A little over a decade ago, Timur Bekmambetov, Kazakh multihyphenate, produced an effective, canny horror film called Unfriended. The high concept was that all the action took place on the same laptop screen, conveyed by email, social media and telecommunications apps.
Bekmambetov now over-reaches with a social satire (I guess) concerning a man trapped within an AI service that, under certain extreme conditions, stands in for trial, judge, jury and executioner.
Chris Pratt stars as the hilariously named Detective Chris Raven, accused of murdering his wife but unable to avail of a traditional defence. Throughout most of the film, he is strapped into a chair that faces a screen much occupied by Rebecca Ferguson as a malign virtual arbiter. Judge Siri? Lord Chief Justice Alexa? If she (it?) finds him guilty, he will suffer immediate annihilation.
The film is not quite so claustrophobic as that makes it sound. In this version of 2029 (like the real version of 2026), the citizens of Los Angeles find themselves under constant video surveillance. The RebeccaBot is, therefore, able to assemble a montage of action that takes us through the often-hectic events leading up to our hero’s arrest. “This city’s municipal cloud is at your disposal – every camera, cell phone and database,” she says. “If you are innocent, prove it.”
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Chris was a recovering alcoholic who, on the evidence, seems to have slipped into violent relapse before committing the crime. We see him in a bar fight. We hear about anomalies at his wife’s workplace. He connects with a colleague who does some live legwork.
For all that flash and bash, it does feel as if we spend a lot of time staring at Chris Pratt looking worried and a Rebecca Ferguson increasingly bored of sounding increasingly boring. Too much dialogue plays like a conversation with an automated phone service only marginally more animated than the one that fails to direct you to customer services.
The film-makers have picked a good time to satirise US justice and the rise of artificial intelligence, but there are no insights on screen that you won’t expect from speed-watching the trailer (or speed-reading this review). If this worst-case scenario does yet happen, it will surely not turn out quite so boringly.
In cinemas from Friday, January 23rd
