If I could make one suggestion to all film fans it would be to see as little of movies you're interested in as possible. See the trailer but once you're convinced that you will see the movie, stop it. It's what I've been doing for a while now and it pays off. Not every movie is going to be Drive but it will enhance your experience more often than not. You can read up on it and check its reviews and what-not afterwards. It paid off here for me. I had no idea of the surprises. I just watched the very first trailer and that was enough to make a mental note that I wanted to see it.

Anyway, it's a creative film. It subverted my expectations entirely. I actually came out of the cinema knowing I had had an experience. I had been entertained. It wasn't just another through-the-motions flick. The filmmakers wanted to entertain and provide something different. And they got the balance right, too.

The main actress reminded me so much of Juliette Lewis.

To the point of the post above, I did know the twist going in because it got spoiled for me in some of the advertising and it kind of ruined the experience. The first act if you know what's happening is VERY on the nose. But it definitely picks up and is fast-paced, funny and entertaining. I thought Sophie Thatcher was fantastic. B+

She plays a younger version of her on Yellowjackets lol

Dumber Ex Machina but still fun enough.

B

Competently made but fails miserably in the third act. I believe this is a movie where they wrote the script, then decided the twists, added robots in there and then filled the story. The movie could have worked best if Iris was not a robot and they somehow duped her into doing what she did.

The third act lacks authenticity, we are shown that the intelligence is made 0 yet she makes clever decisions (other than to add horror aspect for a minute), Patrick's sacrifice (how did that end in the cut??), the very finale (a transportation employee giving full control. Do they even have such access??). There are more but not as glaring as the above. If you want to go deep into a concept like this get it correct since there is already Ex-Machina and even Megan which keeps things believable yet deliver thrills.

For a horror movie if you turn off your brain this is a good watch with some glaring errors, my overall experience watching this was good it's the bad taste afterwards that brought the movie down.

2.5/5

The first 2/3, or what feels like the first 2/3, are very exciting and fly by. Then the films third act goes off the rails with what feels like a half dozen different endings, but then it keeps going. It doesn’t become bad in the final third, but the pacing is kind of ruined. Even knowing she was a robot going in there were several twists I didn’t know about. Overall it was different even if its themes have appeared in other films before. The cinematography and spin on all the familiar themes made it feel unique.

Pretty fun due to having more elaborate plot and twists than I expected. However the climax ends up pretty standard, and I think it misses the characters it kills off as idiots trying to make money that are digging the hole deeper and deeper in some ways is more fun than fighting off just another evil boyfriend who hates women. This feels like the type of movie that if it had a better director like Garland in Ex Machina could've been one of the best of the year, but the execution is more like on the level of M3gan, the end result is still above average though.

Forgot to post review for this but agree with most of the others. First hour is great, the last half hour feels more generic than it ought to be, but still a really good movie.

7.7/10

Oh and Sophie Thatcher is excellent here. Clear breakout from Yellowjackets to me even though Ella and Jasmine are doing well for themselves too.