SUBSERVIENCE
Over the years I've come across many movie reviews and have always thought to do one. For my first review, I'd be doing none other than Subservience the 2024 movie.
We've always wondered how much and how well robots would fit into human society, particularly as technology has progressed in that field. The days of Terminator has made us particular wary of Doomsday events, but what if Doomsday didn't catch you unaware but you instead invited it into your home.
Join me as we review the movie Subservience.
CAST
| Actor/Actress | Image |
|---|---|
| Megan Fox |  |
| Michelle Morrone |  |
| Madeline Zima |  |
| Matilda Firch |  |
| Andrew Whipp |  |
STORYLINE
In what looks like a futuristic America, a family of four with Michelle Morrone playing the role of Nick, husband to Maggie who's played by Madeline Zima, who are both parents to Isla played by Matilda Firch and their toddler Max. The movie starts with Nick and his wife Maggie in their bedroom having a conversation, before Maggie clutches her chest in pain.
The next scene shows Nick and his daughter Isla pushing toddler Max in in what looks like a robot showroom. Apparently humans have evolved so much that there are now humanoid androids able to take care of the everyday tasks of the home.
As Isla remarks on how wonderful they look, a Salesman walks up to them and soon Nick is lost in conversation with him as Isla wanders away without him noticing.
Isla is mesmerized by the various Androids on display and walks around looking at the various humanoid androids as they display various home skills. Nick soon realizes Isla isn't with him and he and the salesman look around trying to find her. Eventually he finds her as a Android (a humanoid model played by Megan fox) brings her to him and he strikes up a conversation with the Android.
The next scene shows a tired and struggling Nick trying to prepare his kids for the day ahead. The doorbell rings and as Nick opens the door, he finds his Android delivered at his door. He invites her in and gives her a tour of the house where Isla names the Android Alice (Megan Fox), before eventually leaving the house in her care. Nick comes back home later to find his house cleaned and dinner ready. Isla sneaks out of bed at night to steal some cookies, she almost falls off a chair but Alice is there to save her. The noise wakes up Nick who rushes off to find Isla is unharmed, but Alice has a cut on her leg.
Another scene shows Nick watching a movie at night and in a bid to get Alice to understand how humans feel emotions, he gives her the authority to reset her memory by manually restarting her. Nick takes his family and Alice as they all go to visit a sick Maggie in the hospital. Maggie needs a heart transplant and she has to stay in the hospital, pending when she get a donor. Maggie privately speaks to Alice, advising the Android to take care of Nick even if he doesn't like some of the things it does. Meanwhile the doctor pulls Nick aside to reveal that Maggie wouldn't be getting the new heart as a storm would be delaying the delivery.
A frustrated and angry Nick is shown at home in his garage working on his truck when Alice comes in and tries to seduce him so as to get him to feel happy and reduce his suffering. Meanwhile at the construction company where Nick works, his co-workers have been replaced with Android workers leaving only Nick to supervise them. One night Nick is having a drink with them at a bar when the disgruntled workers alongside Nick decide to drive to the company, Monty guessing his code gains access and eventually destroy the androids.
Nick is back home this time having a bath when Alice walks into the bathroom, this time she tries to seduce him and succeeds.
The next scene shows Maggie finally getting a surgery for her heart transplant. She gets better and eventually comes back home, where Alice tries to sabotage little things around the house to get her injured.
At work, the company Management launches an investigation into the destroyed android and only Monty is called in for questioning, this makes him suspect of Nick of ratting him out. The two get into an argument an Alice trying to protect Nick, gets involved and in the process injures Monty. Alice would later visit Monty at his house where she destroys his Android and also kills him.
At home Maggie is in the bathtub when Alice walks in and strikes up a conversation. Maggie is able to eventually deduce that her husband has been sleeping with the Android. An angry Maggie gets into an argument with Nick when he gets home, meanwhile Alice carries the toddler Max into the bathroom in an attempt to drown him. Fortunately Isla comes in at this time and alerts her arguing parents to what is going on upstairs.
There's an ensuing struggle, but the couple are able to electrocute Alice, powering her down in the process.
Maggi heads to the hospital with both her children in an ambulance. Meanwhile the company producing the androids takes Alice to their family to check her code for reasons why she might've attacked a human, unfortunately she replicates herself into the server and a new Alice Android come to life killing the company's personnel.
The new Alice is seen at the hospital trying to kill Maggie and Isla, while the old damaged Alice finds Nick at a restaurant where he goes to clear his head. Nick tricks the Android and successfully destroys it as he rushes to the hospital to save his family. Nick arrives just in time to ram the new Alice Android off Maggie with his truck. After an ensuing struggle, Nick finally destroys the new Alice Android.
The family is seen getting better at the hospital. The movie finally ends as the cleanup crew of the Android company arrives at their facility to clean and cover up the whole saga.
The movie is an enjoyable almost two hour movie and Megan Foxx absolutely killed her role. It looks at how much technology will have advanced in the future robotics industry and how humans would take advantage of it. In a way it shows how much the industry has to offer, while still portraying the many dangers that advanced machines can have on the human society.
Personally I feel the movie leans towards an anti robotics stance while trying to play it safe and not be overly obvious about it. Already there are fears of how this technology can get out of hand, especially with the old movies like Terminator which shows machine dominance over the world.
In this case, the producers bring it closer to home and portray this in a more simpler setting. You can spot some differences here from other movies, especially in how quickly these Androids are able to be destroyed. For me, it seems there's a message here that although these Androids might not be on the level of the Doomsday machines, but they aren't completely safe either.
I would rate this movie a 5/10 because although Megan Foxx plays quite a convincing Android, the movie lacks a new point of view into Android and humanlike robot technology in the movie industry as we've seen many such similar storylines, but then the ending suggests there could be a sequel to this movie.
Images used are screenshots from the movie.