Superintelligence (2020)

Superintelligence (2020)

3/10

Starring

Melissa McCarthy

Bobby Cannavale

Brian Tyree Henry

James Corden

Directed by Ben Falcone

If you haven’t seen the movie Superintelligence, I envy you. I genuinely wish I could trade places with you and be spared from the embarrassment this movie brings to the art of filmmaking. I wish I hadn’t wasted my time listening to long, drawn-out lines that redefined boredom. These lines were meant to entertain but felt more like endless monologues straight out of a cliché graveyard.

I’m familiar with the Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy dynamic. As a married couple, they often collaborate on movies, with McCarthy usually in the lead. While some of their projects have been okay, this one ranks among their worst.

The movie is supposed to be a rom-com with a splash of sci-fi. It follows Carol Peters (McCarthy), an average woman chosen by an AI to be studied for three days.

The AI, voiced primarily by James Corden, started as a rogue children’s learning app that somehow evolved into a superintelligence with knowledge of everything and everyone. How that transformation happened is a question for the writer—though, unfortunately, I can’t grill them for an explanation. Carol, understandably, informs a friend at Microsoft, who then alerts the government, making this AI the top priority for destruction.

Meanwhile, the AI treats Carol like a pet, studying her to learn more about humanity. Its primary focus is love, and it decides to help her rekindle things with her ex-boyfriend. From Carol’s perspective, she blames herself for the breakup, and the AI goes to great lengths to get them back together.

Why the three-day timeline? Well, the AI hasn’t decided whether it wants to annihilate humanity or help save the planet. I do not know if this movie is meant to have an undertone of what AI can become, or it is just wrapped up in its own nonsense that it believes it is worth seeing.

Streaming platforms seem to have an insatiable need for content these days, and as a result, we’re constantly bombarded with subpar movies. Nobody seems interested in creating classics anymore, and these platforms appear to have too much money to throw around. Watching this movie did have one silver lining: a scene reminded me to take out my trash. Ironically, I had a better time dealing with my garbage than enduring this film.

With all the talent involved, Superintelligence somehow manages to squander every bit of it. It feels more like a cash grabbed for the producers and I fail to believe that any thought to entertain, went into the production of this movie.