Review for Archive

Introduction

AI is everywhere these days. It’s being applied to all manner of software, apparently to make life easier for all of us, whether it’s search engines, content generation, or image and voice recognition. We’re on the verge of a new kind of automation, and consequent mass redundancies beyond the level that we last saw when computers were first introduced into offices, and robots introduced to production lines. The nifty learning models that new AI software is trained on, manage to do in a fraction of the power and hardware what it would take brute force programming an order of magnitude greater to do ten years ago. It’s wonderful and scary stuff, and you might look to Hollywood to give us some stories about this brave new world. Only Hollywood AI still comes across with personality, and free will, mirror images of the human mind that will either fall in love with humans, or try to wipe us all out. Which brings us to Archive, one of those speculative movie purchases I fished out of a bargain bucket a few months back, but which I’ve only now had to chance to watch.


George Almore has been assigned to get an isolated Japanese research facility back online, but in reality, he’s using the isolation to advance his research into human-like artificial intelligence, having built two prototypes already, and working on a third. Technically he’s not alone there; he has an Archive. This future technology has been created to help the bereaved. It contains the personality and memories of the recently deceased, and provides the space and time for people to come to terms with their loss, to say goodbye, and for the deceased to get their affairs in order. This Archive is his last connection to his late wife, Jules. There are strict rules regarding the use of Archives, but George is about to break those rules.

Picture

Archive gets a 2.39:1 widescreen 1080p transfer on this disc, with the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround and PCM 2.0 Stereo English, with optional Hard of Hearing English subtitles. It’s a recent film, digitally shot as is the way so it’s a matter of picking nits, rather than critiquing the pitfalls of transferring analogue celluloid to a digital medium. The image is clear and sharp, detail levels are excellent, while the colour palette is subdued and wintry. There is a whole lot of drone cinematography, and the effects are practically seamless. The audio is nice and immersive, the music is effective and unsettling, and the dialogue is clear. About the only nit I can pick is a lack of contrast, some greyish blacks, but it’s a very watchable film.

Extras

You get one disc in a BD Amaray case, which boots to an animated menu.

There are no extras with the UK release, which is a shame, as I’d love to know how the robots were accomplished. There is no US release, so if you want extras, import the Australian or the European releases.

Conclusion

I love good sci-fi, and Archive is good sci-fi. That should mean that I love this film, but that isn’t quite the case. It’s a good mystery with an interesting premise, but it reminds me of a strong Twilight Zone episode. And that is the first problem. It’s a tale which could be told just as well in a shorter form, and just like the Twilight Zone formula, it hangs on how well it delivers that final twist, and how unexpected it is. To its credit, Archive sells its twist very well. My problem is that I’m so familiar with this genre, the tropes and the style of storytelling, that I began expecting the twist as soon as the film had presented its premise. That’s way too early.


This is one of those films, like Moon, like The Martian, where the story has to be carried by a single character, effectively a solitary performance. The problem is that George Almore is not a sympathetic protagonist. On the contrary, he’s quite obnoxious and petulant, and really dislikeable. He’s playing off a trio of robots, and the living memory of his dead wife, and it quickly becomes clear what he’s trying to accomplish. That immediately invests the robots with human qualities, and while the incongruity between the mechanistic J1 and J2 robots and their respective behaviours is fascinating, that incongruity vanishes once J3 appears.


Then there are the references and reminders of other, perhaps better films. When the nudges are subtle, it’s actually quite likeable, with George and his three robots in an isolated nowhere, reminiscent of Silent Running at times. Then there is the other film which I’m strongly reminded of, but which I can’t mention here as it would spoil that twist on which this film hangs. But the crime that Archive commits, which I just cannot forgive it for, is aggressively homaging a scene from Ghost in the Shell, practically beat for beat.


Archive is a one and done film for me. I only needed to watch it once to get the most I’m going to get from it. If on the other hand, you miss the twist, and get to enjoy the nice surprise at the end, then you’ll get something by watching it twice. The cinematography’s excellent, and I love how the robots are accomplished, but this might be a better film to watch streamed than on disc. That’s assuming that it’s still on a streaming service at this juncture.