Customer Reviews

Automatons

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, don't let the film format turn you off - this looks just like any sci-fi flick from the '50s. The 'bots are cool and there's lots of action (eventually...). The only problem is that there is so little script to work with. It's a shame, because the budget limitations don't interfere nearly as much. Also, notice in the extras how they set up their shoot in an un-air-conditioned space during the summer! Let this be a lesson to aspiring directors - you have to create a survivable work environment. Also, having a troupe of crew laughing like hyenas doesn't augur well from the directorial perspective. I still hope this director, or others, will encourage shooting on film in this inexpensive and visually cool way. Meanwhile, you can surely enjoy a viewing of this little film, it's still fun and different from most other things out these days. It'll tide you over until somebody rereleases Gog And Magog.

Writer/director James Felix McKenney based this b/w Super-8 project on a faulty childhood memory and it screens like a dreamy low budget Pi channeled through the Outer Limits by way of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Filled with mid-century gadgets, men-in-suit robots and robot puppets, Automatons is a parable about a lonely, heavily-mediated future. Going the standard low-budget route (mostly one set, a few actors, shot silent), McKenney turns his budget into an asset. The slightly-off but trying-hard lip sync and cheap but earnestly designed sets and costumes make the film come off like a memory of a B-movie yesterday that never was. There's not enough material to fill a feature and by minute 24 I was aching to get out of that one set. But that's OK, you can just fast forward to the end. Great music and sound design too. This one's more for fans of directors like Guy Maddin and David Lynch rather than horror or sci-fi buffs. There's a sense of humor at work but it may be too dry for some tastes. Favorite image: the evil leader with a wrist communicator the size of a brick.

JFM is the MAN! Anyone who has the balls to resurect good old fashioned 50-60s sci-fi gets my loyalty any day! Smart script, socially relevant. And FYI, Angus Scrim probably does the best acting of his life in this. Hell of a lot better than anything he's ever done in the Phantasm movies.

Automatons rocks, pure and simple!

Starting today, visitors to New York Public Television station WNET's
Reel 13 website can view Glass Eye Pix's award-winning film,
AUTOMATONS, in its entirety. The film is available to watch streaming
for free along with additional AUTOMATONS content, including an
exclusive Reel 13 interview with writer-director James Felix McKenney:

[...]

Also available is the option to download a high-quality digital copy
of the film for anyone who makes a donation to Channel 13.

The Village Voice exclaimed "Robot radness achieved!" and the New
York Times said that "the buzzing static and fizzy backlighting
recall the glistening surrealism of the filmmaker Guy Maddin...
enormously endearing" when AUTOMATONS was first released in theaters
in 2007. The film was directed by DYI auteur James Felix McKenney who
also directed CANNIBALLISTIC!, THE OFF SEASON and the forth-coming
SATAN HATES YOU and HYPOTHERMIA.

Says McKenney, "I'm incredibly excited to have our film be part of
Reel 13. I have been a huge fan of Public Television my whole life.
In fact, AUTOMATONS is almost entirely inspired by my a large part of
childhood spent staring through the snow at a tiny B&W television
with a coat hanger for an antenna to watch DOCTOR WHO, THE PRISONER,
MATINEE AT THE BIJOU, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and the classic films
of Hitchcock as well as Universal horror movies on my local PBS
stations in Maine and New Hampshire. I think we've found the perfect
online home for our little film."

AUTOMATONS is the third film in Glass Eye Pix's ScareFlix series and
is currently available on DVD from Facets Video. This black & white,
retro-science fiction experiment tells the story of a civilization's
lone survivor who continues to fight the robot war that destroyed her
people. The film stars Christine Spencer (SATAN HATES YOU), Brenda
Cooney (I SELL THE DEAD), Angus Scrimm (PHANTASM), Don Wood (PBS'
COLONIAL HOUSE), producer Larry Fessenden (HABIT) and John Levene
(DOCTOR WHO).

[...]

Duct tape and elbow grease cinema strikes again. You have to be fairly magnanimous, if you're gonna thumbs up this movie. On one hand, I appreciate the effort and sheer cheek that went into this picture. James Felix McKenney wrote and directed AUTOMATONS; he also co-produced this venture, with chump change dug up from his sofa and a fondness for those schlocky black & white 1950s sci-fi films.

