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Automatons (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:8
Fresh:5
Rotten:3
Average Rating:5.7/10
Runtime: 83 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: Somewhere in the distant future, The Girl (Christine Spencer) is alone. She is the last of her people, the others having died in a generations-long war that she continues to fight with the... Somewhere in the distant future, The Girl (Christine Spencer) is alone. She is the last of her people, the others having died in a generations-long war that she continues to fight with the assistance of a group of antiquated robot helpers and soldiers. Her only connection to her long-dead people is a collection of recorded journal entries made by the scientist (Angus Scrimm) who cared for her as a baby. His is the only friendly human face she's ever seen. The regular transmissions from her enemy's leader (Brenda Cooney) are always filled with threats and taunts. The girl responds to these invasions by attack of her own, carried out by her mechanical soldiers on the contaminated surface where no human can survive. Men started this war. The machines will finish it.-- © Automatrons. [More]
Director: James Felix McKenney
Director: James Felix McKenney
Reviews for Automatons
I yearn to encounter livelier less-than-zero-budget attempts at post-apocalyptic science fiction than this one.
McKenney worked in underground theater and comics before turning to filmmaking with movies such as Canniballistic. Judging by Automatons, he's worth keeping an eye on.
The acting is flat, and the scientist's ideological speeches too bluntly designed to mirror post-9/11 rhetoric. But there's a dreamy fascination to the iconic images of machines fighting a perpetual war for the human creators they'll inevitably outlast.
With its retro look, cautionary theme and not-so-special effects, Automatons is a shameless ode to 1960s sci-fi and classic television shows.
An unwieldy mix of self-conscious camp and heavy-handed allegory, Automatons plays like a cheesy '50s no-budget sci-fier with serious delusions of grandeur.
Try to phase out the redundant and uninspired political discourse and focus only on the sporadic bursts of robot aggression, which McKenney shoots at gloriously odd, jumpy angles.
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