Automatons

It's not for everyone - it's odd and experimental - but if you're a fan of Guy Maddin or early David Lynch, this film is for you. It's B & W. I loved 'Automatons'.

I saw it as part of an all-night sci-fi marathon which is probably not the best venue for this film. I know that any unknown film would be harshly judged by the mob rule of three hundred, irritable, over-tired nerds. They probably hated it.

Look at all of the positive reviews this film got through the mainstream press and movie reviewers. They are NOT all friends of the filmmaker. It had an enjoyable Twilight Zone 50's feel. Thanks Monsterpants DOT com.

The title should have given it away. This is really just a waste of time, not worth for anybody to bother to watch.

The earlier reviewer is right; any comparisons to Guy Maddin or David Lynch are just ludicrous.

If the maker had a sense of humour, it might have had a chance to land in the "so bad it's good" category but, alas, such is not the case.

The "robots" are nowhere near as endearing as the Daleks on Dr. Who. The FX are one notch above toy spaceships on strings. The acting and script are pitiful. The plot is threadbare. The direction is a bad Ed Wood imitation.

Watch paint dry or something instead.

the most uncreative garbage I've ever seen. i don't care how much money was spent on a film - a good story is a good story. this didn't even HAVE a story.

i watched the making of documentary included on the DVD, just to get a feel for WHAT THE HELL THEY WERE THINKING when making this. turns out: not much! a group of stereotypical jocks in their mid 30s decide to make a movie. they want to make it about robots! and it has to have fighting! they wrote the "script" about 10 minutes before the actors say the lines. they make fun of one of the actors to his face cause he has a nerdy hair cut, and the actor is obviously uncomfortable. they have no opinion about how the actors deliver the lines, and are more interested in drinking coors light and dumping gloves full of sweat (the robot costumes were hot) on their friend's heads after seeing behind the scenes, the film (lol) itself makes a lot more sense. a bunch of talentless dumbasses making a really bad sub-home movie grade short film (maybe 15 minutes of content total) and padding it out with 70 minutes of filler.

only see this if you are a masochist with an acute need to have your intelligence insulted

Shot B/W (although its not film --edit, my mistake, its 8mm) with early '50s styled robots and mid '80s style gore. If the filmmaker had a sense of humor, this could have been good campy fun. But instead a tired message is presented over a nonexistent plot with little dialog. You end up with more than an hour of walking and (occasionally) fighting '50s robots, and about 20 minutes of actual plot delivering movie.

Even if your a movie junkie who has seen everything, skip this. Its not awful, but it is bad and you wont gain anything from it. Comments relating it to Guy Maddin or Rod Serling's Twighlight Zone series are crazy. Even worse is the connection to David Lynch - completely unwarranted.

Skip it, or waste 1.5 hours.

I will never cease to be amazed at the kind of people that come on here at IMDb for the sole purpose of pissing all over a type of film that they wouldn't like anyway, saying that it is 'A waste of time' or 'Garbage' This is ESPECIALLY true for odd or offbeat Cult films or a particular Genre that the person doesn't even like anyway! What the HELL is the point. I know I've 'said' this before but as an excellent example I personally cannot stand Torture Porn films, BUT, you will NOT see me come on here at IMDb and specifically trash films like 'SAW' & 'HOSTEL' Why...? BECAUSE I DON'T FRIGG'N LIKE THOSE KIND OF FILMS, PERIOD! So, why would I be so stupid and pointless to come here just to write a horrible review of these kinds of films? Will that be of any help at all to people who DO happen to like those kind of films or will it help them to know how well these are done or how entertaining they would be to people who ARE fans of this kind of movie???

Uh... NO...

So, my long-winded point being that it is painfully OBVIOUS that this is an extremely offbeat and unusual film, just in the way it was made. I mean, we're not quite talking about Gerry Anderson's 'THUNDERBIRDS' exactly; it's not a puppet show or anything like that, BUT... and it is a BIG BUT like Mariah Carey's... the film makers who went through all this bloody time and trouble CLEARLY have a deep affection for this type of movie. DUH...!!! All you have to do is watch the absolutely WONDERFUL extras and you will see that. These guys went through A LOT of pain and trouble just to get this bugger made.

It's kinda like what I consider to be some of the excruciatingly CORNY Sci Fi films made in the 1950's (with the exception of the excellent 'FORBIDDEN PLANET' of course! GEEZ, have you seen the new Remastered Blu-ray of FP...? It's so gorgeous I promise you that it will make you cry and have to change your pants at the same time!) Anyway, sorry... But, there are a hell of a lot of people who just adore the most corny films made at that time because they have a personal affection for them; whereas a lot of the rest of us would quite literally be in serious, physical pain if we had to sit through some of them (NOT that I mind a strong CHEEEEEZ factor now and then, but some of these are just pain BAD!) But to THOSE people who love these films, it is a different story.

So it is sort of like that with this one; these people very painstakingly and lovingly made this film and created this quite surprisingly Surreal and apocalyptic vision of the future, clearly with next to NO budget at all. What I absolutely LOVE about this movie is that it is taken DEADLY serious! Not a shred or ghost of a smirk anywhere to be found. Although, when you watch the extras (which I WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend if you are a movie maker or true move lover at all) you will see that they had a frigg'n BLAST making this thing! Also, since they clearly had an extremely limited budget, I personally felt that they were brilliant in coming up with not only ways to create the effects, but also the ingenious way in which they processed the photography to give it a very Surreal and quite creative look, considering what they had to work with.

So, if you are the kind of person who can totally get into this kind of film and just enjoy it for what it is, then it is absolutely great! I warn you though that you WILL have to be quite forgiving with the life-sized robots; they're pretty silly looking... But, if you are like some of these other nay-sayers here who look at the production values and think it's just crap, or homemade, then NO, you will absolutely NOT like it.

I personally found it to be completely fascinating and somehow in a way that I truly cannot explain, it REALLY grabbed me by the nuts and pulled me completely into the world that they created. Then afterward, watching the 'making of' and the 'extras' just made me fall in love with it all the more...