Archive (2020)
Directed by Gavin Rothery
2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI, and his latest prototype is almost ready. This sensitive phase is also the riskiest as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs—being reunited with his dead wife.
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9 films that influenced Archive
What critics say influenced Archive
It winds up with direct visual echoes of Westworld and Ghost in the Shell , and its tone and setting specifics heavily recall Duncan Jones’ gloriously gritty science-fiction feature Moon .
Rothery, whose prior credits including working on art design on another intelligent SF movie, “Moon,” works at his own pace.
The vibe is a bit like Duncan Jones' Moon , on which Rothery worked, except that George gets to go for bracing runs through the trees instead of being locked in an airtight dwelling with the voice of Kevin Spacey as his only company.
Rothery, a longtime video-game designer (and visual-effects supervisor on the 2009 movie Moon ), delivers on every level.
Production designer/effects creator (“Moon”) turned writer-director Gavin Rothery and star Theo James (“Divergent”) have conjured up a great looking film with some heart, a neat twist or two and that manages to be perfectly watchable, start to finish.
Written and directed by Gavin Rothery, Archive recalls other robot/artificial intelligence movies like Blade Runner , A.I. Artificial Intelligence , and Ex Machina , as well as another movie about a lone man and a robot stuck in a single location: Moon , upon which Rothery worked as a designer and visual effects supervisor.
J3, on the other hand, appears almost human, much like the creature played by Alicia Vikander in Alex Garland’s 2014 Ex Machina .
It’s difficult to not read Archive in the wake of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina , another recent story about a possessive tech genius building his perfect woman in captivity.
Science fiction, at its best, tells us something about ourselves, and ARCHIVE ––Gavin Rothery’s feature debut as writer/director––is an impressive drama about love and death that ought to appeal to people who responded to movies like “Gravity” (2013) and “Ex Machina” (2014).
Plus, some robot designs from “Star Wars” and “Metropolis” are thrown into a narrative mix of “Ex Machina” meets “Solaris.”
Rothery's computerized-afterlife premise riffs on a zeitgeisty notion explored most recently in Greg Daniels' Upload series, but the film echoes the cinema of artificial humans more broadly, from Ex Machina and Westworld back to 2001 and Metropolis .
Suspended from a high-tech harness, J-3 almost immediately realizes she’s at George’s mercurial nature, though Rothery deliberately sidesteps exploring or examining the more troubling themes underlying AI in fiction or film like Alex Garland did in Ex Machina six years ago.
Its influences can be traced back to movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” or “Blade Runner” in the way it blends American characters against the backdrop of a Japanese restaurant and big light-up ads.
Written and directed by Gavin Rothery, Archive recalls other robot/artificial intelligence movies like Blade Runner , A.I. Artificial Intelligence , and Ex Machina , as well as another movie about a lone man and a robot stuck in a single location: Moon , upon which Rothery worked as a designer and visual effects supervisor.
George is seen venturing out into the city at one point in the film and its dazzling use of colors are very Blade Runner -esque with drastic lighting in unusual shades like neon yellow and bright green.
Grab some “Ex Machina,” add a dash of “Blade Runner,” throw in a sprinkle of “Black Mirror,” and you’ll end up with something like “Archive,” a troubled Theo James (“Divergent”) science fiction thriller that looks and sounds great but is made up of combustible parts from all the aforementioned titles above.
There's an awfully odd visit by a pair of inspectors from the Archive company (Toby Jones and Richard Glover), and a bizarre encounter with a company "risk assessor" (Peter Ferdinando) in a barroom replete with hazy air, neon glow and Japanese atmospherics that would fit snugly into the original Blade Runner .
It’s a great dynamic, and one we haven’t seen before, despite the psychotic breakdowns of AI machines past, such as that of HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s great 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Its influences can be traced back to movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” or “Blade Runner” in the way it blends American characters against the backdrop of a Japanese restaurant and big light-up ads.
So much so, by the time the second robot tries to sabotage the entire operation, (which is heavily influenced by “2001: A Space Odyssey”) it’s not that surprising.
He also uses the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey” that has been turned into a casket and allows in its program for him to communicate with his dead wife, Jules (Stacy Martin).
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It winds up with direct visual echoes of Westworld and Ghost in the Shell , and its tone and setting specifics heavily recall Duncan Jones’ gloriously gritty science-fiction feature Moon .
J3’s full body creation, with legs, hair, and skin, is an obvious homage to the shelling sequence from the opening of Ghost in the Shell .
But you’ll see “Ex Machina” in the movie’s look and moral quandary, a hint of “2001” here, some “Silent Running” there.
Whereas the first model is but a giant, barely mobile box, J2 is much more versatile, recalling, in look and feel, the AI in Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother, released in 2019.
Science fiction, at its best, tells us something about ourselves, and ARCHIVE ––Gavin Rothery’s feature debut as writer/director––is an impressive drama about love and death that ought to appeal to people who responded to movies like “Gravity” (2013) and “Ex Machina” (2014).
Even the excellent music by Oscar-winner Steven Price ( Gravity ) sounds a little like the famous Blade Runner score.
Granted, those films didn’t take place in the glossy, snow-covered forests of Japan, which is the only reason to see this movie, because it's beautifully shot by Laurie Rose (“Free Fire”) and has Oscar winning composer Steven Price (“Gravity”) dropping some slick beats.
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There’s even a hellish Japanese nightclub for George to visit for a meeting, all holograms and “Star Trek” furnishings.