When I was a child I was reading Asimov and Van Vogt and Russian Sci-fi and it was all about the human condition when faced with the unexpected. Not about big fights, not about the boy saving the girl, not about superheroes. This film is like that, a Serbian film based on the short story of a Serbian writer from 1980 and played by two actors (and two extras) who are Slovenian and American-Serbian pornstar. Don't worry, it is spoken in English, only slightly accented. The space situation is actually bogus, a trip to Alpha Centauri that doesn't stand to any examination, but the interesting part is the personal dynamic between the two actors.
First of all (that that damn Anglo puritans) Stoya, the girl, is naked almost the entire film (and quite beautiful) and the two leads have sex quite often. It's not frivolous, though, and certainly not pornographic. Second, the story looks deeply into what our motivations as people are and what would we do when alone with a programmable machine that looks like a pornstar and can learn from experience. Yes, sex, of course, but what about after that? What about feelings that develop? I can easily compare this film with Her (which I hated) and I quite liked A.I. Rising. Or maybe it's closer to Zoe. Anyway, the exotic setting is used only as a pretext to examine what makes us tick, and that is what sci-fi is all about.
The acting is good, without being spectacular, the visuals are very artsy, nicely done, but sometimes pointless. The science is nonexistent and technology is used only to advance the plot. There are a lot of holes in said plot, but I advise you to skip them and continue watching, because attention was spent on the important things and the rest is just prop. The pacing is slow, which might annoy some people, but the original material was a short story after all. And yes, the title is horrendous :)
Bottom line: give it a try, especially if you are looking for something else than Hollywood action-fantasy or if you enjoyed old school sci-fi as a kid.
First of all (that that damn Anglo puritans) Stoya, the girl, is naked almost the entire film (and quite beautiful) and the two leads have sex quite often. It's not frivolous, though, and certainly not pornographic. Second, the story looks deeply into what our motivations as people are and what would we do when alone with a programmable machine that looks like a pornstar and can learn from experience. Yes, sex, of course, but what about after that? What about feelings that develop? I can easily compare this film with Her (which I hated) and I quite liked A.I. Rising. Or maybe it's closer to Zoe. Anyway, the exotic setting is used only as a pretext to examine what makes us tick, and that is what sci-fi is all about.
The acting is good, without being spectacular, the visuals are very artsy, nicely done, but sometimes pointless. The science is nonexistent and technology is used only to advance the plot. There are a lot of holes in said plot, but I advise you to skip them and continue watching, because attention was spent on the important things and the rest is just prop. The pacing is slow, which might annoy some people, but the original material was a short story after all. And yes, the title is horrendous :)
Bottom line: give it a try, especially if you are looking for something else than Hollywood action-fantasy or if you enjoyed old school sci-fi as a kid.