Main cast: Maika Monroe (Julia), Ed Skrein (Thomas Alexander Upton), and Gary Oldman (Tau)
Director: Federico D’Alessandro
Oh my, Ed Skrein looks hot in suit and tie. The fact that his character Alex is a psychopath in suit and tie only makes him so dreamy and sexy in a cray cray way.
Uh, where was I?
Tau is the name of an AI that keeps billionaire Thomas Alexander Upton’s house up and running. It’s also the billionaire’s initials, of course. Tau’s job includes housekeeping, upkeep of the security system, and holding Alex’s prisoners captive and killing them on his orders. Just another typical AI, in other words.
That’s right, Alex keeps prisoners—women, of course, the better for him to spy on creepily when he’s not using them as guinea pigs for the experiments he is conducting on the sly to create and perfect an AI program within a two-week deadline.
I’m still not sure how experimenting on humans will allow for the creation of some AI, as this movie isn’t too focused on explaining what is passed off as science here. It prefers to dazzle the audience with shiny lights and CGI.
Anyway, Julia is one of the three women that find themselves in Alex’s Fifty Shades of AI dungeon, and soon she’s the sole survivor. She eventually realizes that, to survive, she may have to try to get Tau to be on her side. Can she persuade the AI to turn on its creator, though?
Oh, Ed Skrein is hot. While I certainly like looking at him, he doesn’t have much to do here other than to look hot and, in the second half or so of the movie, become a perplexing Energizer bunny of a villain that can’t seem to be stopped until the plot wants him to be stopped.
As for Maika Monroe, she’s alright as the damsel in distress that isn’t as hapless or weak as she appears to be at first. Still, Julia is a rather standard heroine in this kind of movie, complete with a sad past and some vulnerability. There’s nothing about this character that is particularly memorable.
Gary Oldman no doubt is in here for the paycheck, but his voice acting work makes Tau appear the most human of the three characters. Perhaps that is by design?
After all, one not-so-typical aspect of this “AI… is dangerous!” movie is that Tau isn’t good or evil. It’s an AI, which means it does what it is programmed to. It exhibits some curiosity about Julia and the world outside of the house, but it is not some AI that will take over a cute robot and become a superhero. In fact, whatever progress Julia makes with Tau can be easily countered and even negated by Alex with a press of a button on a remote control.
While Tau could be an interesting character in its own right, the movie fails to capitalize on this. Instead, it is content to be another movie about a woman trapped by a psycho in a big house. Sure, the special effects can be flashy, but the whole thing feels generic and played out.
It also doesn’t help that Alex’s apparent attraction to Julia means that Julia has a plot armor that keeps her alive when under other circumstances, Alex would be better off just killing her outright and finding a new test subject.
Indeed, I scratch my head at how, no matter how many times Julia causes drama and how unpredictable Tau is becoming, Alex is more than happy to leave the two alone in his house all the time!
In the end, this is an okay movie for folks that don’t mind watching another pedestrian woman in trouble trying to survive movie. It doesn’t stand out much in any way, but the cast members put on an adequate performance to keep things watchable.
I do wonder, though. Julia is tired of being on the streets and hustling for a living. Well, here she is: in a big house with a billionaire that clearly has the hots for her. Sure, he is creepy and mentally unhinged, but he’s hot and rich. I can’t believe she doesn’t try harder to seduce him in order to stay alive and get her hands on all that money!
