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| Robots -- or humanoids? |
"Mankind is a state of mind."
"Your sister is in rapport."
In what purports to be a post-apocalyptic time period, many humans can't reproduce and robots are doing most of the work. Captain Kenneth Cragis (Don Megowan of The Werewolf) is distrustful of the "clickers," who have humanoid faces and bodies but are mere mechanical men, according to him. Cragis belongs to the Order of Flesh and Blood, a society which fears that robots may spell the end of mankind. Then he learns that his sister, Esme (Frances McCann), is "in rapport" with her clicker servant, Pax (David Cross) -- who, presumably, is anatomically correct -- a situation that Kenneth finds repugnant. Meanwhile a secret organization of clickers has been able to create robots that are 96% human by transferring memories and consciousness from recently deceased people and putting them in mechanical bodies that resemble them. The only thing left is to create "robots" who can reproduce. Kenneth falls in love with Esme's friend, Maxine (Erica Elliott), and vice versa, but the two are harboring a secret that neither of them is even aware of ... Creation of the Humanoids is talky science fiction with "science" that may be on the level of an old comic book, but the talk is always interesting and there are plenty of fascinating notions in Jay Simms' screenplay. This is an extremely low-budget production but the use of shadows disguises the fact that there are few real sets, although Esme's apartment is strikingly designed. The actors put over the material quite well, and the picture has a fast enough pace, although there's a scarcity of action. The "twist" ending shocked me when I was a little kid, but nowadays I can tell it doesn't make much sense. The weird musical score doesn't hurt.
Verdict: Thought-provoking science fiction if you take it with a very large grain of salt. ***.
2 comments:
Very interesting and prescient, considering our current direction toward transhumanism. Are you aware of the British series on AMC called Humans? Seems to have a similar theme.
- Chris
No, I've never heard of this series, but I will check it out. Yes, this old movie does seem to be dealing with "transhumanism," although the movie posits the theory that we humans were actually created years in the past by robots. Who knew?
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