2023, April Mullen (Wynonna Earp) -- download
Sad and angry cop Kessler (Sam Worthington, Avatar) is investigating a robot crime involving Esme (Alicia Sanz, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), which leads him to her apartment where Casey (Simu Lie, Kim's Convenience) is her neighbour. Her crime is that she is a simulant, a humanoid looking robot, which despite being an eye-rolling permutation of replicant, is still all metal and bright, shiny lights under the realistic skin, a simulant who was living independently. She was not following the 4 (four!) robot laws: don't harm people, must obey all people, don't break laws and don't alter yourself or other simulants. I guess she was breaking the last one, but in escaping she also hurts Kessler.
Meanwhile Evan (Robbie Amell, ARQ) and Faye (Jordana Brewster, The Fast and the Furious) are living an idyllic life in an idyllic house, except every day is pretty much like the other, and Evan can't go into "that room". Why? Well, duh, because Evan (they do a feeble attempt at Not Letting Us Know) is a simulant, part of an option available to (assumingly) very rich humans who lose a loved one. His brain was replicated (simulanted?) and while he thinks he is Evan, he is just Evan 2.0. Eventually Faye can't deal anymore and reveals to him what he is. She could just turn him off, but... and therein lies the rub - despite people doing their best to think of these machines as just machines, they have also done a pretty damn good job of having them act exactly like people, and the emotional lines are blurred.
The intersection of plots comes when Faye dumps Evan in a hotel and Casey is living across the hall, like he did with Esme, before she was caught by Kessler and wiped/reset. Casey is a hacker, a simulant sympathizer, who believes they are capable of and should be free. So he does so with Evan. But the problem with taking a bite from the apple is that you human choice means the ability to make shitty choices. Casey has good intentions in mind but...
The movie pretty much does only feeble attempts at introducing the usual AI / robot questions, but without ever going too deeply into it. Its one of those situations where the film makers know their demographic, so don't want to overwhelm them with ideas. I watch a lot of these movies, usually seeking something new, or novel, in the mix. And while this movie could have focused on the single Evan / Faye story, I imagine the Purple Suits decided it needed more action-y thriller-y stuff, so tossed in the bot-cop subplot, but not successfully.
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