I Am Mother - Sci-Fi Ltd.
Quick Thoughts: I Am Mother (2019)
A sentient robot mother is tasked with the re-population of Earth.
Fascinating not necessarily as a story or character study, I Am Mother is inquisitive as it is dramatically limited. Sci-fi has one major thematic convention that is almost universal; the genre consistently questions humanity via the non-human (most often, technology or aliens). The questioning of humanity is primarily ethical and/or psycho-biological. One may then draw up a vast list of sci-fi films and find that they all ask how 'human' robots, aliens or even humans are or who has spiritual and bodily superiority (often in an evolutionary or Darwinian context). Sci-fi is rather unique as it is one of the only major genres that has such explicit thematic conventions that are so consistently investigated. Such places a limiting factor on the genre; despite its diversity of character, and world, narrow ranges of plot and theme catalyse the boiling of narratives down to highly familiar elements. So, though sci-fi fascinates me incredibly, it is rather easy to become jaded when immersed in the genre. Sci-fi thrives of touches of originality in character, world, and--hopefully--theme. I Am Mother lacks such a touch. The conceptual underpinnings of the story are its selling point. Though the brink of a post-human world has been explored much by dystopian sci-fi, few deal with robots repopulating the world. This is touched upon in a film such as WALL-E, but I Am Mother stands as a mix between Dogtooth and 2001. It therefore explores both the common human-robot evolutionary race alongside themes of conditioning and social engineering. There is something fleeting original about this, but I Am Mother doesn't do much of particular coherence beyond re-assert a humanist conception of human being. That is to say that it degrades pure logic in the realm of ethics. Its answer to a question of one life against five is to seek a third option: courage, heroism, the stuff of humanity. This is said, but one does not feel it to the degree that they hear it. Such is I Am Mother's limitation.
There are some interesting parts of this film that, given slightly more complex characterisation and a more singular focus on character psychology as opposed to a spectacle of winding plots, could have been emphasised as a means of complexifying the subtextual discourse. What jumps out at me is then the mother-daughter relationship. This sits in the centre of the narrative's symbology. Technological mother births human child; the individuation of the child requires the destruction of the tyrannically rational mother imago and an aspiration of motherhood bound by Anima-tic sense as opposed to digital logic. There isn't much feeling places into this archetypal drama. This has much to do with the slight ignorance the camera's eye has to the femininity of its space. That it is to say that this narrative has clearly been construed to eliminate male figures capable of particular impact. Why is not made clear as the theme unfolds. The introduction of a third female between the mother and daughter then feels like something of a loose end - a meandering and unengaging strand of the narrative that has some importance, but not enough. That is to say that Swank's character felt like an agent of the plot, less an addition to the film's discourse. In the end, a little more could be spoken of I Am Mother. It was interesting to see the manipulation of subjective impressionism do its work in this film; the rendering of an object (robot) with subjectivity as a means of unstable character development and ambiguity revealing, albeit common. And the referencing to Blade Runner with origami was, potentially meaningful, maybe just cute. Beyond this, I can't regard this with much acclaim, but may recommend it to sci-fi fans.
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Fight Club - Archetypes Stupid, Consciousness Evil
A sentient robot mother is tasked with the re-population of Earth.
Fascinating not necessarily as a story or character study, I Am Mother is inquisitive as it is dramatically limited. Sci-fi has one major thematic convention that is almost universal; the genre consistently questions humanity via the non-human (most often, technology or aliens). The questioning of humanity is primarily ethical and/or psycho-biological. One may then draw up a vast list of sci-fi films and find that they all ask how 'human' robots, aliens or even humans are or who has spiritual and bodily superiority (often in an evolutionary or Darwinian context). Sci-fi is rather unique as it is one of the only major genres that has such explicit thematic conventions that are so consistently investigated. Such places a limiting factor on the genre; despite its diversity of character, and world, narrow ranges of plot and theme catalyse the boiling of narratives down to highly familiar elements. So, though sci-fi fascinates me incredibly, it is rather easy to become jaded when immersed in the genre. Sci-fi thrives of touches of originality in character, world, and--hopefully--theme. I Am Mother lacks such a touch. The conceptual underpinnings of the story are its selling point. Though the brink of a post-human world has been explored much by dystopian sci-fi, few deal with robots repopulating the world. This is touched upon in a film such as WALL-E, but I Am Mother stands as a mix between Dogtooth and 2001. It therefore explores both the common human-robot evolutionary race alongside themes of conditioning and social engineering. There is something fleeting original about this, but I Am Mother doesn't do much of particular coherence beyond re-assert a humanist conception of human being. That is to say that it degrades pure logic in the realm of ethics. Its answer to a question of one life against five is to seek a third option: courage, heroism, the stuff of humanity. This is said, but one does not feel it to the degree that they hear it. Such is I Am Mother's limitation.
There are some interesting parts of this film that, given slightly more complex characterisation and a more singular focus on character psychology as opposed to a spectacle of winding plots, could have been emphasised as a means of complexifying the subtextual discourse. What jumps out at me is then the mother-daughter relationship. This sits in the centre of the narrative's symbology. Technological mother births human child; the individuation of the child requires the destruction of the tyrannically rational mother imago and an aspiration of motherhood bound by Anima-tic sense as opposed to digital logic. There isn't much feeling places into this archetypal drama. This has much to do with the slight ignorance the camera's eye has to the femininity of its space. That it is to say that this narrative has clearly been construed to eliminate male figures capable of particular impact. Why is not made clear as the theme unfolds. The introduction of a third female between the mother and daughter then feels like something of a loose end - a meandering and unengaging strand of the narrative that has some importance, but not enough. That is to say that Swank's character felt like an agent of the plot, less an addition to the film's discourse. In the end, a little more could be spoken of I Am Mother. It was interesting to see the manipulation of subjective impressionism do its work in this film; the rendering of an object (robot) with subjectivity as a means of unstable character development and ambiguity revealing, albeit common. And the referencing to Blade Runner with origami was, potentially meaningful, maybe just cute. Beyond this, I can't regard this with much acclaim, but may recommend it to sci-fi fans.
Previous post:
Fight Club - Archetypes Stupid, Consciousness Evil
