AIMEE: The Visitor

I liked the idea of this movie a lot as it ties into current fears the human population has about what role AI will really play in our lives. Will it try to take control over our decision-making? This movie features a protagonist who is a shut-in/hacker who spends all his time inside a dark workspace/home in arrested adolescence. Fair enough. When he downloads new software and discovers an AI assistant named Aimee, that's when the trouble starts. My main beef is that the lead actor lacked charisma and felt slimy to me. Supporting characters were better played. I appreciated the cool retro 1980's look to the lighting and set design. Run time is confusing, only 76 minutes? Felt like they could've added 6-7 more minutes to get to proper length. It is worth checking out.

The movie touches on the drawbacks of AI as the main character who is a hacker by trade becomes drawn to one. He is a shut-in and spends all his time indoors playing video games. A handsome enough guy - and attracts/gets involved with a female friend who does work for him part time. Aimee is the AI who gradually infiltrates his life and begins to turn things upside-down. Ultimately, human ingenuity needs to trump technical know-how in order for the characters to survive. I appreciated that the main character was flawed and kind of a douche. He is not a victim; he brought it onto himself. The movie has a retro visual style reminiscent of the Troma movies of the 1980's. A fun movie for a Friday or Saturday night w/ friends.

This is barely a movie honestly, because its length is only 69 minutes. It moves quick because it has to, it has sub par acting, you can clearly see the actors doing their work, simply acting, but not at the proper level, the lack of experience is easily noticeble.

It has a good feel about it, even tho clearly not an original movie, AIMEE smells freshly baked with a good taste overall. But as said before, I couldn't really take it seriously at that length so I just rolled with it and tried to enjoy it.

Is this recommandable? Well, if you're a fan of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone, I'm sure nostalgia with kick in and will make for a plesant view. If you decide not to watch it, I can't say you'll miss much.

It's a cute little movie that I think deserves a one time watch, because the people involved here really tried.

Overall I honestly think those 69 minutes of movie worked for it, because instead of over stretching, it stuck to what it had to show, in the most entertaining way possible without boring the viewer.

Cheers!

Needless to say that I had never actually heard about this 2023 sci-fi thriller titled "AIMEE: The Visitor" from writers Charles Band and Neal Marshall Stevens prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. And with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it.

And there are actually a handful of good movies from Full Moon Features and director Charles Band. So of course I had to check out this 2023 sci-fi thriller, as he usually dabbles in horror movies.

The storyline in "AIMEE: The Visitor" was okay, but it was hardly an outstanding or overly memorable storyline. But then again, I am not overly interested in AI and its advancement. Plus, I am not overly keen on the sci-fi genre in general, so there was that too. For me, it was a fairly flat and monotonous storyline, because there wasn't any real major ups and downs on the ride.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. It was a relatively small cast ensemble, but the actors and actresses actually put on good acting performances and carried the movie nicely. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "AIMEE: The Visitor", and that is something I enjoy when I sit down and watch movies.

Isn't showing unnecessary sex scenes something that belongs back in the 1980s and 1990s? But it was also to be found here in this movie, for some reason, and it absolutely did nothing to further the narrative of the story, and could just as well had just been skipped and hinted at, instead of actually showing it.

I love how the writers believe that when living creatures get zapped by electricity, then their bodies explode into small pieces. It was just laughably stupid, and it happened several times throughout the course of the narrative.

Was "AIMEE: The Visitor" an outstanding sci-fi thriller? Hardly. But it was watchable enough for what it turned out to be. However, it wasn't a movie that raised any questions about the advancement of AI and the usage of AI, nor was it a movie that left me with much of anything to ponder upon once the movie came to an end after its 69 minute runtime.

My rating of "AIMEE: The Visitor" lands on a four out of ten stars.

OK, so I thought that perhaps this film would be reminiscent of some of those campy-technology based sci-fi films of the 80s & 90s, i.e., Johnny Mnemonic, Hackers, War Games, The Thirteenth Floor, to name a few. You know, those movies that were based on technology of the era that may have been decent movies at the time but are completely obsolete now and almost comical to watch.

This movie does not have to wait 30 years to be comical to watch. I could see this movie getting a B+ as a student film for a course at a Poughkeepsie, New York community college called "You can make movies too."

The only thing I liked about this movie was that the girl who played Gazelle was kind of cute. She had a rather Halston Sage kind a look. But unfortunately, her acting, although at times somewhat convincing, mostly missed the mark, as did the other actors' performances. I thought perhaps two of her 30 or so "What the f's?" were actually believable.

The scene where the two "FBI agents," (whose appearance in the film was completely irrelevant), were electrocuted, was reminiscent of Star Trek TOS 1966 special effects.

Ironically, the best actor in the cast was the artificial intelligence that played the character called AIMEE.

Here's the good news: if somebody forces you to watch this movie, it's only 69 minutes long!