User Reviews

Archive is one of the cleverest, well thought out Sci-film films I've seen in a very long time .

It's hard to explain why I really liked the story because it would give away the plot , which is is all about twists and turns that you don't see coming .

2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI. His latest prototype is almost ready. This sensitive phase is also the riskiest. Especially as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs.

I love the interaction between George and his three robots . No 1 is loyal but limited in what it can two .

No 2 is super intelligent and can think and talk almost like a human but looks very basic and isn't very mobile .

3 is the ultimate AI .

The trouble is that because they have human emotions , no 2 and no 3 get incredibly jealous but does it really matter in the scheme of things ?

The film is really about hanging on to a loved one once they have died and eventually having to let go.

. This is one of those films that stick in the mind days after . Written and Directed by Gavin Rothery , he is someone to definitely look out for in the future.

The visuals are exotic and make you wonder if it is set on a distant planet but no, it is set in a remote Japanese location but actually filmed in Hungary.

Through the most of the movie, set roughly 30 years into the future, we see Theo James as George Almore, after losing his wife in a horrific automobile accident, working alone on a project to produce a human-like robot. The various forms take on characteristics, and voice, of his wife who he still gets to talk to via an "archive" contraption. One robot get jealous, version #2, and almost sabotages the entire effort.

This is an interesting movie to watch for those of us who enjoy this theme, with certain similarities to "Ex Machina". We naturally wonder where all this will lead and the last 10 to 15 minutes flips everything on its side, giving a resolution that I didn't see coming. And to me it is a more interesting resolution.

I watched it on Amazon streaming movies, my wife skipped.

SPOILERS FOLLOW - As we watch the story unfold we take it for face value, however we eventually find out that his wife didn't die in the accident, George was the one who died and all we were seeing was his own final and fading dreams as his wife accesses him via the "archive."

... and thats probably partially true. Anyway if you enjoyed the seeting in Moon with Sam Rockwell and you aslo enjoy the "emotional awakening of AI" theme then I believe you will enjoy this one. It is very hard to express the difference from all those similar movies you have seen without spoilers so I wont go into plot any details. But it is different. The setup is very similar to ExMachina and the first half of the moive is a real slow burner. Beautiful shots and scenery but really nothing happens for a while. Then it starts to catch up in the second half. I was even emotinal for a bit for a robot, and no it wasnt the pretty female robot. All in all I recommend this movie to any sci-fi addict. Its more of an enomitional and visual ride so you should not expect any action here. What you can expect is beautiful cinematography, pretty good acting and a truly surprising twist at the end. Im not saying its flawless because it has some plot holes here and there but overall its one of the better movies of the AI awakening genre.

Yes it had a good/great look.

Yes, the acting was also good.

But the twist at the end, (which I didn't see coming) made the other sub plots 100% meaningless. (Poor J1 and J2) And on top of that, George was kind of a dick.

Made it hard to empathize or even like his character.

Not a bad movie, just a confusing one. Why distract us with the robot jealousy angle?

*EDIT: I just saw this a 2nd time. Knowing the ending made this an entirely different film - surprisingly in a good way. Sure the surprise wont be there, but seeing it again through a different perspective and knowing certain things, I picked up so many metaphors and clues! Thus I had to up my rating from 8/10 to 9/10. Brilliant film. See it again! ------------

I'm still trying to take it all in and absorb the finale. But, wow.

This is going to be one of those films that viewers either don't enjoy, or love. I was getting a little bored after the midway portion, and the slow pacing of the 109 min runtime really felt like the film was dragging its heels, but the satisfaction and reward towards the end made it all worthwhile, at least for me.

Take into account that the brilliant writing and on-point directing, is the first full length feature film by Gavin Rothery, with only one prior short film for this new filmmaker. So for putting such a high caliber, wonderfully vibrant and expertly captivating feature film debut, for this first-time filmmaker, much respect and mad props to him. Rothery is certainly a filmmaker with a ton of potential and one to watch.

