Simulant (2023)

Simulant (2023)

 

3/10

Starring

Robbie Amell

Jordana Brewster

Simu Liu

Sam Worthington

 

Directed by April Mullen

 

Have you seen any movie about the future of A.I.? Then you’ve already seen this one. This movie doesn’t offer anything new. It borrows heavily from Blade Runner, Ex Machina, I Robot and Her, only to dull everything down with uninspired execution.

The movie doesn’t even try to entertain. It’s boring, with no sense of urgency, and doesn’t make much effort to tie the story together. The running around and investigations feel pointless, and while it’s clear there’s a rebellion going on, that’s about it. There’s no well-thought-out cognitive threat or intent to drive the plot forward.

A lot of what happens has no real purpose, and I spent the entire time pinpointing which parts were copied from other, better movies. While the actors seem to take the movie seriously, the writers clearly didn’t care about how blatantly derivative it was. On top of that, the director seems determined to force connections between the characters, no matter how flimsy those connections might be.

The story is set in a future where humanoid simulators roam freely. As expected, these simulators have rules they must follow, the primary one being that they must obey humans and cannot harm them. A task force is in place to capture rogue humanoids who live independently without a human in control.

The plot kicks off when Kessler decommissions a rogue humanoid and notices that it didn’t follow orders—it even went as far as hurting him, breaking the rules entirely. He eventually captures her using an EMP blast, which leads to an investigation into how she was able to function independently and display emotions.

Meanwhile, Faye has replaced her late husband with a humanoid but struggles with its presence in her home. She regrets getting the humanoid and finds herself stuck, unsure of what to do next.

The investigation into the rebel humanoid eventually leads the task force to Casey, whom they suspect is the mastermind behind the rogue humanoids.

As I mentioned earlier, this movie is no good. It’s one of those films that will likely fly under the radar because no one will be talking about it. The fact that it’s getting a theatrical release is surprising—clearly, they’re trying to recover the money wasted on it.

If you value your sanity and don’t want to go rogue yourself, skip this one. Watch the classics I mentioned earlier instead, they got the idea right and this movie did not even bother to try.