In the early scenes of this sci-fi thriller we see protagonist Julia, a small time thief, gets taken from her home. When she wakes she is in a lab and has an implant in the back of her neck. After a painful procedure she is sent to a cell where she finds two others people in a similar predicament. An escape attempts leads to the destruction of the lab but not her freedom. Her captor, scientist Alex, intends to complete his experiments; this will require Julia to do various mental tasks under the supervision of TAU; the artificial intelligence that controls the house and its systems... which include a lethal robotic sentry. If Julia is to escape she will have to find a way to reason with TAU.
I rather enjoyed this film; it may contain plenty of elements from other films but it still works well and kept me gripped. Julia is a good protagonist; tough but not excessively so and Alex is a menacing, largely due to the fact that he controls TAU and the robot. TAU is interesting too; it is described as an Artificial Intelligence but it is more than that; an Artificial Conscience which clearly has emotions. The scenes with Julia trying to bargain with TAU were fun and not too rushed. While there isn't a huge amount of action what there was, was exciting and raised the tension notably. The cast was solid; Maika Monroe impressed as Julia and Ed Skrein was effective as Alex, a character who is outwardly very calm but prone to busts of violent anger. The special effects were pretty good. Overall I'd say this was a pretty decent sci-fi film; worth checking out.