It's not your typical sci-fi, as it had many layers, and creates an engrossing study of human frailty and obsession intertwined with AI. The cinematography was outstanding, with exceptional and gorgeously shot scenes, production-designed sets, and S/Vfx. The score was very fitting and really set the tone for the entire film. Theo James and the rest of the cast, nailed their characters.

Had this film's pace been a little faster, and/or 10-15 mins shaved off from the runtime, this film would've been perfect. I'll definitely be watching this one again, but only after the stunned feeling leaves my stomach. It's a well deserved 8/10 for this film and newb filmmaker from me. To see more of my 1000+ ratings and 900+ reviews, visit my profile.

The movie looks great, solid special effects, wonderful production quality, with very competent cinematography and editing. In 2020, this should be the expectation, and as with most film and television media made in 2020, the writing is the weakest link. Unlike many infamous examples in horrific writing seen in these mediums lately, this film is at least competently written. The issue is what story it's trying to tell, and how it's told.

There's a "twist" ending that actually works within the rules of the films universe, which shouldn't be high praise, but in 2020, it unfortunately is. The issue with the twist ending is that it undermines the entire journey the audience takes with the characters and plot. I won't ruin the twist, but it's on par with "and then (s)he wakes up." This writing device destroys the entire story, because none of it really mattered.

Another issue with the writing is the characters, and their character progression and growth. Again, given the twist ending, almost none of the characters we get to know really mattered. But, even disregarding the twist ending, there's another issue with the characters. When a robot with almost no visual human characteristics named J2 is your most sympathetic character, you've done something wrong.

Sure, it's an accomplishment they've written J2 to be the character the audience sympathizes with, and is the most invested in. The issue is, the film is Georges story, and once J2 exits the story, the audiences investment in the plots outcome drastically diminishes. Even J2 doesn't matter once the twist ending reveals itself, which only compounds the issue of the ending.

Even disregarding the twist ending, there's still another issue with the writing; what is it trying to say? What subject matter does it explore, and what issues and topics is it addressing? Besides just telling an interesting story, this is usually the primary focus of science fiction. To explore social issues in a setting that amplifies the subject it's examining. This is where the writing truly fails from similar science fiction films like Her and Ex Machina, because this film doesn't seem to have much to say at all.

I pretty much knew what was happening about half way there, but they made a very simple plot extremely confusing deliberately. Throwing in J1, J2 and J3 plus their personalities just made it look like the guy had multiple personalities. The confusion is not around what was happening, but why some of the things were happening. Was the Archive Company picking his brain? Why did J2 behaved as it did. What was the transfer? It just leaves you frustrated because you have no answers.

For sci-fi fans this movie will do the job. The plot is interesting, maybe not new but there is a nice twist to it, something I didn't see coming, and that made it a bit better than I expected. Don't expect a lot of action though, it's rather slow paced with barely any other actors than Theo James, who acted really well by the way. But the story is engaging, you keep watching it as you want to know what will happen. For that writer/director Gavin Rothery did a good job, the story is never boring and that even if it lacks of action scenes, the small cast and the quite monotone environment. Archive could have been worse but in the end I think sci-fi fans will like it.

The acting was good. The story was a good idea. The surprise ending, which was never ever evident during the film, was interesting, but having said that, trying to retrospectively review the movie from memory during the final credits in an attempt to place the surprise ending didn't work for me. I couldn't see how it was possible considering what was happening. Explains why the main character was all alone working on AI R&D.

I may have to watch it again, but I'm not jumping to the opportunity at this moment. At the moment I can only give this a 5 because it was so very slow paced, could have been 10-15 mins shorter... The movie was also very slow to take off at the start.

I watched it twice...the first time I missed so much of the symbolism and I had many questions.....until the end. The second time I was able to focus on what it all meant and the feelings and interactions of the characters. I don't usually watch sci-fi movies, but this is so much more...it is thought provoking.....grief, loss, humanity. Theo James is wonderful as George and Stacy Martin shines as J3.... Congratulations to all involved.

