On the one hand, I'm already a bit fed up of AI-infused tech thrillers. On the other hand, I'll keep sitting through them as long as they keep making them. Especially when they're as silly and entertaining as Soulm8te. Or I should say . . . especially when they're as silly and entertaining as the third act of Soulm8te. The rest of the film is a disappointing slog, but there are some gleefully sadistic moments near the end that almost make it worth your time. Almost.
The plot could be written on a grain of rice. David (David Rysdahl) ends up testing a prototype of a Soulm8te (Lily Sullivan). Things seem good, but there are glitches in the system. And one of those glitches is some serious jealousy.
Sullivan isn't bad in her role here, pitching her performance nicely between moments of complete roboticism and moments of extreme emotions. She also looks the part, which is necessary for the developing relationship, and certainly sells viewers on the idea that she would be much better company than a chatty Alexa device. Rysdahl is the lesser of the leads, especially as he has to overlook the early warning signs that turn into massive red flags by halfway point. Claudia Doumit is a welcome presence, playing a young woman named Audrey who may inadvertently position herself as competition to be dealt with by robo-lady, and Arty Froushan is a typical tech boss, which makes it all the more satisfying when he gets stuck in a very sticky situation.
Co-written and directed by Kate Dolan, who helmed the excellent You Are Not My Mother a few years ago, this isn't interested in being too sophisticated or heavy on the commentary. It's a psycho-killer movie, with the psycho just happening to be an AI-enhanced fem-bot. The screenplay, co-written by Rafael Jordan, livens up in the moments that have men being pained and killed in majorly traumatic ways (including two separate incidents of serious penile trauma) before sleepwalking through the rest of the runtime. It's like watching a fun home gadget that puts on a show twice a day, with everything settling down to normality and stillness immediately after each display.
The biggest shame is that nobody seems confident enough to lean in to what should have been campy and over the top ridiculousness. This should have been a bloody and violent slice of fun that felt in line with M3GAN 2.0, but I suspect that the relatively disappointing box office performance of that film had producers here desperately trying to course-correct, which subsequently left us with something toothless, light on bloodshed, and, worst of all, lacking any commitment to the fun factor that's clearly running just underneath every main scene.
5/10
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