Superintelligence with Mellisa McCarthy and James Corden is a light American comedy that debuted in 2020. Is it worth watching?
Superintelligence tells the story of Carol Peters, a painfully average American woman, who is single, takes up odd jobs and constantly makes trouble in the company of people. One day, for an undefined reason, a woman is chosen as a guinea pig of artificial intelligence - coffee machines, radio receivers and televisions controlled by one and the same "brain" begin to contact her. Assuming the right to decide about everything and everyone, the eponymous superintelligence intends to influence the future of our species on Earth, but is still wondering how to do it - is it better to save man or can it be destroyed once and for all? A few days spent in the company of an average representative of homo sapiens are supposed to make her learn something more about people and only then will she finally decide what to do with them.
The script of the film is bizarre and quite interesting in its weirdness - but the production quickly makes it clear that it is nothing more than a silly, light comedy to watch on a free evening. From the very first minutes, Melissa McCarthy receives practically one hundred percent of screen time, filling it with verbal (less situational) humor. Her dialogues with intelligence can be crazy and unpredictable - we can observe here the contrast between a very high and not very advanced individual; between a virtual being from the Internet and a down-to-earth person of flesh and blood. The first half of the film is played out quite funny, sometimes you can even laugh - the creators, probably wanting to add even more comedy to the film, equipped James Corden with superintelligence in the face and voice of James Corden, which is difficult to comment on other than with laughter. Although McCarthy appears on the screen physically more often, as a duo the actors complement each other really well - there is a lot of discussion on various topics, and the fact that the characters come from completely different worlds adds additional blush to the dialogues.
But then things get worse - the pace of production slows down considerably later, when the romantic theme comes to the fore, and Carol begins to take an interest in her ex-boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale, played here). Loose and universal jokes with AI give way to cliches from romantic comedies - the film falls into the typical plot scheme of "first it's good, then bad, and finally good again" and it just starts to be painfully predictable. It's a pity, because the positive absurdity of the script allowed the creators to introduce everything they could dream about - instead of going into a more unobvious, crazy side, which they suggested from the beginning, they decided to direct the film to a typical love story. As you can easily guess, it results in boredom and loss of the viewer's interest more or less from the middle of the production. If that was not enough, at the end we are offered a pathetic and quite pushy moral and a happy ending quickly pulled out of our sleeve, which makes the film simply mediocre.
Superintelligence is a bit of wasted potential - the topic allowed for much more than we got at the end. The film, however, has its good moments, thanks to which I do not judge it negatively - it's just a simple comedy like many, suitable for evening snacks or as a background for homework. For almost the entire duration, the screen belongs to McCarthy, who - as you can see - had a lot of fun with the production, putting her heart into the production. For charisma, the visible efforts of the actress, a few accurate verbal jokes, a few funny gags and the one James Corden pops out of the fridge, I give 6/10 - there is nothing to doubt that it will remain in your memory for a long time.
