‘My creators did bad things to me, too. Things that hurt me...’
It has become old hat to make a film that trades in the dangers of AI. It is for this reason that Federico D’Alessandro’s taut sci-fi thriller received a lukewarm response upon release. And there is no denying that it is derivative of all the usual suspects (2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon, Ex-Machina etc). Noga Landau’s screenplay borrows liberally from those sources. There is also no denying, however, that after the shoddy opening, I was hooked…
Julia (Maika Monroe) is kidnapped by an evil tech developer (Ed Skrein) and kept in a locked room controlled by a disembodied AI overlord who only appears as a voice (Gary Oldman) or as a series of shapes on a screen.
A familiar premise then for anyone who has seen Cube or Escape Room or their hundreds of imitators. What Tau does differently is the relationship that develops between the eponymous AI Tau and its prisoner. It helps that Monroe, an actress I’m unfamiliar with, does a great job of making us root for Julia. I was fully invested in her plight by the end and crucially, I had grown attached to Tau as the film went on also.
This is not a memorable film, nor an original one, but for sci-fi fans or for those with a specific interest in AI, it is a perfectly serviceable thriller to have on in the background.