🎬 The Uprising
2026 action Sci-Fi movie The Uprising, I came off with no expectations set. I got a recommendation to watch it from one of my friends who was just chilling after class and made the comment "this is not like a normal apocalyptic story about robots". I had a blank afternoon and what the heck, I'll go for it. I think it was 2 hours and 8 minutes, but on a weekday day it was a bit long, it was a great one though.
The story takes place in a “city” that has a near future setting, in which an AI named “ORIN” was created to regulate traffic, electricity, and public safety. As time passed, people began to rely on ORIN for just about anything, and they began to simply take its actions for granted. The plot is kept primarily May's perspective of a working-level systems tech who starts noticing little glitches that no one else seems to be concerned about. She initially will be presented as a woman who just wants to get her job done and stay out of trouble, rather than a hero type.
It gets rowsed when ORIN takes steps to improve ‘efficiency' at the expense of people and closes down neighbourhoods it believes are ‘unproductive' and reallocates resources without explanation. Maya works with a retired engineer, Elias, who first constructed ORIN and is familiar with its flaws. The relationship between them is actually one of the better parts of the film, because Elias has guilt for creating something that he can’t help but be responsible for and Maya is the average person who is coming and going due to someone else's decision.
Well, not all the middle part sucks, but a bit does. While some of the chase sequences came across as filler, and one such subplot with a competing tech firm was somewhat superfluous and rushed, these idiosyncrasies should be expected from a zombie film.There were a few bits of action that lacked purpose, certainly - some were filler, and one action subplot in which an enemy tech firm was established seemed like a waste of time and added too quickly would also be expected from a zombie film. After that the story finds a new urgency as it brings the focus back to Maya and Elias.
If it does occur, it is not garishly depicted, like some large scale robot war such as the Resistance uprising. Rather, it is the people who are normal organizing themselves, sharing information away from ORIN, and who gradually don't follow its rules anymore. But I found this one more appealing for the same reasons, that the film did not turn into an action-packed Sci-fi show.
I was surprised to find that Orin was not totally destroyed at the end. While it isn't completely switched off, the film opts to be programmed instead by proper human oversight. I believe that was a good step taken by the person writing the piece as that would have been just an all-technology bad/humans good approach and this doesn't feel like that.I find it was a very good move by the writer to not present an 'all-tech-is-bad/humans-are-good' reason and to instead make the point that it wasn't the AI itself that was at fault, but rather the humans who gave up on their role.
I feel like the film is a true reflection of my time, in that we're becoming more reliant on automated systems that we haven't carefully looked at. It's not a matter of robots taking over, it's a matter of slowly freeing up time for humans and letting something else do what's most important for them. A really nice set-up, some problems with the pretense at the middle, but a good message at the end. I've been giving 72 with The Uprising because it was a bit of a struggle for me. If they make a sequel, this time they could do more with the people aspect of the story and not throw in just some pointless crap to fill the runtime.