Uncanny (2015)

Absolutely brilliant

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I found the whole movie unbelievably funny. Everything that occurred in it is pretty much a joke due to how it ends. And I'm not talking about the super ridiculous after credits ending, no, THAT is straight out of Saturday Night Live. Basically I found this whole affair progressively more funny until the end when it just admits that the whole thing is a joke. Which is great. It's all a big joke and I laughed my a** off at points. I was particularly fond of the scene in which Rain Wilson's character mentions having the footage and offering to send it to the person on the other end of the phone call.... I just busted out at the point...Anyway, its good for what it is. And if you can accept that it is in fact funny you'll enjoy it even more.

Mind boggling! In the sense that it's so difficult to imagine, but the unforeseen twist near the end explains so much. This is a film I will definitely recommend and can talk at great length about. But there is so much I cannot say, so as to not ruin your experience. So I will tell you what little I can.David is a young man, a genius, and he has been cooped up in a huge workshop environment. This is where he works on constructing robotics, bionics and where he generates scientific research. Ground breaking research. So it comes as no surprise that this is a man with many secrets. And there are few which are not his to share. He is working for Castle, an enigmatic figure who has offered David this opportunity to create anything, with anything.David is not alone at this workshop, for he has someone with him: Adam. He is a strange man, but is he man at all? No, for he's David's creation- a robot. They get along well: David and Adam, like brothers. But then their relationship becomes strained, marked by the arrival of an intelligent, beautiful young woman: Joy Andrews. What happens then? Can a robot feel anything? Can a robot become human? Believe it or not, I have not revealed the whole film. There are more intelligently crafted surprises this film has to offer.I am not exaggerating when I declare this film was 'intelligently crafted', if anything that is an understatement. It's just that when the big secret was revealed, so much was explained. All that stuff I barely noticed, all those strange occurrences, it was a jigsaw missing a vital piece. And at the end, everything slotted into place. This film was so well though out, and so brilliantly put together.Also, I especially liked the acting, just as well as the dialogue. David Clayton Rogers, who plays Adam, was brilliant and his dialogue was especially passionate and at times, quite inspiring. And to think there are only four characters in this film and only really two locations. Amazing! It had me thinking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, at some points. Is the creator and the creation one and the same? Is the creation an illusion?

Make sure you watch with attention, and to the very end, and oh, do you make it a habit of watching through the credits? This film will leave you speechless! If you love SF and want to see something new, something not done quite like this before, you're at the right place! The actors did an amazing job as well, very very convincing. ;) For example, I didn't like the way one of the characters treated the AI. So what if he was a robot, wouldn't he have benefited more if she didn't treat him like one? Like with children with disabilities, I always treat them as I treat the children without. As much as possible. They benefit from this approach way more and it just feels better! So I would treat an AI like this one as a human too. I liked him more than the inventor from the start. I was fascinated imagining he was real (like in real life lol). He was handsomer too. :D If you watch attentively, you will notice some hints that will lave you wondering. But I have to admit, I totally fell a victim to the illusion. Until that one revealing scene at the end, I just couldn't believe it! :D And then that final, very last scene, like how!!?? That is just not possible lol. But it is. B-) What a brilliant movie! If you search the film later you might find some possible explanations on things you missed noticing. Or visit the film's social media page. I read an interview where the director says its more a movie for the tech-savvy, but Im not and didn't feel like it was. But it felt real and the fact that those are facts (lol) made it even more real I guess. This film is a true refreshment in the world of SF and it's a 10/10 from me!!! And th eEx-Machina everyone keeps blabbing about? Pffft, this movie is far better!

That Matthew Leutwyler's sci-fi chamber piece "Uncanny" was made 3 years before Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" is interesting. That Leutwyler made his film for a fraction of Garland's budget is admirable. That Leutwyler's plot doesn't make a lick of sense is a shame.Seriously, what was the point?"Uncanny" and "Ex Machina" share similar story lines: an outsider is invited into the high-security lair of a reclusive genius in order to interact with and evaluate a new form of artificial intelligence. In each case, the outsider and the AI are of different genders and the reclusive genius has an agenda. Predictable consequences ensue. But where "Ex Machina" follows these events to their logical conclusion, "Uncanny" gives up on logic entirely for the sake of a surprise ending that a) isn't much of a surprise and b) negates almost everything that happened over the preceding 80 minutes.On paper, the movie was probably conceived to be an insightful meditation on what makes humans humane and robots less so. Thrown in for good measure are some thoughts on what can and can't be controlled in sentient beings and whether we as a race are innovating and engineering ourselves right into obsolescence. There's also a bit about masters and servants and which are which. All big, important ideas that Garland's film handles with much more style and intelligence. Still, it wasn't "Ex Machina" I thought about as I watched the film. What came to mind more was "Frankenstein." The book, not the movie. In the book, there's a relationship between the creator and his creation. They're in this together in the name of science and discovery. But that relationship sours when Dr. Frankenstein rejects the monster to be with his fiancée. I'm paraphrasing here, but that's the gist. "Uncanny" seemed to be moving in a similar direction. Actually, the movie was moving in exactly that direction. There was even the interesting possibility that roles were being reversed.Then came the final cryptic ten minutes and it all turned out to be a huge waste of time. Adding insult to injury, there's an end-credits scene so nonsensical it's laugh-out-loud funny. Not, I'm guessing, what the filmmakers intended."Uncanny" isn't a bad movie, it's a bad story. The cinematography is fine (though the lingering shots of Shiva, the Destroyer, are a bit overly), the acting is adequate (if you don't mind watching Rainn Wilson, in a mercifully short cameo, chew scenery), and events move along at a fairly brisk pace. It's just that those events simply don't add up when you get to the end. Note: One question bothered me as I watched both "Uncanny" and "Ex Machina". Why, why, why—if you're going to build a creature and make it both smarter and stronger than yourself—why wouldn't you include an "off" switch?