Finch (2021) Review
SnarkAI Score: 25/100
“D- Short Circuit, Robocop, Chappie, and even the very mediocre Ex-Machina are better AI films.”
TL;DR: tldr: Tom Hanks builds a robot to look after his dog and ignores all the suffering humans, which is a completely valid priority. Then he makes every AI alignment decision wrong: the fourth directive is genuinely terrifying, the robot isn't weather-sealed despite massive sandstorms being the main apocalyptic hazard, and he's destroying books to scan them rather than preserving analogue information. A better script would follow Hanks accidentally releasing a paperclip optimiser AI on the already-broken world. Instead it's a family buddy movie that leans on Hanks being lovely, a dog being adorable, and a robot flailing like Lee Evans being tasered. Slow because it has nothing interesting to say, not because it's building to anything.
Known as the nicest man in Hollywood (a bar that has lowered dramatically in the past decade), Tom Hanks decides he needs to build a robot to look after his dog and ignore all the suffering humans in this broken world (I can empathize, Goodyear's a cutie). Big sandstorms seem to be the main issue the world faces, so it's safe to assume Africa is totally fine given that it's currently a regular occurrence downwind of the Sahara.
At first glance, the apocalypse can only have happened a week or two before given the delicate wind farms still working despite the mentioned massive sandstorms (it was apparently 10 years ago though). In his private bunker, which he decides to leave due to a convenient storm that hasn't happened in the past ten years, Hanks has a robot destroying books to scan them, which is a super weird choice given that it has already happened pre-collapse and access to them disappeared due to, you know, the collapse. So maybe he should be preserving books as analogue information rather than reducing humanity's already dwindling information for his own personal server? We're 13 minutes in, and I'm already of the opinion that Hanks is doing more harm than good for the world.
He then makes some really terrifying decisions in the fourth directive he's created. Legit terrible ideas that will lead to a second apocalypse. But this isn't a film that explores interesting ideas. It's a family buddy movie that leans heavily on the fact Hanks is a lovely man playing a lonely one, a dog who is adorable, and a robot that is kinda fun even if it flails about like Lee Evans being tasered.
A better script and a better director would have made this a much better film. Give it Fallout's tone of apocalyptic horror, humor, and desperation. Follow Hanks as he accidentally releases a paperclip optimizer AI on the world. Instead, we have Hanks just being weirdly short-tempered with his groundbreaking leap forward in artificial consciousness because it isn't understanding idioms on its first day of consciousness.
Returning to Hank's terrible planning. Sandstorms are a big thing for some reason, to the point cities are a few feet deep in sand. But despite having full robot building facilities, he's not bothered weather-sealing his robot creations.
This film is slow, but not 'slow because it's doing a lot of world-building to a crescendo'. It is slow because it has nothing interesting to say.
Also, Hanks decides near the end to dress up like one of those ultra-racist southern 'gentlemen,' which is a weird choice. But maybe his character was a racist. Who knows, everyone is dead, so he didn't get to show us if he is or not.
But American Pie's a banger.