AUTÓMATA Trailer

Antonio Banderas surprises the world by taking the leap from perpetual Latin lover to science fiction bad-ass, who’d have thought!

In Autómata, Earth’s ecosystem is about to collapse. Man-made robots protect the lives of the people still alive, but when one of these robots overrides a key protocol (that protects human life), Jacq Vaucan (Banderas), a Blade Runner-type figure, is ordered to locate the robot and eliminate it. He discovers something profound, which leads him, the Robotics and the police into a battle that can have severe consequences for humanity’s future.

Autómata also stars Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Melanie Griffith and Dylan McDermott, as well as Javier Bardem, who voiced the Blue Robot.

Well, that certainly does look promising! I love how dark and gritty the film looks – it certainly gets the feel of a dystopian world across – and the special effects look wonderful. And doesn’t Banderas look great?

It looks like they used Isaac Asimov‘s Three Laws Of Robotics, which were a unifying theme for all his robot-themed books (among them the adapted I, Robot). However, although Autómata seems to be inspired by the laws, it’s not exactly an adaptation of any of his works.

The robots look creepy enough; they have been stylized to look humanoid, but not too much so. If the theme is going to be the discussion of the possibility of consciousness or soul of robots, I wonder if their looks will suspend disbelieve, or cause it. After all, in Battlestar Galactica, what suspended disbelief in the Cylons having souls was that they literally looked human. Hopefully, the robots’ actions will tell.

Gabe Ibáñez is probably a name unknown to most – it was for me. Autómata is only the Spanish director’s second feature-length film (his first being the 2009 thriller Hierro) and his first English-language film.

All in all, I’m very eager to see Autómata, the trailer looks very promising. I’m hoping their relative inexperience with science fiction won’t cause a problem – the sci-fi genre is a delicate one, after all: the symbolism of a future world as well as the discussion of consciousness and soul can be an pose a huge pitfall, if not handled properly. Let’s hope they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot.

For now, though, I’ll just patiently anticipate the release of Autómata, which is scheduled for limited release in the U.S.A. on October 10, 2014. For other release dates around the world, check here.

What are your thoughts about Autómata? Share in the comments below!

(top image source: Autómata – Eagle Films/Future Films)