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TAU

TAU is a science fiction movie which sees Julia (Maika Monroe) try to escape captivity from a sinister scientist, Alex (Ed Skrein). Stopping her escape is a machine that occupies the house in the name of TAU (voiced by an unrecognisable Gary Oldman) but as the captive and machine spend longer together, their relationship becomes further human.

 

Despite a strong cast, the script lets them down by being predictable and hazy. There is a huge flaw in artificial intelligence that is difficult for myself as a critic to overcome. Machines don’t have emotion. The sheer level of emotion shown by TAU is unbelievable and plays hard on the emotional pull between the machine, its maker and the hostage.

 

There is a real sense of Mary Shelly’s FRANKENSTEIN about TAU. The mad doctor creates a monster that eventually turns against its meaning in favour of more human wanting. However, unlike Mary Shelley’s literary classic, there is little substance or meaning behind TAUs existence other than to show some digression of character evolvement. The neon lit rooms and decent performances bring a BLADE RUNNER element of neo noir thriller to preceedings but the influence of Phillip K Dick across TAU is ever present and ever predictable.

 

While the first ten minutes lead you into a film that could be a futuristic hybrid of CUBE and SAW 2, it quickly divulges into something more akin to CLOSE CIRCUIT with the captive befriending the machine and teaching it human feelings which seem to please the machine contrasting to the pain inflicted onto it by its master.

 

Now firstly, this machine is purely an interface and not the robot like creature seen in films like EX_MACHINA and I, ROBOT. At least if that were the case then there would be something to connect with. Instead TAU is a SIRI like interface that connects with technology devices across the house and is instructed to torture those held captive who try to escape. From my viewing, it wasn’t quite established the reason for their captivity so a huge flaw is as to why, surely if it was to teach TAU more, then Julia’s connection with the machine was surely a positive influence. Otherwise there is no reason other than personal trait that he kept hostages and therefore the sinister embodiment of Alex, the mad doctor, was never explored more than a two dimensional figure.

 

At best, TAU gives some good performances and shows that the case have a lot to give, at its worst, TAU is predictable and forgettable, unfortunately in this instance the good does not outweigh the bad and once again Netflix struggle to balance a good cast and crew with a great film.

Director: Federico D'Alessandro

Released:  June 2018

Running Time: 97 minutes

Age Rating: 15

 

Reviewer: Martyn Wakefield

RATING


Plot: 2
Fear: 1
Gore: 2


R2/5​

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