Prime Time: Robots (2023)

Another film that simply re-uses a title from a previous, better, film (although maybe I am the only person to think back fondly on the animated feature with the same name), Robots is a standard comedy with a sci-if twist. More problematic, it’s a film with a lead role for Jack Whitehall, who rarely works as well in movies as he does in his comedy gigs.

Set slightly in the future, our world now has numerous robots available to take over various jobs (e.g. cleaning, hospitality service, refuse collection, etc). It’s illegal to use one as a stand-in for yourself though. That illegality doesn’t dissuade Cameron (Whitehall), a selfish and lazy young man who uses his robot double to meet and charm women, taking over when it’s time to “seal the deal”. It also doesn’t dissuade Elaine (Shailene Woodley), a young woman who uses her robot double when the men she convinces to buy her lots of treats figure that it is time for them to get jiggy with it. Elaine and Cameron eventually cross paths, in robot/human form, and a standard mix-up eventually leads to both robots falling in love with one another and running away. That puts both our main characters in quite a predicament, which forces them to work together in order to fix the whole situation.

Based on a short story, “The Robot Who Looked Like Me”, by Robert Sheckley, this is co-written by co-directors Casper Christensen and Anthony Hines, two men with separate backgrounds in transgressive performance comedy (one having worked on Klovn/Klown on TV and film, the other having worked with Sacha Baron Cohen numerous times), but you wouldn’t know that from the end result. All you get here is familiar and tiresomely lazy plotting, a wildly varying selection of gags, and no one memorable moment to think back on and smile about after it’s all over.

Whitehall and Woodley actually don’t do a terrible job, and certainly work better together than they do apart, but neither feels good enough to actually carry the film. That wouldn’t be so bad if there was a fun supporting cast to help, but there isn’t. Paul Rust is moderately amusing as the robot creator, roped in to help Cameron and Elaine recover their property, and David Grant Wright is fine as a father concerned about the erratic behaviour of his son, but neither performer can do enough to make up for what is essentially a double-dose of Whitehall. And things aren’t helped by Paul Jurewicz in the role of Ashley, a man who prefers to be called Fat Ninja. While I am not laying the blame for the annoyance of the character entirely with Jurewicz, he is an unwelcome addition to the core cast.

If you don’t mind the opening act, where a few of the better jokes are placed, then you should find enough here to enjoy. It has a standard runtime of just over 90 minutes, which is a plus, and certainly doesn’t attempt to overtax the brain. It just doesn’t ever feel like a proper movie, but more like a slick pilot for an anthology show based around the central idea. And as for the horribly convenient ending, where everyone gets exactly the final moments that you expect them to get . . . it makes you want to turn the whole thing off, dismantle it, and ditch the parts in some nearby scrapyard. In fact, the third act is bad enough to cause me to lower my rating one whole point. Others may be a bit more generous.

3/10

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Divergent (2014)

Based on a novel by Veronica Roth (the first in a trilogy), Divergent is another movie aimed squarely at the Young Adult market. It focuses on a young woman who ends up being trained for combat in a system that rewards those not up to the task with a type of banishment, or sometimes even possible death. It's also about a society ruled by people who may not always have the best interests of the public at heart. Despite these similarities, and one or two others, this ISN'T The Hunger Games. Even if it hopes to grab a piece of that pie. It's actually a bit better than The Hunger Games, in my opinion.

Shailene Woodley plays Tris, a young girl living in a society that is determined to avoid another major war. To ensure this, everyone is sorted in to one of five factions. There's a test to be taken just before you choose the faction, but you're still supposed to be able to choose a different faction if you wish. It just makes you stand out a bit if you don't follow on the path set down by your parents. The five factions are Abnegation (selfless), Erudite (intelligent), Amity (peaceful), Candor (honest), and Dauntless (brave). When Tris takes her test she is advised to pretend that she had to leave early after taking sick. It turns out that she's divergent, able to think more independently than most and not be so easily controlled. Divergents are viewed as dangerous. And Tris makes her situation worse when she goes to the choosing ceremony the next day and decides to give the Dauntless faction a go. She doesn't realise just how tough the training will be, and falling too low on the scoreboard is not an option when the consequence is being sent away to live outwith any of the factions.

Although it runs for over two hours (it's about 140 minutes, approximately), Divergent doesn't feel overlong or bloated. There are plenty of action beats that help to move things along, and the inevitable potential romance is evenly spread out throughout the second half of the film, making it less likely to induce vomiting. The screenplay by Vanessa Taylor and Evan Daugherty does a great job of getting, and keeping, viewers up to speed without grinding proceedings to a complete halt, although there are times when it's a very close call.

Director Neil Burger makes all of the right choices for the material. It's generally light, although one or two moments do venture into impressively dark territory, the soundtrack has some tracks that teenage girls should enjoy, the action is solid, although it doesn't get in the way of the character moments, and there are so many odds stacked against Tris that every small victory has the potential to make viewers smile/breathe a sigh of relief.

There's also the cast. Woodley isn't a particularly strong lead, but she's acceptable enough in the role. Theo James, as Four (a Dauntless man who takes a shine to Tris), is suitably strong and handsome, and Jai Courtney plays a bit of a git, which works perfectly considering how much I dislike him anyway. Miles Teller and Zoe Kravitz are the two other Dauntless recruits who stand out from the pack, for different reasons, and then there are supporting roles for Ashley Judd and Kate Winslet, with the latter somehow managing to be brilliant every time she's onscreen despite often appearing to deliver more exposition.

I hoped to get through Divergent without hating it, or myself, too much. It turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. So much so that I'm now looking forward to the sequel.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Divergent-Blu-Ray-digital-download-certificate/dp/B00GQQ77IU/ref=sr_1_6_twi_2_twi_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420319217&sr=8-6&keywords=divergent

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