"Archive" was a very good but frustrating watch for me. I happen to be watching it with my daughter who is relatively fluent in Japanese...and she quickly recognized the Chinese character for 'Dream' and mentioned this....and this made the ending seem inevitable instead of a surprise. I think having these clues did not help the film and it would have been better without them.

The story is mostly a one-person tale about George, a genius at robotics who is desperately trying to make more and more real and sentient robots in order to eventually implant his dead wife's consciousness within it.

The story is very slow and somber....and the music and pacing of the film only accentuate this. Because of this, while I enjoyed the story, I also realize that it's NOT a film for everyone and won't hold up as well as some other films which are essentially monologues (such as the ultra-brilliant film "Moon"). Well worth seeing but certainly not for all tastes.

The film might have been a decent one if it weren't for the ending. I don't want to spoil anything, but basically in the end nothing happens. There is no closure, no reason for what has happened already, it just ends abruptly on a note that is part of a different song. The location is great, the style is very reminiscent of Moon (for which the director worked as a concept artist) and the play on building your own girlfriend in a remote location feels like taken from Ex Machina. But Moon was an extraordinary performance piece and an innovation at the time while Ex Machina tackled (realistically) real issues of artificial intelligence. It's not like Theo James played badly, it's that his character is bland and sometimes inconsistent in behavior and emotions.

Bottom line: movies written and directed by the same guy are either amazing or they flop. This one is a flop, unfortunately. Great visuals, but no story whatsoever.

Creatures from another sphere are the brainchild of George Almore, a wunderkind who lands a three-year experimental adventure in Japan to create robots. But there is a personal dimension to George's work that is a race against the clock to create the perfect form of artificial intelligence to house the essence of his wife whose life was taken in a tragic auto crash.

The filmmakers were successful in creating an environment that seemed appropriate for the dystopian world of the inventor. Some of the footage was spectacular of the waterfall and the winter scape where George was working.

On the negative side, the film's narrative was convoluted, and the flashback sequences were awkwardly inserted. Another flaw was the character of James himself, who seemed naive about his creation of the sentient beings. He never grasped that he was, like Dr. Frankenstein, endowing beings with consciousness who felt human emotions. Robots #s 1, 2, and 3 were all too endearing, and it was sad that George was not in touch with their feelings.

The film's big plot twist was also disappointing. It strained too much logic and the built-in premise of the film to pull the rug out from under the audience at the end. This film should be filed in the archive of an imaginative movie that never quite worked.

This is one of the best science-fiction movies I have ever seen. Some maybe won't agree with this but for me it was damn near perfect. It's definitely a slow movie but it has a great story and thought-provoking ideas to consider. A man who is an engineer in artificial intelligence has his life blown apart by the death of his wife, right after he lands the job of a lifetime. It follows his work in developing artificial intelligence in the wake of his wife's death.

Set in Japan, the main character is the only person who works in a facility devoted to researching and developing artificial intelligence. In the future, if a loved-one dies, a company called Archive can store that person's essence in a hard-drive like state but the remaining family only has a short time before the archive of their loved-one deteriorates completely. This company works to give people a chance to say goodbye to someone who died if they didn't get the chance to do so in life. There are fascinating implications that this brings up with life and death and what comes after. Our main character here has been working behind the back of the company he works for in order to insert his wife's essence into a new robotic body.

Along the way the engineer has completed two prototypes in his efforts to perfect the technology required to be with his wife once again. The first model is very child-like and doesn't have much of a human-like body. The second has arms and legs similar to a human and displays cognitive abilities of a teenage girl about 15 years old. As the development of the body for his wife progresses, the second prototype displays jealousy and resentment towards the engineers new interest in making a body to download his wife into. This brings about new issues as the engineer progresses closer to his goal.

I really enjoyed the characters of the first two prototypes and it really brings a depth to the story as a whole. The effects are great and the music score was enjoyable as well. The production was amazing all the way around. If you like science-fiction I think you will enjoy this movie. It brings up many thoughts to ponder on about existence and life. Give it a shot. I'm glad I did.