Android (1982)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Just remembering the good parts like Alien and Star Wars and Star Trek, we shouldn't forget the more dubious operators were putting stuff like this together.So the plot line is a made scientist and his android assistant are on a remote space station when three convicts bring a stolen ship to their location. Because neither the scientist or the android have seen a woman in some time, they all make plays for the female convict despite her awful dental work. In fact, most of the actors in this film have awful dental work.So after some boring slow action and a lot of character actions that make not a lick of sense, we get to the "shock" ending. Which makes no sense, either.

Writer Don Keith Opper couldn't get girls. Don wrote a play describing how he might get girls in space. Don somehow got funding for his idea. Sex sells and this is the kind of preteen garbage that you get. The dialog in the play is simplistic at best. The characters were one dimensional. Some reviewers talked about this film as another coming-of-age story, but I did not see it. Klaus Kinski was especially creepy and even though he got top billing, he was rarely in any of the scenes. I spent the entire movie trying to pinpoint Brie Howard's actual ethnic background. Avoid this one. Rent 2001: A Space Odyssey or read Playboy. This junior high play could have taken place in any 12 year old boy's bedroom.

What a nice surprise this was! It's a sin that it took me this long to see ANDROID, shot on Roger Corman sets, with CRITTERS series regular Don Opper as an android due for destruction once his creator(the man, the myth, the legend, Klaus Kinski)is able to successfully complete a new model, female Cassandra. On board a space station, Dr. Daniel(Kinski) is told his project would no longer be funded. This space station is the setting for the film as Max 400(Opper)so badly wants to go to Earth and experience the culture he has only seen through video and heard from audio, presented on computer screens. Max's life will never be the same when three prisoners hi-jack their space ship, arriving badly damaged to the space station, hoping to make repairs and rest for a little while. Max meets Maggie(Brie Howard), a tough female prisoner, finally introduced to an earthling woman, and, perhaps, sex. But, along with Maggie, are the menacing, unhinged Mendes(Crofton Hardester) and his oft-abused partner Keller(Norbert Weisser). Working with very little budget, I think ANDROID is an amazing example of creativity and imagination. First, while simple in it's execution, the story I found surprisingly fascinating, focusing on how an android evolves thanks in part to human contact, and the desire, despite having programming, to understand what it is like to be homosapien. I liked the fact that he's not just an emotionless robot with human features, but has certain emotive abilities, and yearns for the human experience. Like ANDROID's director mentions in the audio commentary, Max is very much a Pinnochio, in that he wishes to be human, and upon discovering Daniel's decision to terminate him, we sympathize with the android. I think we all know that once those prisoners board the station, tragedy is inevitable. Mendes is a hothead who can not contain his aggressive tendencies, demanding Maggie's "services". Maggie, while masculine in ways(I think this is essential when held prisoner with male convicts), is still susceptible to Mendes' control. Keller tries to keep Mendes in check, but is weaker and often helpless to stop him from explosive moments of anger. Kendra Kirchner is stunning as the female android Kinski's scientist is perfecting, Cassandra, a striking presence, tall with long, blond hair. Kirchner has the look of a beautiful creation, modeled from an obsessive scientist's particular fantasy. Opper, I thought, was a revelation(a far cry from his eccentric local yokel in the CRITTERS movies)as the android, his various reactions to the humans and how he responds to Maggie, especially, I felt provides some of the film's best scenes. Of course, Kinski(probably really only in it a total of ten or so minutes)is compelling as always, speaking very little, but expressing much more with his eyes, especially when his scientist "observes" Maggie and Cassandra. The special effects are small scale and dated, but I think pretty decent for the minuscule budget the filmmakers were given. I would say that ANDROID, thanks to the Anchor Bay release, has potential for rediscovery..it's a bit different than what you are accustomed to in regards to a Roger Corman type of sci-fi movie, which, truth be told, may be a good thing.

This movie was made on a negligable budget on the set of a bigger budget movie, in the short time between the end of filming and set tear-down. It relies not on special effects but on good writing and acting, with the script quickly worked to match the constraints of the set. Like other kinds of art, part of the strength of this sort of movie can come from how it overcomes the constraints of the form. Here the story is subtle with a few clever twists and turns, and touches on serious intellectual issues like what it means to be human, the nature of free will and choice, good and evil in the face of the posthuman malleable notion of self, and (the actors relished this) how we should face a tradeoff between being likable and being competent. It touches some of the same themes as "Blade Runner", like how morality shifts when our creations cross the boundary between being tools and being people. Highly recommended.