Singularity

In 2020, Elias van Dorne (John Cusack), CEO of the world’s largest robotics company, introduces his most powerful invention: Kronos, a super-computer designed to end all wars. However, it quickly determines that mankind itself is the biggest threat to world peace and launches an attack to rid the earth of the ‘infection’ of man.

Years later, a small team of survivors set out in search of a new world where mankind exists without fear of robot persecution. But does this world even exist? And will they live long enough to find out?

Singularity doesn’t have a single shred of originality in its wiring, mashing together at least half a dozen other more notable pictures to create a film that lacks its own identity. The most blatant comparison is, of course, James Cameron’s seminal sci-fi classic The Terminator, but there are influences from Blade Runner, A.I., War of the Worlds and even The Hunger Games littered throughout. After a while, there are so many aspects of Singularity that have been seen elsewhere that it becomes a game of how many you can spot.

John Cusack headlines the box art, but has around 10 minutes of screen time; he’s mainly around to provide simple exposition, explaining the plot from his high tower to a robotic but human-looking sidekick Damien (played unconvincingly by Carmen Argenziano). Even in such a small role, Cusack doesn’t do anything noteworthy, wasting his talent and the potential to have been a maniacal, omnipresent being. Other than Cusack and his robo-pal, the rest of the cast is skeletal with only two other characters having any substantial part: Andrew (Julian Schaffner) and Veronica (Eileen Grubba). Performances from both Schaffner and Grubba fall flat and there’s not an ounce of chemistry generated by the pairing. Given that three-quarters of the film follows them both through forestry as they try to reach a rumoured sanctuary and it doesn’t make for particularly enthralling viewing.

Performances aside, Singularity does have a few things going for it. The visual effects are mighty impressive for a film of such a low budget and director Robert Kouba, along with cinematographers Jesse Brunt and Sebastian Cepeda, manage to make the scale of the film much bigger than what they actually had to work with.

Singularity‘s ambition is ironically its biggest downfall. While it’s impressive to see what’s been achieved on a small amount of money, it poses existential questions and warns of the dangers of technological advancements without making any real attempt to answer them. Amateur performances and an overwhelming amount of borrowing from existing movies make it an overall forgettable glimpse into a familiar vision of the future.