AUTOMATONS is set in a blighted post-apocalyptic world, and don't gasp too much when you learn that this event was brought about by, yes, Man's Folly. To quote a great man: "Stupid is as stupid does." Because the last remnants of humanity are still engaged in ongoing warfare. Because the planet's surface has been rendered so poisonous to man - and, also, because there aren't too many humans left - the skirmishes are now conducted among robots deployed by the warring factions. I do think that the movie's tagline is very apropos: "This is how humanity dies."

There's a claustrophobic feel to this movie, as the story mostly takes place in the tight confines of a bunker. Doesn't help that this bunker is cluttered up with dipthzoids and zoopzads and who knows what other kinds of lowtech gadgetry. There's even a doodad with that oscillating light, reminiscent of those classic Frankenstein movies from Universal. This bunker houses a nameless young woman (although we know the actress who plays her is Christine Spencer). Each day, the Girl goes thru a horrible, numbing routine. She wakes up, patches up her retinue of soldier robots and then sends them out to the big fighty fight. Frequently, for company, she pops in the rambling recordings of her mentor, this dead old scientist played by Angus Scrimm (PHANTASM's the Tall Man). It's harrowing at times, in her hidey hole. The enemy constantly taunts her thru video transmissions. The Girl, in fact, has to always be on guard as the enemy continually sends disruptive signals which turn the Girl's robots against her.

I guess the film is thought-provoking, although, to me, the allegories are heavy-handed and the anti-war message is tired (yup, I get the parallels to the war with Iraq). The elements I dig about AUTOMATONS all have to do with nostalgia and that I still on occasion slip in movies like FORBIDDEN PLANET, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and TARGET: EARTH. So I'm not gonna rag on the basement-level f/x too much, as I feel these cats did the best they could and, going by the bonus features, had a whale of a time concocting them. Seeing these unconvincing robots (*cough* dudes in robot costumes) call up childhood memories of Robbie the Robot and of Gort and "Klaatu barada nikto," a phrase which, as safe-words go, resonates so much more than "Lights out" (which is what the Girl uses on her robots). When I was a kid, for Halloween, I actually got gigged out as a robot which looks peculiarly similar to the ones in this film (and last I looked, the costume's vanished from my storage; so, hmmm...). The soundtrack is filled with static noises and buzzes; the screen holds a degraded quality (I hear, purposely), a graininess which a) adds to the mood and b) helps to camouflage the shoestring budget. Adding to that retro-look are the toy models which are used to wage that firefight near the end. This sequence is shot in "Robo Monstervision" and it went on too long.

Folks call this indie experimental, but it's more like the filmmakers not having too many choices. But this doesn't give them a pass for poor storytelling. AUTOMATONS runs just under an hour and a half, but it would've been better as a 30 minute short, maybe as an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS or even THE TWILIGHT ZONE. I think that would've been long enough to convey its high concept sentiments. What does help the film is that Christine Spencer's character is likeable, and you feel bad for her because she's so desperately alone. She's likeable mostly because of how kind and polite she is to her mechanical charges. Angus Scrimm, his cult status in the horror film genre aside, bored me pretty quickly with his monologues. It doesn't help that the Girl doesn't react much to him. Of course, this makes sense as, at this stage, it's assumed that she'd been listening to his recordings ad nauseam. What she craves is the comfort and sense of companionship his recordings bring, rather than the actual words. Those words are meant for the film's audience, of course. But what can I say? I've heard cautionary speeches before, and better delivered.

The showcase action set piece is saved for the last 15 minutes or so, as the Girl's robots get past the enemy robots and storm the enemy's lair. At this point, the film engages in several gory moments as the Girl's robots inflict gross damage with buzzsaws, incinerators, and pointy things. Gorehound alert.

AUTOMATONS is the sort of flick which the snarky robots Crow and Servo from MST3K tend to merrily diss. But I'll pop in this flick again in a few years, because I did like it, up to a point. AUTOMATONS boasts the makings of a cult film favorite, and it's probably best if seen with other, like-minded chums. Who knows, maybe the next "Klaatu barada nikto" is hiding in this flick, just waiting for some sci-fi nerd to popularize. I just hope it's not "Light's out."