As it says in the title this writeup is going to have massive spoilers so if you want to watch the film I believe it to be a decent watch although I did find it a bit annoying and boring at times and this resulted in me skipping parts of it and just looking at the preview windows. I used this to fill in the gaps of dialogue for the 1 hour 50 minute runtime.
Once again, if you haven't seen this movie and would like to you need to stop reading now. Otherwise, let's carry on and see if you agree with what I have to say.
First off, I enjoyed the twist they put on the apocalypse by using androids instead of zombies although the end result is largely the same except the androids are clearly smarter than your run of the mill slow moving zombie killer.
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The plot is that androids have become a part of human existence and they operate as servants until one day a signal gets sent out and they all simultaneously turn on humans and want to kill all of them. You know the drill because every android movie and video game follows this same storyline.
We start the movie with a flashback of what lead to the android uprising with Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith) finding out that she is pregnant just hours before the signal gets sent out to the androids. We then fast forward in time 9 months to see how difficult it can be to be so pregnant while also fighting for your life around every turn. We see very little violence from androids in the beginning as Georgia and Sam are approaching a human settlement with tons of security. This is the first problem I have with the film because it seems incredibly unlikely that they would have made it to this point with her in that condition. They almost seem jovial about the situation at times and once they arrive at the settlement they tell stories about how they walked all the way to New York City but couldn't get in. You WALKED all the way to New York?
Now they are trying to get into Boston where they have heard that there are boats that are taking families over to Korean and China where it is apparently safer than in USA.
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Once inside the camp they are safe and they have access to medical care as well as a safe place for Georgia to have her baby that is about to pop out of her at any moment. This is where the 2nd problem I have with the film arises. We as the audience have been told that Georgia is past due and could have the baby any time yet Sam, her boyfriend, is insistent that they must get to Boston and have the baby there. It just doesn't make any sense, no matter how they try to explain it away that someone who clearly cares about this woman and her unborn child would prefer to put her in more danger by traveling and potentially getting into a fight for her life, when they are given the opportunity to just hang out in safety at this camp.
Inexplicably, Sam gets into a fist fight with one of the soldiers with the silly reason behind it being that the arrogant soldier challenged him to a fight and if Sam wins, the soldier will guarantee him and Georgia immediate safe passage to Boston. We do not get to see the fight but apparently Sam wins and yet they are not going to get the ride to Boston. Instead, they are immediately kicked out of the camp and Sam never even mentions to the superiors of the camp that the only reason he was fighting was because of the bet that was issued by the soldier to him.
I guess they needed this plot element in order to continue the story the way that they did but it doesn't make any sense.
Next up in the it-doesn't-make-sense hit parade is that despite the fact that Sam and Georgia have been desperately trying to keep quiet and out of sight at every single point up to now in the film. They just happen to discover a fully functioning motorbike, with fuel, complete with two perfectly fitting helmets. Sam also just happens to be an expert driver of motorbikes and all of this is entirely too convenient for people like me. They clearly simply needed the bike just to set up some amazing chase sequence that ultimately leads to the next part where they get separated.
This is when we meet one of the only interesting characters in the film, Arthur.
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Arthur just happens to be where Georgia gets dropped off by Sam and he ushers her to safety. Again, all of this placement of people is far too convenient, especially considering that at no point did Georgia or Sam EVER randomly run into other people while they were traveling but now, whilst being pursued by androids they do?
Arthur tells Georgia about how he worked for the company that designed the androids and has an invisibility cloak that she can wear in order to sneak past the android guards in order to rescue Sam from the facility he is being held in that once again, Arthur just happens to know the exact location of. She sneaks in, rescues Sam and at the last minute as they are running out Arthur comes in and saves the day and then transports them to another safe zone that is presumably in Boston or very near it.
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The whole concept of the invisibility cloak is a neat plot twist but nearly as neat as the next situation where Arthur has transported the couple safely to a medical ward that I think is in Boston. Georgia's baby is out of her as well so I don't know how much time has passed. As she is being interviewed by a member of the military it is revealed that there is no such thing as an invisibility cloak and that she and Sam were duped by Arthur, who is himself an android and used them as cover in order to get in the facility.
While an interesting twist none of this makes any sense based on the amount of security we previously saw at the past, much smaller camp. There were a tremendous amount of checks that Sam and Georgia had to go through to gain access to the field camp but now we are meant to believe that Arthur was able to get into a stronghold simply because he had two injured humans with him? Yeah, I don't think so.
Another thing is that if this was Arthur and his android pals plan from the start, how in the hell would they know exactly where Sam would drop Georgia off, or even that this would happen at all. If the objective was to simply kill them both, the androids had ample opportunity to do that. This is a massive plot hole in the story and it kind of makes the big "twist" seem stupid and more of a "well ok, I guess so" sort of moment.
Then, because of them allowing Arthur into Boston, the entire city magically and almost immediately gets overrun by androids. This makes zero sense that a single android would be able to accomplish this considering how "fortified" the city was famed to be all throughout the film.
After some brief action Georgia, of course saves the city from being completely overrun by holding back 20 or so androids using only one leg while she reaches across a room to activate a switch that will deactivate all androids in proximity. It's stupid that she would be the one to do this when the city is meant to have a crap ton of elite soldiers in it.
Even though the city is literally in flames behind them, somehow a small woman who has very recently given birth and her boyfriend who no longer has feet, are somehow able to make it to the small pier where the boats to Korea are. Boats to Korea.... on the East Coast of the United States.... Figure that one out Copernicus!
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This is where it is revealed by the Korean authorities that both Sam and Georgia are not allowed to go with the baby and what is meant to be a very emotional montage is taking place. This part is tragic where Sam and Georgia have to let their baby go into the care of strangers and they will never see it again but there is one very big problem with all of this and that is that Chloë Grace Moretz doesn't have the acting chops to pull off this sorrow and anger moment.
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Sorry but she just isn't convincing!
Then we fast-forward again to a Georgia who is casually walking down the streets of Boston, one of the few survivors despite having no weapons, recently had surgery, and being a 110 lb woman. At this point she is approached by military who are facing no android resistance and she is offered a ride, in a armored personnel carrier, to travel to Portland.
While it isn't specifically mentioned how she will get to Portland it is indicated earlier in the film that there isn't much in the way of aircraft anymore, otherwise why would we be taking boats to Korea? So I'll tell you right now that it is over 3,000 miles from Boston to Portland and an armored personnel carrier likely gets about 8 miles to the gallon. Yeah, that's not happening now is it? I know this is a minor thing but it just irritates me that something so implausible would be put on us as the film is coming to a close. Why not just not mention the name of the base? It's like they were intentionally messing with us.
I can't fully recommend this film because in the near 2 hours of runtime, almost nothing happens. There are a few good scenes but for the most part I would say that this film is about 60 minutes longer than it needed to be. The excessive and useless dialogue combined with the plethora of massive plot-holes make it a film that I can only recommend people watch in order to see a couple of great actions scenes with pretty fantastic cinematography. The story itself and the acting is just not good enough and ultimately was quite disappointing.
I would say that this film should be watched with remote in hand so you can skip past 80% of the useless dialogue that does nothing to further the story and is there simply to add many minutes to the runtime.
