I noticed that many reviewers associated this film with "Blade Runner" and "I,Robot". Some similarity in the image of the future and of the robots really exists here. But in fact it's not important at all for this film. The concept and the story of this film are far original than the visual effects. The title "Automata" means mechanical dolls mainly made for fun, to entertain the privileged in Europe when democratic system was unimaginable. "Robot" is neologism made by the Czech writer Karel Capek in his play "R.U.R."'(1920), where artificial human-like machines are use all over the world as universal and cheap labor forces. In the play (and in all the films with "robots" borrowing its concept from Capek's play) "robots" are like slaves, tend to overthrow the human control,want to be free, so their violence against human makes a dramatic turning point in those films. By removing all "scientific" details, their plot will not so much different from that of Eisenstein's "Strike" (or Griffith's "The Birth of Nation" if seen from "masters' point of view"). In "Automata" the plot develops in other context; those "automata" don't look like slaves. They rather look like products of awkward and unsuccessful human attempt to make "human-like" machines, as automata before 20-th century. They are not revolutionaries, they have no reason for that, if humans don't interfere their "natural" evolution. They can live without destroying the decaying city where Jacq Vaucan and other characters must live unwillingly to avoid radiation. Violence is made by humans. Many audience maybe don't have sympathy for Jacq who shows compassion for Cleo, but probably have more sympathy for Cleo.Designs of "automata" are (most likely, intentionally) old-fashioned, awkward but somehow reminding hand-maid dolls. Human hands made them with soul, so they received it from human and began to live a real life. Have you ever seen any films with similar concept of "automata". I have. It's "Ghost in the Shell 2" by Oshii Mamoru. While Oshii's film was still partly following plot of a detective hunting "rebel" androids like "Blade Runner", this film is almost completely free from human-centered plot. The last shot of sea is, of course, not real. It's a metaphor of LIFE.

This is a very well-put together movie despite being somewhat low budget. Acting is solid and the actors are well-cast. The only problem is that we've kind of seen this story before, which makes it a bit predictable. The pacing is also a bit slow, which is fine, actually, but this is kind of a mystery/thriller and it doesn't pack quite enough energy as it could. Very much worth watching though.

There is nothing about this film that is worth watching. It starts out somewhat promising, but simply doesn't deliver any sort of satisfying result. The acting feels forced, and the story bogs down in the middle and frustratingly so. Just when things do pick up and there is a promising ending to the film, it brings in several aspects of the story that simply do not tie together. I would not have bothered with rating this film, but I decided to watch it based on the high review number, and I can't let it go.

It's one of those movies that should have gotten more attention but due to the trailer and time of release it never made it through the shroud. It's hard to think that this movie only had a 7 million $ budget, The acting is on point the visual effects are in my opinion better than some of the super high budget movies that were released during the same time. What i love about this movie is how dark it is, i'm a fan of dystopian future movies and i have to say this is one of the better ones i've seen in a very long time, Sure it's not as good as the best such as 1984, Metropolis and v for vendetta but it deserves more attention and a solid place in the Dystopian/Dark futuristic movies. To note: I've encountered this many times people who only look at the User rating and if it's bellow lets say 7 it automatically is a "BAD" movie. DON'T be Like those people! Solid 8/10.