Mark Reviews Movies: ARCHIVE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 9, 2020

The feature debut of writer/director Gavin Rothery shows a lot of promise, as it examines the relationship between a man and his artificially intelligent robot creations. Archive, though, ultimately dismisses the ethical quandaries of this premise for a resolution that makes all of the story's concerns moot.

Sometime in the future, George (Theo James) lives and works in isolation at a scientific facility on the edge of a cliff in a forest. He has built two robots featuring advanced artificial intelligence, hoping to achieve the "Holy Grail": a replication of the human mind.

The story revolves around the scientist's third model, which promises to fulfill his goal. In reality, though, George wants to transfer the consciousness of his dead wife (played by Stacy Martin, who also plays the robot under decreasing layers of makeup), which is currently being preserved in a special container—unaware of its body's death.

There is a lot to digest here, and Rothery's screenplay is clever in the way it frames the story's ideas and fears about artificial intelligence as a study of the coldly ambitious George and how he treats his creations. So many tales featuring such technology see it as a threat. Here, the tables are turned, and George, who insists upon making his robots as human as possible, has all but abandoned his own humanity in that pursuit.

His goal, of course, is to resurrect his deceased wife, but the achievement of the goal, not the intended result, clearly has become his obsession. In the present, we watch as George uses and abuses his machines, who are capable of understanding their mistreatment. In flashbacks, we see how this mindset and his behavior aren't much different than it was with his human partner.

The movie offers early hints—involving some corporate apprehension (George's boss, played by Rhona Mitra, is rightly suspicious that he's hiding his progress) and possible sabotage (Toby Jones plays a weaselly representative from the consciousness-sustaining company)—that it's preparing to discard the story's more thoughtful, troubling elements for an easier, clichéd final act. To his credit, Rothery shelves those plot devices until the last minute, digging deeper into George's thoughtless disregard for his creations.

To say that the actual finale of Archive is a disappointment would be an understatement. It throws away the entirety of the movie's premise and promise for some cheap narrative trickery.

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