• Mother/Android (2021)

    From Arelor@VERT/PALANT to All on Sun Feb 27 14:15:21 2022
    Hello, moviegoers! Tonight I am telling you about the film with the worst chosen title I have seen this year: Mother/Android.

    I am sure seasoned moviegoers have already seen that post-apocalyptic movie in which everything is going to hell, and a group of survivors is trying to make their way through an horde of zombies, aliens or whatever, in order to reach a faraway place which is said to be a safe haven. My hunch is that the guys behind Mother/Android have already watched such, and were thinking: "That idea is so worn out and used up that it is not worth it makign such a movie anymore. Let's do something groundbreaking instead. Maybe a post-apocalyptic movie in which a group of survivors have to fight their way through an horde in order to reach safe haven, but the main character is a pregnant teen. Sure, THAT will do it!"

    In Mother/Android's world, humanity has developed advanced robots who look like humans and are used as servants by everybody. One day, for reasons not explained in the film, US androids rebel and start a campaign to destroy mankind. The movie follows a pregnant teen and his boyfriend as they try to survive the fallout, and reach Boston so they can get on a boat and escape to an android-free country.

    We get a strong start with the android rebellion, but the film turns into an unbearable slog the very second we move past it.

    First of all, the main characters reek Millennialism so badly. They spend most of the time bitching and arguing and making a fool out of themselves. The gal in particular gets the prize for the most annoying bitch in the kennel. She is the sort of girl who would throw an stereotypical "female tantrum" while the wrld is being raveged by rogue AIs. "You only want us to take a boat so you don't have to take responsibility for us anymore, waaah, waaah!!!!" I would be sorry for his boyfriend, except a) he chose such fate by bedding such bitch and not dumping her while he had the chance and b) he has a ridiculous man-bun which gets to my nerves.

    The film and atmosphere lacks consistence. Nearly the begining we are shown the methodical procedures the army uses to ensure that people who makes it past checkpoints are humans instead of android infiltrators. Then things happen which depend on such controls not being performed because the guards don't care.

    Mother/Andorid suffers a big issue, and it is that it does not know which sort of movie it wants to be. It is not an action movie because there is not enough action. It is not an horror movie, or a thriller. At some point it decides to be a pregnant teen drama with rogue androids killing people in the background, but it gets very borying because there is so much talking and nothing happening for so much of the movie.

    The ending is so stupid that it got a handout from some government campaign in support of the disabled. Worst yet: it spent like 15 minutes passing flashes of how life would have been for the main characters had the robots not screwed everybody up, in an attempt for us to feel sorry and sad. Or something. There are also references of the army taking kids from their mothers because they can't ship whole families to safety, and they try us to cry with that too.

    Except that, by that point, you are rooting for the androids because they are the only sane entities left in the planet and humans are too stupid to live. Geez!

    The imagery of this film is quite fine and the first military outpost and security procedures we run into are quite well displayed, so I guess this alone saves this movie from getting a score of Zero. Past some point it all becomes cheapo, with cheap CGI cities burning so fakely that you will pull your hair out of your head.

    Mother/Android thinks that a teen in a wheelchair rolling down an actual battlefield with a baby in her hands is heroic and can fend off an android invasion by herself where the army cannot. While the idea would work in a film which was not taking itself seriously, Mother/Android plays it with a straight face and comes up as pretentious instead of just cheesy fun.

    Some of the android effects are cool, though. Androids that are not trying to pass as humans have a sinister blue glowing to their eyes, and we are also treated to Terminator-like effects when they take damage and the mechanical parts under their skin are revealed. At times, though, the efforts come across as cheap. It is very inconsistent.

    I think not even the most rabid feminist, no matter how much they want a film about a strong pregnant woman taking the lead, would be able to sit through this thing. Because it is not a movie: it is a *thing*.

    If you want a nice film about robots uprising, go watch something else, because this isn't.

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Arelor on Mon Feb 28 01:45:00 2022
    Arelor wrote to All <=-

    watched such, and were thinking: "That idea is so worn out and used up that it is not worth it makign such a movie anymore. Let's do something groundbreaking instead. Maybe a post-apocalyptic movie in which a group
    of survivors have to fight their way through an horde in order to reach safe haven, but the main character is a pregnant teen. Sure, THAT will
    do it!"

    Reminded me of the free Kindle novel I saw about a climate/ecological apocalypse that brought about a totalitarian regime change, where the remaining US territories were broken up into regions, each serving a
    decadent capital city.

    Every year, they brought kids from each region together to fight to the
    death in a "bread and circuses" arrangement. Except they had to fight
    through zombies.




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  • From Arelor@VERT/PALANT to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Mar 2 11:58:21 2022
    Re: Re: Mother/Android (2021)
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Arelor on Mon Feb 28 2022 06:45 am

    Reminded me of the free Kindle novel I saw about a climate/ecological apocalypse that brought about a totalitarian regime change, where the remaining US territories were broken up into regions, each serving a decadent capital city.

    Every year, they brought kids from each region together to fight to the death in a "bread and circuses" arrangement. Except they had to fight through zombies.


    Oh, yeah. It seems so original to me. Absolutely not a Hunger Games rip off.

