Eva

A Febiofest screening of this 12 Goya Awards nominated film (with 3 minor wins, includes a BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR win for Lluís Homar, an interesting pick, and a NEW DIRECTOR win for Kike Maíllo), a so-called robot drama has its own glossy moments with a snazzy demeanor of the artificial intelligence simulation gambits (from an engrossing opening credit, an extremely cute robot cat, an efficient robo-servant, Mr. Homar it is, with an adjustable intelligence range). But a prototype of sentimental love triangle gives away its cheeky bathos, eventually all the zeal gathered in the first half falls flat, noticeably with an unexplained motivation of Adam's escape from the previous scientific project. So all the rekindled chemistry is just as willful and affected as some TV-drama schlock.

How the director tackles with the intriguing human Vs. machine topic? A father-daughter affinity is equivocally evocative and claimed to be the best the whole team behind could conspire. With a cutting-edge technology advance located in the unknown future, the film itself is clearly outdated with a least-favored 1990's narcissism in its histrionic screenplay.

The opening sequence has betrayed the imminent repercussion in an unwise way, the so-called secrecy of the film has been hinted several times and brainily doubted in a bathtub scene, which could be the only spark in the plot. The cast is doing well considering nothing extraordinary is laid there, with regard to Homar's winning, a career-achievement accomplishment is the only reasonable speculation by far.

A tangible moment arrives when David Bowie's Space Oddity which is thrillingly fitting for the whole scenery being played during a bar scene, after that, the film leaps into an abyss of sloppiness and bereft of novelty and it's a point of no return.

This movie is a European take on artificial intelligence- less action, more interaction.

I found the special effects in this film beautiful and mesmerizing, just enough to engage the imagination in terms of what a robot could and should be and do...

There are two plots- one is that a software engineer is trying to design the perfect robot for entertainment that is free (can do what it wants) and is looking for inspiration in a girl he meets called Eva, the other is that this software engineer is coming back to an awkward situation involving his brother and an ex-girlfriend of his, whom he worked with. Despite other reviews I found it quite well done how both plots intertwined.

As an audio professional I found some sound parts of the film difficult to stomach, especially the party scene where slow-dancing and speaking at the same time-here rough cuts are clearly audible and it's enough to take away from the great use of David Bowie's music in this scene, a real shame.

Beyond that thought I was very impressed with Brühl, that quatri-lingual dreamboat, whom I have until now only seen on German films. It's rare to find somebody who can master and work in fluency. He's definitely found a new fan in me.

Gorgeous Spanish fairytale set in a realistic not too distant future. Eva sees a robot programmer return to his hometown so he can help program a robot child. First he needs to find inspiration from children in the area.After finding the majority to be boring he comes across a young girl named Eva who just happens to be the daughter of his ex-love. Eva fascinates him and he soon begins research so that a robot can take on her personality, but will her characteristics translate well into the robot world? Eva is a film that remains quiet. It knows its ideas and themes are fascinating and so it underplays them and lets your imagination run away with your own ideas. This is expressed best of all when we are first introduced to the world. There is no huge fanfare or showing off. The robots merely exist in the world with the humans. We first get a glimpse of this when Daniel Bruhl returns home and is followed by a robotic cat. The emotions that are present throughout are truly moving as it asks, in typical robot/man fashion, what it is to be human and can science go too far? Bruhl is a wonderful lead, who clearly gets across his fascination with robots, but also his frustration with them. He really does fail to make the most of his gift, but maybe that is for the best. The cinematography is gorgeous, with Eva's red coat constantly standing out from the snow swept landscapes. An enjoyable and thought provoking drama.

Watching this reminds me of the Isaac Asimov robot stories because it feels like the world his stories were set in. There's even an allusion to the Asimov laws of robotics by stating that robots have to pass a safety test and the cat is illegal because it has free will. The effects are well done and the interactions look believable. The animation physics are slightly wrong in a couple scenes but nothing major.

My main problem with the movie is that there isn't enough character development which makes the motives a little ambiguous. The main plot lines are tied up by the end but there's obviously more going on than is ever told. I get just enough to want to know more and that is frustrating.

The sci-fi is light enough that I would probably recommend this to anyone even if they would normally skip anything sci-fi.

Eva is an amazing story about Artificial Intelligence and technology.

The future it takes place in is not so far away, as we already made huge progress in artificial intelligence.

It's a wonderful story of a little girl who assist a guy who design intelligent robots.

The landscape is beautiful, the storyline is perfect, and the suspense is kept until the end.

And at the end, you know that...

Well, watch the film for a huge surprise ! :)

This movie can be watch by anybody in the family, to daughter to grandma.

It's a good idea of where the technology will take us, without being dramatic as Terminator.