, the corporates cannot allow even an hint of such information to reach the public or the politicians, and so they takes steps that see "Vaucan" turn from hunter to hunted - and by noneother than "Wallace", too. Might a solution lie with the enigmatic "Clocksmith" or might the entire human race be doomed? Banderas does his best here, and some of the animatronic visual effects are impressive but the story is simply too derivative and the dialogue - of which there is plenty - has a blandness to it that doesn't really help to characterise either "Vaucan" or anyone else, nor does it really fill in many of the puzzling plot-holes that curiously pepper this sci-fi drama. It's portents of the dangers of self growing AI are clearly presented to anyone who is anxious about the automation of our society and of our increasing dependence on that, but again none of that is exactly original either. It's worth a watch, but I was disappointed.