Larry Borshard

Action-packed humans vs AI theme, with a mysterious back story that is revealed slowly in portions throughout the movie. We were enthusiastically engaged about two thirds through, and then the writing became predictable, in addition to flawed with inconsistencies. Atlas's tactical shell Smith says he can't be hacked, but later he's hacked - and says he doesn't know how. He can do trillions of calculations in seconds, but in a moment of crisis, he protests repeatedly that he can't complete a critical operation on time, and then acts surprised when he's successful. Atlas collects the downed warrior dogtags, but what about the ship's crew? Maybe I missed something, but the lead antagonist AI Harlan says he needs Atlas to call for another ship (or another doomsday bomb?) yet minutes later the cavalry shows up on their own. And how does Harlan not know about tragic human history from the Internet, until he links up to a human? Maybe some of these could be explained with contrived logic, but the more I think about the movie, the more questions I have with the writing. There are several other examples, but I'm avoiding spoiler alerts. Overall, still entertaining, great acting, fun gadgets, lots of action, but too many plot holes to make it a keeper and watch again.

Fantastic concept! Excellent acting! Terminator meets Matrix meets Futureman (without the comedy) meets.... innovative! But at the end of Season 1, I was disappointed that some scenes seemed pointless (maybe setups for Season 2?), and some scenes and plot devices rushed or not fully developed. I'm still confused why super tech-savvy future people need polts (Peripheral jockeys) from the past, how the stub maker machine works (and why so hokey with a golden pocket watch?) and how Flynn can switch stubs, if I understood the ending correctly. Not to mention, creating stubs is considered an act of war or treason or something, yet RI used stubs rather casually for their behavioral experiments, without prosecution? And, as another review said, Aelita is such an incredible character, with the least amount of screen time. So I loved the concept, the characters, some plot devices, the acting, the relationships, but, without reading the book, I am overall disappointed with the incomplete story-telling.