The 2009 science fiction film Moon lives in the DNA of the Archive, as writer-director Gavin Rothery worked on Duncan Jones’ debut as a production designer. Boxy robots J1 and J2, reminiscent of Gertie, draw at our heartstrings in this story of a scientist’s hubris and the search for sustainable, human-like artificial intelligence. The film is about man playing God in an effort to transfer a complete human consciousness into an android body and achieving immortality God strikes back, of course, in ways meant to surprise but which ultimately frustrate.
Archive begins with Dr. George Almore (Theo James), a handsome robotics engineer jogging in the forest around the remote corporate facility where he works on his research. His only companions are J1 and J2, each an evolutionary step forward to J3, which is a replication of his wife, Jules (Stacy Martin). In this future, technology exists that can store a human consciousness in an archive roughly the size of a monolith from 2001. This is only temporary, as the archive degenerates, but it gives the deceased the ability to settle matters with their loved ones. An old rotary phone has been mounted to the side, allowing for conversations, but Jules’ archive is beginning to get corrupted. George is in a race against time to finish J3 and get her operational before Jules passes on forever.
The corporation George works for also wants to know what they invested in. J1 and J2 are unimpressive at this point in their contract, so threats are being made from the top about closing him out and taking over the research. The old facility adds to the tension since aspects of it are always breaking down and it is impossible to know if an outside force is stalking him or if J2, a robot that stopped evolving around teenage years, is acting out of jealous malevolence. George’s ability to keep all these plates in the are until he gets what he wants forms the crux of the movie, but it’s not really a strong enough structure. Rothery is clearly in love with his film and its ability to examine notions of life, death and mankind’s potential for downloadable immortality, but the project buckles under the weight of its influences.
Odes to Blade Runner, Ex Machina and Black Mirror are evident throughout and make it seem like there are several movies going on here. Rothery tries to use time to iron out this lack of cohesion, ultimately conceiving an ending that lands unsatisfactorily. The script is the main disappointment in this visually beautiful film, its plodding nature at odds with its aesthetic. So much relies on George, and James does his best to humanize this complicated, abusive character that believes he’s the cause of his wife’s death. But he also wants his old life back, and is ignoring the dangers his upgraded Jules will face. She is technically a piece of corporate intellectual property that rivals are willing to go to war over. The possibilities of this resurrection going as he hopes are remote, leaving open the possibility that Jules will die again once the secrets of her construction are revealed. If anything the most human character in the whole film is J2, the robot that wants to loved as the more apparently human J3.
Ultimately, the lack of originality fails Rothery. At some point science fiction has to move past the trope of messy men building their dream women with the expectation of compliance or control. This is just one aspect of the puzzle box that is Archive, but it is the main one and limits the film’s potential. Perhaps the entire notion of the puzzle box should be jettisoned; when a movie ends you shouldn’t feel disappointed when the mystery is solved.
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