A. I. Tales

A promising anthology, consisting of four shorts. Short stories have to be about the idea, but when the execution delays not only the twist, but also the idea, to a reveal at the end, then it could become a problem. Action works so much better than drama to get the story going, as the viewer needs a reason to care about the characters, fast. Segments Seed (2016) and IN/FINITE (2017) fall for that trap, by showing drama with people we're not invested in yet. Phoenix 9 (2014) is the best of the stories, with less drama and more action, and a dilemma ending. The last segment, Redux (2015), is too short even for a short. Like someone shredded half the script - So many unanswered plot points prevent to make this a memorable story. Even famous face Eric Roberts can't save that. The sci-fi is light for the most part. The A.I. from the title wasn't the connecting element though, and plays no central role, so I found that to be a little misleading.

While I will agree that there is NO "AI" stories, there are some thought-provoking and well acted short films. Some reviewers may have the incorrectly thought that these tales were somehow interconnected, that is not the case. Each story stands on its own in its own universe. The first film is a little head-scratch inducing, but plow through! 2nd story was a great character piece with a THUMP at the end. 3rd film made me angry as the REAL story starts where the film leaves off, (but I think that is fantastic!) 4th film begs for a deeper dive in to the universe it creates in the shortest run time of them all. Impressive, if you ask me, to create a world you desperately want to explore and do so in only a few minutes.

If you want to see real reviews for this, go look up AI tales which is what this was originally called. None of these stories go anywhere, and every single one of them stops right when you would actually want it to start. The last one especially was honestly the worst acting and writing I have just about ever experienced in all my years. And if you check my profile I've been here a really really long time. Just skip it.

All five stories are well written, well acted, and engaging.

I won't go into what they are, but I will say that most of them end on a speculative note.

Since each story is under a half hour long, most dump you right into the middle of the story and you have to figure out what's going on. That's not a bad thing.

Each is titled with a year and a two word title.

They are all good, and as recent Sci-Fi goes, they better than average.

I've giving it one additional star to counter the one mixed review and the one bad review.

DO NOT watch this movie. It is the worst movie i have seen in years.