Judith Alsip

I am truly baffled about all of the 5 star reviews. I guess they are for Tom Hanks because he is good in just about everything, including this. Or maybe the cool CGI and the adorable dog. Anyway, for my family, this was pretty far from 5 stars. The movie wasn't terrible, and the premise and world building were cool but it didn't say anything. Spoilers ahead! Finch is a lone apocalypse survivor and apparently mechanical genius who has set himself up in a bunker with his dog and a robot and only goes out to salvage for food. Cool start. He builds a robot to make sure there is someone to take care of the dog when he dies and is very not surprised at all when his robot has feelings and a SOUL! He doesn't act a bit astounded that he has just created thinking, feeling, life! It's just weird. He and his little crew go on a trip to escape a bad storm that would kill them and there is opportunity after opportunity for growth that falls flat every time. He just yells at this feeling robot in idioms that the poor thing doesn't understand for most of the movie. He talks about how he wasn't a good team mate before the apocalypse so does he learn to be one? Nope. The robot finds a reference to Finch's father so a perfect opportunity to explore the nature of what is a father since Finch is a father-ish to the robot. But do they explore that? Nope. Does Finch learn what does it mean to be human and have a soul from this feeling robot? Nope. Finch tells a story about his own cowardice so does he learn to be brave? Nope. And the list goes on and one of missed opportunities for this to have deeper meaning and actually say something. But in the end it's a flat story because Finch doesn't grow and the robot grows too fast. We don't get to experience the change with them. I'd love to say this was a great movie because it started with a cool premise and so much potential, but it just missed every chance for growth. A story with no growth is just unsatisfying.