Robots: Film Review
I’m a huge fan of Shailene Woodley and she deserves better than the disappointing sci-fi comedy Robots.
The film is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2032, when immigrants have been kicked out of the U.S. and their jobs have been filled by robots. Charles (Jack Whitehall) has an illegal robot double of himself, C2, to go to work, go on dates, look after the house etc. Elaine (Woodley) also has a double to have sex with men and help her exploit them for cash and luxury items. C2 and E2 fall in love and try to take over their masters’ lives.
I really liked the concept of the story and the initial beats were solid but the execution was chaotic, scrappy and not as funny as it should have been. There were plenty of silly moments but they didn’t elicit laughs very often. It was almost like writers/directors Ant Hines and Casper Christensen didn’t know what to do or where to go after such a promising start.
They choose to go down the romantic comedy route and focus on two very selfish people learning to become part of a team and commit to another person. It would have been more entertaining if it was a screwball cat-and-mouse adventure because I didn’t buy their romance.
This film is a change of pace for Woodley, who hasn’t done a comedy before. It was refreshing to see her as a shallow, self-centred gold-digger in such a light-hearted piece but the material was beneath her.
Whitehall was a big problem. I couldn’t buy him as a character because it seemed like he was just playing himself. It didn’t help that he used his normal British accent while everyone else was American. It was hard to find any sympathy for him either because Charles is rich, spoiled and lazy, and really very annoying. The film might have been a bit better with a different actor in the lead, but that wouldn’t have saved it because the writing and direction are not good enough.
Robots is a waste of Woodley’s talents. Avoid.
On Prime Video now