Hollywood tends to have a pretty narrow pallette when it comes to stories involving robots. If things aren’t blowing up, the budget probably isn’t there. So you end up with pyrotechnical special effects displays like the Transformers series, which is pointedly childish in its view of the world, or almost comical tales like Robocop, which – while the original remains a cult classic – bombed pretty badly as a 21st century reboot. The films we’re looking at here are all lower budget than Hollywood films, and none of them are American productions, except “Robot And Frank “. The one thing they all have in common is thoughtful story arcs, an exploration of how humans may treat the artificial intelligences they create, and some kind of look at what consciousness really is.

Although it got pretty mixed reviews from American viewers & critics, this might have a lot to do with typical Hollywood sci-fi expectations. It’s actually a visually compelling and thoughtful film. Set in the mid-21st century with the Earth’s ecosystem on the verge of collapse, robotics insurance agent Jacq Vaucan (Antonio Banderas) is tasked with discovering who is modifying the robots created to help humans with survival, which seem to be violating one of their key built-in protocols for protecting humans. What he discovers has profound consequences for the future of humanity.

Against a backdrop of armed conflict with China in the not-too-distant future, veteran AI engineer Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens) secretly hopes to develop technology to help his diseased daughter, even if it means funding comes from the powerful Ministry of Defense. He collaborates with another AI specialist known only as “Ava” and their work exceeds the original expectations of the military project, which leads the Ministry of Defense to meddle in ways that then lead to a surprising outcome. For a rather low budget, this is a visually solid, well-scripted, acted, and executed film with a compelling soundtrack and audio design. Destined to be a new cult fave.
A concept that got a rather grandiose “Spielberg treatment” in Artificial Intelligence, the Spanish-Bulgarian production Eva treats the same potentially disturbing possibility with considerably more sensitivity: why on Earth would we need to create robot children, and what might happen if we did?
Frank Langella turns in a classic performance as Frank Weld, a retired jewelry thief who’s getting a little “Alzheimersy”. To help him deal with minding his mundane day-to-day tasks, his son gets him a robot. Weld has other ideas about how the robot might help him. A quirky comedy/drama with some thoughtful meditation on aging.

Expectations may have been a little too high upon Chappie’s release; after churning out uniquely stylish and well-conceived films like District 9 and Elysium, maybe South African director Neill Blomkamp needed to have some fun. And for anyone who has a clue who Die Antwoord is, their presence in the cast would be a pretty strong signal that this flick might be more about fun than fine cinema. Hopefully Blomkamp had some, with Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman on tap, how could you not? A little light on depth, the story is a quirky exploration of a police robot that ends up in the hands of a bumbling gang, who “parent” it a little differently than the cops would have. And in the end, the naive Chappie seems to have some soul.

Alex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, made his directorial debut with this stylish and cerebral thriller, and racked up enough awards and nominations that you probably know about this one. Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong on this list; it had a slim budget of $15 million, and managed considerable visual sophistication in spite of this. The writing is exceptional, the performances are compelling (especially Alicia Vikander as Ava), and the strange paranoia and eroticism behind this cinematic Turing Test will throw you for a loop.