Autómata (2014) is an underrated dystopian science- fiction thriller. The movie raises some of the same philosophical questions like I Robot or Blade Runner and the like - what defines human life!? Could an artificial "life"-form one day develop something like consciousness and an own personality!? I enjoyed the movie really and I liked Antonio Banderas in this movie a lot. Compared with Blade Runner 2049 Automata is imho the better and more interesting movie, even if the production level cannot compete with the sequel of Blade Runner. If you like dystopian sci-fi I strongly recommend Autómata to get pronto its place on your watchlist.

I noticed that many reviewers associated this film with "Blade Runner" and "I,Robot". Some similarity in the image of the future and of the robots really exists here. But in fact it's not important at all for this film. The concept and the story of this film are far original than the visual effects. The title "Automata" means mechanical dolls mainly made for fun, to entertain the privileged in Europe when democratic system was unimaginable. "Robot" is neologism made by the Czech writer Karel Capek in his play "R.U.R."'(1920), where artificial human-like machines are use all over the world as universal and cheap labor forces. In the play (and in all the films with "robots" borrowing its concept from Capek's play) "robots" are like slaves, tend to overthrow the human control,want to be free, so their violence against human makes a dramatic turning point in those films. By removing all "scientific" details, their plot will not so much different from that of Eisenstein's "Strike" (or Griffith's "The Birth of Nation" if seen from "masters' point of view"). In "Automata" the plot develops in other context; those "automata" don't look like slaves. They rather look like products of awkward and unsuccessful human attempt to make "human-like" machines, as automata before 20-th century. They are not revolutionaries, they have no reason for that, if humans don't interfere their "natural" evolution. They can live without destroying the decaying city where Jacq Vaucan and other characters must live unwillingly to avoid radiation. Violence is made by humans. Many audience maybe don't have sympathy for Jacq who shows compassion for Cleo, but probably have more sympathy for Cleo.Designs of "automata" are (most likely, intentionally) old-fashioned, awkward but somehow reminding hand-maid dolls. Human hands made them with soul, so they received it from human and began to live a real life. Have you ever seen any films with similar concept of "automata". I have. It's "Ghost in the Shell 2" by Oshii Mamoru. While Oshii's film was still partly following plot of a detective hunting "rebel" androids like "Blade Runner", this film is almost completely free from human-centered plot. The last shot of sea is, of course, not real. It's a metaphor of LIFE.

There is nothing about this film that is worth watching. It starts out somewhat promising, but simply doesn't deliver any sort of satisfying result. The acting feels forced, and the story bogs down in the middle and frustratingly so. Just when things do pick up and there is a promising ending to the film, it brings in several aspects of the story that simply do not tie together. I would not have bothered with rating this film, but I decided to watch it based on the high review number, and I can't let it go.

Little different movie than I usually watch. Still, it fits nicely in my of my favorite genre, sci-fi. I'll try to keep this short. I loved how brilliantly the robots were done in this film. I really don't know how they do moving robots which can do that and that, but I think it's cool.The plot and the setting.. There could be definitely some improvements. The milieu and the desert area could be better. Definitely when it is year 2044. It's not far from present.Also, it's actually nice how robots almost have feelings at the end. They want to develop and "live" as well.Yeah. That's pretty much it. It's average film.