By Jack Ransom September 3, 2024
A.I. is now far more frightening a reality than a distant future in our current society. With it having infiltrated art, politics (artificially rendered images of celebrities endorsing certain political parties) and the devices in our hands being able to have full conversations with us. Films have been tapping into this fear for decades: '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'The Terminator' franchise, 'I, Robot' and last year’s M3GAN. 'Subservience' borrows from all of these aforementioned features (especially M3GAN) and delivers a perfectly watchable yet ultimately unremarkable 90 or so minutes.
Synopsis
'Subservience' follows a struggling father (Michele Morrone) who purchases a domestic SIM called Alice (Megan Fox) to help care for his house and family, unaware she will gain awareness and turn deadly.
Review
'Subservience' is a surprisingly slow-burner, that spends a lot of time with the family as they cope with illness (Maggie - the mother is waiting on heart transplant surgery) and job instability (Nick - the father, is under threat from SIM’s replacing workers). These characters are engaging enough, but the screenplay is bare bones and is host to a swathe of clichés, clunky and corny beats.
What I did appreciate was the smatterings of world building and the very foreseeable future of the SIMS working as surgeons (with no mouths to prevent talking as a distraction), construction workers, bar staff and full time child carers (the scene where all of them freeze and stare at Alice when she pushes her protocol limit is great and showcases just how easily they blended in before the robotic rules kicked in). Visually the film does look very DTV, but its glossy, synthetic nature and dabblings of CGI do work for it, there are also some nice shots throughout ('Casablanca' reflecting on Alice’s eye being a highlight). When she inevitably goes T-1000, there is some solid practical destruction and decently choreographed beatdowns. Director S.K. Dale knows how to ratchet up a decent string of tense encounters ('Till Death' - also starring Fox, is a gem).
Fox is genuinely convincing as Alice. Her rigid, unblinking demeanour, unique face, composed line delivery and tinge of creepy intimidation and is well portrayed. Unfortunately Michele Morrone’s performance is not as convincing and his character is essentially a checkbox of stressed out father traits and tropes and Madeline Zima’s Maggie nails the instantaneous suspicion and anger towards Alice as she fears her mother role being replaced.
'Subservience' is a decent if derivative feature that you certainly will compare to other films that have executed these ideas prior. However, it’s worth checking out for Fox’s performance, the surprisingly engaging family drama and smatterings of world building that are believable enough that they make you think there’s a chance the SIMtegration will no doubt potentially come to fruition in the real world in the future. It does drag a little even with the short duration and certain plot points do raise eyebrows, but it’s worth a viewing.
Star Rating
Available on EST September 13 and TVOD Sep 20
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