Autómata (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Gabe Ibáñez (participated to Visual Effects on The Day of the Beast)
	Actors: Antonio Banderas (The 13th Warrior), Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Dylan McDermott
	Country: E, USA, CDN, BG
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 28.03.2015, CINEMA theater, MFFFN15
Synopsis: In a Future when only few humans survive in enclosed cities helped by robots, insurance agent Jacq Vaucan (Banderas) investigates some units that present peculiar malfunctions.
Review: Shot in Bulgaria for a modest budget by a Spanish director and resting on the shoulders of its main actor, this is an atypical and ambitious production. The robots are very realistic, I was often expecting them to jump and do incredible stunts like in I Robot but they in fact always follow the rules of simple mechanics. The two fundamental behavioral rules to which the robots obey are of course inspired by Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics, and we spend the movie with the insurance agent trying to understand if some robots really were tempered with and by whom. It raises some interesting questions about the future of mankind and the definition of life/consciousness, the desertic landscape and futuristic city are well rendered and the robots visual effects very realistic. On the down side, the pace of the movie may be a bit slow especially in the second half. An interesting endeavour nevertheless.
Rating: 6 /10