Mother/Android Review: Chloë Grace Moretz presents a FIERCE side of motherhood amid a deadly robot uprising

Mother/Android

Mother/Android Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Algee Smith, Raúl Castillo

Mother/Android Director: Mattson Tomlin

Mother/Android Streaming Platform: Netflix

Mother/Android Stars: 3/5

***Spoilers Alert***

A robot uprising while somebody is pregnant? Sounds like an epic plot for a sci-fi movie. While The Matrix movies have often warned their audience about machines eventually erasing the human civilization, Mattson Tomlin went ahead and showcased how that might actually be true! The movie starts strong with Chloë Grace Moretz (Georgia) confiding about her pregnancy to a friend as she gets interrupted by a loud screech through their android phones, which was an indication of wired folks running around to catch and kill humans. So far so disastrous, Georgia finds no other choice than to keep the baby and go into hiding with the man (yes, the father, Sam!) whom she doesn’t even like that much.

The movie is set around the time when humans have finally been enough matured to have androids as their helpers at home. But, one cannot miss out on the intended allegory in the movie which shows how the androids (who have mostly been given the jobs of being helpers, waiters and delivery agents) rise against the American middle class, but that side of the plot isn’t visited much as the film strictly surrenders to its name – Mother/Androids. One of the many good things about the movie is the makers being completely nonchalant about the title. “Mother/Android” perfectly resonates with the ‘mother versus machines’, ’emotions vs algorithms’ approach and keeps one wondering how the project would turn out to be until they sit through the 2 hours video of a mother keeping her baby safe against all odds. ‘Mother/Android’ makes a strong case for motherhood, agreed; however, it also doesn’t sideline the fact that the parents couldn’t ultimately safeguard their kid, and had to send him with strangers to fend for himself. It shows how humans could be in a pack but are eventually all alone if androids decide to take over someday.

Chloë Grace Moretz aka Georgia or ‘G’ and Algee Smith aka Sam were the two characters that were in majority of the scenes throughout the 2-hour run of the film. Chloë should take a bow for her epic portrayal of the woman who carries her baby while battling typical robots who are out there to destroy the whole of civilization. The actress takes it upon herself to convey the feelings of a mother, with her wild emotions and determination to save the baby who was about to be born. Nine months pregnant, and the woman was fighting deadly machines! Moretz and Smith deliver sensitive performances and somewhat save the script which after, a point, seemed to be lacking merit. While G and Sam search for a shelter and a safe place to deliver the baby (Boston, in this case), the two typically decide to leave the comfort of an abandoned home, where they could easily give birth and move 20 miles just for a scheme they were publicising in Boston. Although in the later parts of the movie, the scheme does help their baby flee the mess of wired citizens, the father and the mother have it tough till the last minute.

The fact that Georgia and Sam kept on moving ahead and battling new threats in order to find a safe place for themselves reflected on how the human mind wants to engage in moving forward without counting the blessings of the day. While the two protagonists end up in two secured places back to back, Sam keeps driving them to land in unintended situations and have themselves cut from having a beautiful family! Eventually, the movie’s highly practical ending shows that he has passed away, but that wouldn’t have had to be the case had he not been too greedy to land in Boston by hook, by crook or by riding a bike with his pregnant girlfriend in the back, open firing androids! The cinematography was under a budget, and it was relevant from the movie’s setting. While the sci-fi film didn’t demand much of a glamorous location (everyone is eventually being killed), it could’ve engaged in a better way to show the android invasion and not trust humans to act like robots, because, at many points, they seemed to be zombies more than androids! The script didn’t make any noise, and Moretz and Smith carried the entire movie on their shoulders with their intense acting skills.

The film engages in several cliches, warns humanity like most sci-fi movies and creates something that we have seen before. But, it lets the two worlds, aka the emotional fools and the emotionless machines interact in a way that hasn’t been touched upon yet. The humans don’t change their ways to run away from the deadly robots, and the robots don’t give up on their search for the former because they have been trained that way. It questions the authority of humans as the most intelligent beings and robots as the most powerful inventions. Mother/Android succeeded in its mission as it made me uncomfortable in a way that I didn’t expect. The movie questioned me, the actors, dialogues and the compelling plot left no stone unturned in showing a different side of the future, bleak, scary and if you ask Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss, honest.