Whether humanity was ready for it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere now. It helps to refine our web searches. It operates our smartphones. It’s even started to take some of our jobs. Although Hollywood creatives fight to prevent it from taking their jobs and making feature films, that still hasn’t stopped it from being the star of them. In the last two years alone, Blumhouse has wasted no time producing films such as M3GAN and Afraid. While both films explore how evil AI might be (to varying degrees), the latest film to tackle the technology, titled Subservience, dares to ask what if it were also sexy? Hint: it’s not.

 

In one of the funniest coincidences in modern movie memory, Megan Fox essentially stars as an adult version of M3GAN. Like the titular android in that film, Fox’s femmebot (named Alice here) is programmed to do whatever she can to protect her owner and make them happy. Where the two films begin to differ from each other is in the fact that Alice’s owner isn’t a little girl. Instead, it’s a married man.

 

The film begins with that man, Nick (played by Michele Morrone), and his children at a convention where different robot models are being showcased. A brief flashback reveals his wife has suffered some sort of medical emergency involving her heart. Through some exposition with a salesman, it’s revealed that he’s looking for a robot that can take care of his kids and house chores so that he can continue to work. Initially unhappy with most of the floor models, when his daughter stumbles upon Alice and takes a liking to her, he decides to bring her home. 

 

Nick initially struggles to get used to Alice. While it seems like he is uncomfortable with all robots, we learn that he just misses his wife and that no other female presence can replace her. When it’s revealed that Nick’s wife is still alive - and slowly recovering from her episode - something in Alice changes. But it isn’t until she returns to the house and Alice slowly becomes obsolete that she becomes both defiant and deadly.

 

Now, the script by Will Honley and April Maguire is filled with some interesting ideas, but it ultimately leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. The misdirect involving the wife’s medical emergency is especially baffling, as it is heavily implied that she’s dead - and that Nick is mourning - at the very beginning. Although the reveal that his wife is still alive, and that she will eventually return to the house creates some interesting tension between Alice and Nick, it also poses the film’s most obvious question: Why couldn’t Nick just hire a human nanny to take care of his kids? While the cost of the robots is never mentioned, one can only assume it might have been a lot cheaper than buying a whole robot. This question is further fueled by a plotline involving Nick and his coworkers having their jobs threatened by the increased reliance on artificial intelligence. At one point, in a heated exchange with his boss, Nick literally argues about humans being more trustworthy. Yet he can’t apply that same thought process to his own life? The film’s logic is as thin as a floppy disk. 

 

The most interesting concept is Alice’s slow deviation from her programming as a result of  falling in love. She becomes so infatuated with Nick that she is willing to kill his family to ensure that only she can have him. Although we’ve seen this kind of romance-fueled mania before, having a robot on one end makes the story more intriguing. Just when you think the ai genre is headed into uncharted territory, we’re thrust right back into a series of clunky cliches.

 

The film’s only bright spot is Megan Fox. She’s having an absolute blast here. Whenever Alice is onscreen, the title makes sense because she renders the audience subservient to her presence. Her most impressive yet subtle contribution to the role is the way in which she manages to restrain herself and her movements from looking too human - despite actually being human. Those details really help sell the Nick’s internal struggle with the uncanny valley. The only con with her performance is that we have to wait until the third act to see her go completely haywire. 

 

Now, Subservience isn’t bad. It’s essentially Fatal Attraction with robots. As fun as that sounds, like most tech these days, it’s got a bunch of useless upgrades that only make you yearn for the original.