    Actually, the reason why we have so many copycats out there is that, if something sells, publishers will start releasing similar material trying to ride the wave as long as they can. This means original material will reach the editor's desk and then hit the trash bin because he will be too busy
    publishing copycats which sell.

    It is a bit saddening when you think about it.

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  • From Ogg@VERT/CAPCITY2 to Arelor on Thu Mar 3 03:57:00 2022
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Wednesday 02.03.22 - 16:58, Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN:

    Oh, yeah. It seems so original to me. Absolutely not a Hunger Games rip off.

    Sounded like an existing British TV series about androids
    gaining sentience and seeking to harm/escape humans who were
    bent on shutting them down. I think it was "Humans". Same
    idea.. androids seeking revenge.

    The basic idea of "pregant woman escaping society that has
    deemed being naturally pregrant as repugnant and therefore must
    escape" is paramount in a novel that was also made into a film.
    I'll try to dig that one up.


    Actually, the reason why we have so many copycats out there
    is that, if something sells, publishers will start
    releasing similar material trying to ride the wave as long
    as they can. This means original material will reach the
    editor's desk and then hit the trash bin because he will be
    too busy publishing copycats which sell.

    There's no such thing as too much of a good thing, right? :)


    It is a bit saddening when you think about it.

    Follow the money.

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  • From Dumas Walker@VERT/CAPCITY2 to OGG on Thu Mar 3 11:13:00 2022
    Sounded like an existing British TV series about androids
    gaining sentience and seeking to harm/escape humans who were
    bent on shutting them down. I think it was "Humans". Same
    idea.. androids seeking revenge.

    Sort of. The original group of androids who gained sentience, sans
    possibly one, were not seeking to harm anyone or revenge. They just wanted
    to be left along, IIRC.

    I don't remember it coming to an actual end. I wonder if it got cancelled
    or if future seasons were not shown here.


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  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Ogg on Thu Mar 3 13:14:27 2022
    Re: Mother/Android (2021)
    By: Ogg to Arelor on Thu Mar 03 2022 08:57 am

    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Wednesday 02.03.22 - 16:58, Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN:

    Oh, yeah. It seems so original to me. Absolutely not a Hunger Games rip off.

    Sounded like an existing British TV series about androids
    gaining sentience and seeking to harm/escape humans who were
    bent on shutting them down. I think it was "Humans". Same
    idea.. androids seeking revenge.

    yeah that was a decent show but i stopped watching it.

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Arelor on Thu Mar 3 02:40:00 2022
    Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    Actually, the reason why we have so many copycats out there is that, if something sells, publishers will start releasing similar material
    trying to ride the wave as long as they can. This means original
    material will reach the editor's desk and then hit the trash bin
    because he will be too busy publishing copycats which sell.

    I knew of a woman who made 5 figures while being a stay-at-home mom writing screenplays. Skimming through one, it seemed like she was trying to hit
    every trope out there. I wondered if she was getting paid off when one of
    her screenplays smelled a bit too much like something they had in the works.


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  • From Moondog@VERT/CAVEBBS to Ogg on Fri Mar 4 21:23:00 2022
    Re: Mother/Android (2021)
    By: Ogg to Arelor on Thu Mar 03 2022 08:57 am

    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Wednesday 02.03.22 - 16:58, Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN:

    Oh, yeah. It seems so original to me. Absolutely not a Hunger Games rip off.

    Sounded like an existing British TV series about androids
    gaining sentience and seeking to harm/escape humans who were
    bent on shutting them down. I think it was "Humans". Same
    idea.. androids seeking revenge.

    The basic idea of "pregant woman escaping society that has
    deemed being naturally pregrant as repugnant and therefore must
    escape" is paramount in a novel that was also made into a film.
    I'll try to dig that one up.


    I like the series Humans. They were intentionally dumbed down to prevent
    self awareness and when they did have it unlocked, some were way lackng on
    the emotional maturity and civil reasonig side.

    The other show, was that Children of Men? I never watched it all the way through, but I recall them trying to get a pregnant girl out of a city full
    of angry religious kooks.

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  • From Ogg@VERT/CAPCITY2 to Moondog on Sat Mar 5 03:55:00 2022
    Hello Moondog!

    ** On Saturday 05.03.22 - 02:23, Moondog wrote to Ogg:

    The basic idea of "pregant woman escaping society that has
    deemed being naturally pregrant as repugnant and therefore must
    escape" is paramount in a novel that was also made into a film.
    I'll try to dig that one up.


    I like the series Humans. They were intentionally dumbed
    down to prevent self awareness and when they did have it
    unlocked, some were way lackng on the emotional maturity
    and civil reasonig side.

    It was starting to get tiring for me, but I did watch the 1st
    season to the pseudo-ending. I was hoping for more involvement
    by the "inventor" of that android system/mind - but [spoiler] -
    [ur trgf xvyyrq bss gbb fbba] - imho.

    The other show, was that Children of Men? I never watched it all the way through, but I recall them trying to get a pregnant girl out of a city
    full of angry religious kooks.

    That's it! Kooks or androids - what's the difference, eh?

    Very loosely based on the PD James novel of the same name. The
    wikipedia explains the variances between the film and the book
    quite well.


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