Archive (2020)

User Review

• 

  d_riptide

  7 / 10

  Even when packaged up and spliced together in a rather staticky image, “Archive” is a fairly basic program executed efficiently, having surpassed and becoming everything that Replicas wanted to accomplish and then some. Unlike that movie, the characters here aren’t caricatures; they’re mostly two-dimensional beings with a hint of three-dimensional depth buried beneath thus allowing them to actually grow and develop, the acting is more rounded out and fine-tuned to help support that, atmosphere has a fresh potency over the setting and most of the limited production design, cinematography feels sharp, crisp, and stunning to look at, its actual production values and special effects for a low-budget indie film are commendable, musical score can be chilling and often emotional when you least expect it and similar to Ex Machina, the film makes room for installing both a personality and an identity, open to asking about the boundaries of artificial intelligence and the desire for life while also turning a few tried and true sci-fi themes on its head. It offers sci-fi fans an engaging meditation on love, obsession, human nature and human frailty.
  
  However, while the plot reflects on a very human desire that’s very understandable and difficult to renounce, it counteracts the basic notion of the premise at hand with a not so subtle mystery at its core and an ending that unfortunately leaves more questions than answers upon closer inspection and not exactly in a way that give the story complete closure. All of the resonant themes presented make the story captivating enough on its own but even if you can dissect what the films trying to say.....what’s the overlying thought process here? Best case scenario is what would you want when you pass away?
  
  
  Regardless of such, it’s miles ahead of Replicas and does offer more leverage into a run-of-the-mill genre in midst of a faulty execution.

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