Eva

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.

In his debut feature film director Kike Maillo went out on a limb when he chose to make a film set in Spain in the not-so-distant- future about the moral dilemmas of artificial intelligence. Spanish sci-fi? Sounds risky but why not? We're getting a new robot-themed film each month now: Chappie, Big Hero 6, Ex-Machina, Age of Ultron, Elysium to name a few of the most recent. So why not a Spanish robot film for a change?

The world "Eva" is set in is indeed intriguing. It is set in an idyllic alpine village so perfect it looks like we're peering inside a souvenir snow globe. People drive around in 1970's SAABs, wear wool sweaters, unwind in pubs with cozy fireplaces and go ice skating every afternoon. The only signs that you are in the future is that there are robots everywhere politely and discretely doing secretarial and house cleaning jobs. There are no drones, no self- driving cars, and no robo-cops (Spain should be optimistic of its future apparently). Robots are either doing menial labor, or, apparently, have been geared towards emotional gratification and the companionship of their creators.

Our protagonist, Alex (Daniel Brühl) is a robotics software developer who is hired to go after the holy grail of robotics: building a prototype of a robot child that is both realistic (that is, spontaneous) as well as safe (that is, predictable). The strength of this film is to show reconciling these two is impossible, and that the essence of being human is precisely that we cannot be both. The secret sauce that makes us human, capable of spontaneity and charm, turns out to be also what makes us irrational, impetuous and dangerous.

After masterfully setting up the premise of the film, the actual execution of the plot starts to falter. The protagonist is supposed to be a genius cybernetic engineer, but his character is mostly a drag and a bore to watch. You start wishing that his robot cat had more screen time. The story also hinges on a love triangle that feels contrived and inane. The robot butler is considerably more entertaining and I ended up wishing he somehow played a bigger part in the plot. The core of the story revolves around how Alex tries to model the emotional life of the android child on his niece (fantastically played by Claudia Vega) and it is these interactions that anchor the film and give it substance. The best scenes deal with the "Turing tests" that Bruno develops, trying to tell apart real child from robot child. The last half hour of the film has some twists which ultimately make the entire film seem better than it felt it was while watching. Still, it is not easy to forgive the director for wasting so much time on love triangle sub-plots and creating hollow characters. The film gets seven stars for its elegant cinematography and its smartly framed premise, but doesn't break much new ground.

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.

I watched this film today at the movie theater. The film is beautifully acted and directed. I am very glad to see that in Spain we have new filmmakers able to work within the film industry and still make a great film in the cinematographic sense.

"Eva" is far more profound than the trailer or the publicity may suggest. It is a deep reflection on human nature and identity. But, and here comes the surprise, it is not a so-called intellectual film.

The film is very well done, and it is an example of a new wave of European cinema that is producing great films without necessarily big fireworks. Keep doing the good job, Kike.