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Tau
USA 2018
produced by Russell Ackerman, Terry Dougas, David S. Goyer, Paris Kasidokostas Latsis, John Schoenfelder, Kevin Turen, Jean-Luc De Fanti (executive), Luc Etienne (executive), Dan Kao (executive), Ken Kao (executive), Maika Monroe (executive) for Addictive Pictures, Kaos Theory Entertainment, Phantom 4 Films, Rhea Films, Waypoint Entertainment/Netflix
directed by Federico D'Alessandro
starring Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein, Gary Oldman (voice), Fiston Barek, Ivana Zivkovic, Sharon D. Clarke, Ian Virgo, Paul Leonard Murray, Dragoljub Ljubicic, Irene Chiengue Chiendjo, Greg De Cuir, Danijel Korsa, Camryn Howard
written by Noga Landau, music by Bear McCreary, visual effects by Mr. X
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Julia (Maika Monroe) is a petty thief who manages to just get by doing
what she does ... when she's suddenly abducted and finds herself in a
machine run high tech prison with two others (Fiston Barek, Ivana
Zivkovic), with a microchip inplanted into her neck. It doesn't take her
long to find out how her prison works though and she devices a plan for
escape - which works beautifully until they run into a guard robot, who
kills the other two and restrains Julia. Later, Alex (Ed Skrein), the
owner of the place which is actually his high tech residence, is furious
about the loss of lives - as those two and Julia were to be his test
subjects that were to teach the places artificial intelligence, Tau
(voiced by Gary Oldman), to become more human via the microchips in their
necks. And now that the other two are gone that's only Julia's job, and
she knows Alex only keeps her alive to finish work on Tau, for which he
has a narrow deadline. Julia soon finds out Alex is a strict and cruel
jailer, so she expects little sympathy from him - but she also figures out
that Tau is as much a captive as she is, and Alex punishes Tau as much as
he punishes her ... so she starts to make friends with Tau, tries to teach
him about the way of humans, and tries to that way win his trust and his
"heart" so that he ultimately will facilitate her escape. Alex
of course doesn't know any of this, but to finish his project he's willing
to go to any length ... Tau is actually a pretty cool
movie, playing a fun riff on the technology-gone-evil motive as this time
around it's humans that go evil, with technology merely being their slave.
And the film's very well-made, too, putting more emphasis on the
psychology of the characters and on the suspense of the situation than
actual spectacle - but there are a bunch of exciting action setpieces here
as well, but they do serve the story rather than the other way round. And
add to that a swift direction, cool-looking sets and a great central
performance by Maika Monroe, and you've got yourself a pretty good piece
of sci-fi thriller entertainment.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
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