Opinion on “Tetra Vaal” (2004) and related work
- Spin-off: Chappie (2015)
“Tetra Vaal” (2004
)
Seen in 2020.
‣ Chappie (2015)
Seen in 2020.
A poor imitation of Robocop (1987) and a case study in illiterate science fiction writing: Worse than Ex Machina’s treatment of the subject, complete with a robot who figures out how to move its soul by giving itself an EEG. The script’s concept of artificial intelligence is so human-centric that it would have been right at home in 1930s pulps. I appreciate the incongruous use of Japanese (kun, ne, ｢テンション｣) to flesh out the future street life, but it doesn’t work. The silly gangs and the villain’s super-SWAT reaction to them are just a phantom image of The Warriors (1979).
References here: Outside the Wire (2021).