Warning review: God is a robot, human life is cheap, and more grim sci-fi tales

The sci-fi movie is both resolute and irredeemably scattershot in its despair. Warn!It consists of half-a dozen stories that conflict with one another and never come together to make a film. Every one of the vignettes in Agata Alexander’s film could be expanded into an intriguing full-length film. In fact, one of them is basically a shortened version of Brandon Cronenberg’s PossessorIt is. However, Warn!These ideas are presented too quickly and superficially. The film quickly moves on to the next thing, without much connective tissue. It is impressive for its many facets, but it’s admirable as a whole. Warn!Too disjointed to be effective in its dystopian warnings.

Alexander knows what we want from sci-fi. Jakub Kichowski is her cinematographer and Alexander collaborated to create a few disturbing images. It’s unfortunate that they’re also so familiar. The scene features an astronaut in pitch-black space floating, and a brutalist home in the woods. There are also two nearly nude bodies that have been joined by pipes and tubes, as well as a robot moving with precision roboticism. These archetypical moments have been used for many years in this genre. Warn!These are well presented. They can even be unexpectedly emotionally, such as a couple of robotic butlers dancing with one another to pass the time. Unnerving is a VR headset wearing a black oil-covered man, who writhes in pain from the intense memory.

And while Warn! assembles the cornerstones of the genre, Alexander doesn’t build upon them with much creativity. That’s particularly clear in the script, from Alexander and co-writers Jason Kaye and Rob Michaelson, who flirt with a common genre idea per subplot, but then jump to something new instead of digging deep. Yes, humans do consume more than they need, rely too often on nostalgia, and act in selfish, tribalistic ways — but reciting those facts doesn’t make for an actual story.

This is one of the most innovative concepts. Warn! too-briefly imagines is that AI could be the same way, and that humanity’s worst qualities — pettiness, classism, hypocrisy — could pass on to the cyborg descendants we design. But Warn! practically sprints away from anything that would require more effort than eliciting just a “Hm, interesting” reaction. And the way each subplot ends, with a “Doesn’t being alive suck?” message, indicates an unwillingness to push anything here further.

Set in a “not too distant” future, Warn!This takes place in two places: on Earth (with a few more technologically advanced devices and news stories about COVID-19), and out of Earth, with an eyeline to Earth. Artificial intelligence (AI) is all around and has mostly replaced human to-human communication. Maintenance technician David Thomas Jane (An AI System) is quickly able to compare the values of satellites while fixing them. (His company has determined his worth as $500,000, while the AI’s is $40 million.)

While David is at work, an enormous space storm produces terrifying red clouds and thunderbolts behind him. This also causes a number of thunderstorms to occur on Earth. David laments his job, life and all that is going on to AI. Warn!Moves to the Big Blue Marble

Polygon image of Lionsgate

People and robots attempt to make a happy existence in what appears to be only the United States. Nina (Annabelle Wallis), a committed couple, and Liam (Alex Pettyfer), visit their rich, judgemental parents for dinner. Brian, a robot shelter caretaker (Tomasz Kt), tries to locate placements for his patients. He includes Charlie (Rupert Everett), an eager-to please who hates being retired.

Additionally: Anna (Kylie Bunbury and Ben) have a beautiful relationship. But, an uncanny black shadow follows Anna, challenging her perception of reality. Claire (Alice Eve, doing a version of Kristen Bell’s pre-enlightened Eleanor from The Good Place) obsessively relies on her God device (voiced by James D’Arcy) to regulate her life, and measures her self-worth in its accumulation of her sins and good deeds.

Also, Teenage Magda is played by Garance Marillier. She accepts a gig via Second Skin and finds herself caught up in a business relationship where men sometimes only desire women for their bodies. (The movie includes an inexplicable attempted-rape scene shot from the perspective of the woman being assaulted.

There are some subplots that work better than others. Ben/Anna is yet another tiresome story, while Claire/Goddevice is toothless. However, Brian/Charlie would make an animated film. If the Nina/Liam team were extended, they might even look as good. I’m Your Man. But there’s only one main narrative thread linking these characters, and it’s a repetitive one: Nearly every one of them wonders about the existence of God. In reality, the existence of a religion question is a fact. Warn! isn’t a problem, but the shallowness (and assumptive Christianity) of its approach doesn’t leave viewers with much to counteract all the despair.

Lionsgate photo

One hand Warn! seems to be saying that technology has replaced all our values and belief systems, so we’ve forgotten a core component of what humanity is. (Claire not knowing how to “manually” pray is that segment’s funniest moment.) However, this question is too heavy to be ignored. Warn!Provides.

An angry monologue followed by a melancholy monologue followed by another angry monologue gets old quick, even if there is some amusement to Jane’s snotty line delivery of David’s appeal to God, “What’s the lesson here? What, I’m selfish? I already knew that!” Unfortunately, Warn! is full of sci-fi conclusions that genre fans already know, and the film’s title says it all.

Warn! It is now available Blu-ray and DVDThese can also be rented through digital services, such as AmazonAnd Vudu