Mother/Android will stream on Hulu Dec. 17.In Mattson Tomlin’s put up-apocalyptic movie Mother/Android, AI knowledgeable Arthur (Raul Castillo) explains that the time period robotic comes from R.U.R, a 1920 play the place synthetic people created to supply low-cost labor stand up towards their creators. His speech is supposed to show the hubris behind humanity’s resolution to take a cautionary story and use it as inspiration, however it actually simply reveals how previous the tropes the movie is drawing on are, driving house that Mother/Android has nothing new to contribute to the style.It follows Georgia (Chloe Grace Moretz), a school pupil who discovers she’s pregnant and isn’t positive if she desires to maintain the newborn and even stick together with her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith). But that call turns into moot when all of the android butlers which have turn out to be ubiquitous on this close to future spontaneously go on a murderous rampage. Maybe it’s the fault of a foul software program replace? Arthur’s speech is the closest Tomlin, who wrote and directed the movie, ever will get to a proof. Winter 2022 Movies: The 30 Most Anticipated FilmsCut to months sooner or later the place the United States has largely fallen to the androids, the survivors hiding in distant navy bases or cities protected by EMP fields. Georgia is nearly due and Sam desires to get all of them to Boston the place they may have the ability to catch a ship to promised security in Korea. Why would a ship be crusing around the globe from Boston to Korea as an alternative of gathering survivors on the West Coast? Who is aware of.Many catastrophe and put up-apocalyptic films battle with a battle the place the characters could be higher off discovering a secure place and staying there, however the motion requires them to maintain transferring and encountering new threats. Mother/Android is a very egregious instance. Georgia and Sam repeatedly discover relative safety and Sam retains driving them ahead to take silly dangers within the identify of defending his household, seemingly by no means studying from the struggling his quest causes alongside the way in which.The couple is so naive and boring it’s virtually not possible to care about their plight. Moretz was a standout in Kick-Ass, the place she performed the ferocious Hit Girl, however right here she’s relegated to a doe-eyed plot vessel. Stress typically causes pregnant girls to ship early, however Georgia is late — a ticking time bomb whose exercise is dictated by the wants of the plot slightly than logic.Not that there’s actually a lot plot to go on. The movie is filled with style cliches, like robust navy dudes who reprimand Sam for desirous to flee slightly than battle the androids. It’s a mercy that Tomlin cuts away as an alternative of displaying a brawl between Sam, who has no fight coaching and solely the ability of fatherly love, and a a lot greater soldier.The catastrophe on the coronary heart of Mother/Android barely issues.“There are a number of first rate twists, however they will’t redeem the plodding tempo and saccharine scenes, like Georgia and Sam naming the issues they miss probably the most about life earlier than the android rebellion or inexplicably stopping of their perilous crossing of the no man’s land surrounding Boston to sing and soak their toes.In some ways, Mother/Android truly resembles one other 2021 launch, The Mitchells vs the Machines, which additionally used the robotic apocalypse as a framing gadget for a household story. But, not like Mother/Android, Mike Rianda’s animated comedy truly had likable characters and a coherent theme, utilizing an AI rebelling towards her creator as a metaphor for the strife between a teen and her father.Aside from one other terrible monologue from Arthur about how the impassive robots have come to grasp love because the weak spot in human programming, the catastrophe on the coronary heart of Mother/Android barely issues. It’s simply an excuse for some mediocre particular results displaying steel beneath flesh or eyes that glow blue seemingly solely when the androids are purported to be scary.