Archive

The Film With Real Models. There Are No CGIs

Movies Science Fiction Fantasy
109 min     6.229     2020     United Kingdom

Overview

The Archive is a British science fiction film written and directed by Gavin Rothery; it is his first major directorial work. He acted as a screenwriter and producer of the film.

The film's main character, a talented robotics engineer George Elmore (Theo James), lives in an old hard-to-reach base and is engaged in a specific project ordered by a large corporation. But George is working on completing other tasks that he hides from his superiors. The robotics company consists of four living beings: a dumb and armless hulking robot J1; a more advanced robot J2, which can dream, and in terms of intellectual development corresponds to a teenage girl; and even cooler robot J3, suspiciously similar to the deceased wife of George. But what kind of fourth living creature there is at the base, the viewer will find out later.

The Archive is worth a look, if only for the base design and the robots. Rothery built in Budapest a full-size model of this base, in which the bulk of the filming took place. As for robots, these are not CGIs, but real models, inside which there are real people. In the large J1 - designer Chris Schubert, in the smaller J2 - the former Cirque du Soleil artist Timaeus King Madai. Stacy Martin played J3.

Reviews

therapist wrote:
Initially I thought it was a movie about A.I. since it's a catchy word in tech these days. The movie moves in a slow pace and sometimes I felt a little bored, but the ending was nice. Soundtrack was great. The robots could use a little more CGI since you could clearly see it was a person behind them. I would rate the movie 7/10. It was entertaining.
Ahmad wrote:
Wow! It’s rare for a film to render me completely speechless, but this one did just that. “Archive” is a visually stunning and emotionally moving film. The set design is immersive and transports the viewer into the world of the story. Theo James delivers his best performance yet. The film does an excellent job of telling its story through visuals rather than relying on heavy dialogue, which adds to its impact. The little interactions with the robots were exceptional; I’ve never seen anything close to it on the main screen. The robot’s ability to convey such depth of emotion despite its lack of human facial characteristics is remarkable. Very few films do it so convincingly, so props to the director and the VFX crew. My major criticism is the film’s runtime. At times, the story feels drawn out, and a tighter, shorter runtime would have improved the overall pacing. Unfortunately, most people have missed the deeper layers in this film, as at least the ratings portray. Nevertheless, “Archive” is a must-see for fans of science fiction. ___ Rating: 7.0/10 (Good)

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