I Am Mother || Nature or Nurture?

I AM MOTHER || Movie Review

Pathfinder anyone?

Consuming Sci-fis is a great way to be sad, get depressed and drown yourself in nihilism yet somehow they manage to induce hope, motivation, and love in our minds. 

I watched the Netflix Exclusive I AM MOTHER last night and it is a great Sci-Fi revolving around the same interesting or boring, overused debate of Artificial Intelligence or Humans. Can AI really take place of humans? What it means to be sentient? Are emotions exclusive to us only or they can be simplified down to binaries? Also. why humans need to go extinct for a better world. This has been an interesting debate for me since I was a kid and I always find these boring movies a great way to forget about the current issues and focus more on the issues that we may have to face in our species future. 

Let's get into the review.

What I Liked?

• The Plot & The Direction

A teenage girl is raised by a robot designed to repopulate Earth. Their bond is tested when a stranger arrives with alarming news. - Netflix Summary

The Warmth

We have seen this formula of robots raising kids in a few movies but the focus was never the parenting, it was the action and time travel all that stuff. Here, the movie's whole focus is how a robot parents a child, how it acts like a real mother, it sings to its child, it gives the warmth of its body to the child, how it feeds, teaches moral values, biology, history, and philosophy to its child, and trains the child with many skills. The child on its part loves back the robot the same way any human being would love his mother. She takes care of her, rebels against her, cries for her, everything is here.

The movie is a sci-fi thriller but the thriller part becomes more prominent after the first of the movie and movie completely balances itself within these two genres.

Beautiful

The character of the mother robot is called Mother and the child is called Daughter. I was constantly thinking to myself if we really need humans to take care of our child. This robot is far better as a mother than many human beings. What it really means to be a mother to someone? Is it the blood relation, the parenting or the emotions that are developed within two beings?

The way the movie tries to humanize the AI is simply amazing. There are many points in this movie where I was like ' whoever did this or thought of this needs a raise ASAP'. There are too many layers to this movie and you will need multiple watchings to really understand many of the subtle details spread throughout the movie. 

• Camerawork

This movie has some of the best heartwarming takes in Sci-Fi history which are downright paintings. Few scenes evoke warming emotions in the viewer. I loved the way they captured the beautiful relation between Mother and Daughter through the visuals. 

'Baby of Mine' plays and tears roll down.

95% of the movie takes place inside the bunker or the facility but the movie in no way feels claustrophobic. The 5% part shown outside provides a somewhat closure to the downfall of mankind. The locations shown remain vague and I have no idea where in America the story actually took place.

The longer takes which are essential to Sci-Fi nowadays are here but are used within limits so the movie does not feel pretentious.

• The Acting

This will make more sense after the you watch the film.

There are only two actors who physically appear in the movie and one actor who appears only through her voice. All three of them had done their parts excellently and you really have to praise the actress who provided the voice for Mother. She made the robot more human through her voice.

Hillary Swank is great as usual and Clara Rugaard gives a great performance as well.

• The use of Baby of Mine fits perfectly in this movie and brought my emotions out. 

What I Did Not Like?

I for myself find nothing that is unneeded or problematic in this movie. All the problems you may think of within the plot can be solved by multiple rewatches of the movie and I suggest you watch the movie at least twice before reaching the conclusion. 

Final Verdict

I loved I AM MOTHER so did my younger brother. It is a film which can be watched with your family and it will provoke discussion among the viewers on many different topics. I will suggest you to definitely spend your two hours on this amazing sci-fi piece. 

I AM MOTHER is streaming now on Netflix.