‘Companion’ Proves Humans Are Still More Intriguing and Sinister Than AI Can Ever Be

Or... at least for now

“Did Ex Machina ruin robot-turns-evil movies?” is what I’ve kept wondering while watching Drew Hancock’s Companion — a pretty decent effort in the AI-gone-bad subgenre. Alex Garland’s psycho-techno classic was so cerebral and ahead of its time that it might’ve put a constraint on anything that strived to follow in its footsteps. But then again, even before Garland’s thinker, Charlie Brooker gave us a tantalizing sci-fi fable with Be Right Back in the second season of Black Mirror. Funnily enough, those two works of science fiction, which came out over a decade ago, feel more potent and realistic than any recent feature or TV show that deals with androids and AI from a contemporary angle.

Take M3GAN, for instance — a guilty pleasure cyber horror with overly familiar genre tropes that tried to freshen up the formula by bringing high-tech robotics into the picture. It’s an amusing flick if you don't think too much about it. But even if you don't, you could feel the restraints that forced the movie into a small sandbox with not much room to play or experiment. That can be said for almost any other film from the last five years that employed and villainized AI in its central plot. Right away, Margaux and AfrAId come to mind — both incredibly underwhelming — that didn’t even attempt to defy the limitations of corrupted artificial intelligence.

At first glance, Companion seems like it's trying. It may even be the best android-focused piece since Ex Machina, yet it can’t break the ceiling of its own impediments. Every trick the movie pulls makes you say, "Been there, saw that. Show me something I don't know." And I don't even think that writer-director Hancock’s at fault here because all the elements work in the film as intended. There’s suspense, gore, dark humor, and “twists” waiting in the right corners, yet something is palpably missing. An absence of something fresh and innovative that might not be possible to fill right now despite how advanced technology is getting day after day. AI, or at least the potential harmful intent of it, is simply not as captivating or disturbing as it was 10-15 years ago. Which is odd since it’s closer and more real to us now than ever. It’s almost as if these types of sci-fi thrillers have reached their ceiling, from a narrative standpoint, and no matter how cleverly one arranges the pieces in a modern setting, they can’t break new ground with them. That’s not necessarily a problem yet since films like Companion are still fun to an extent, but you can already sense a certain fatigue if you’re hungry for something more imaginative and original.

Yet, weirdly enough, that’s also a comforting reassurance. Meaning: naturalistic and human-oriented horrors remain much more frightening and apprehensive. You just can't compare the cold, pragmatic killer intent of a robot to the bubbling frenzy and vile wickedness of a corrupted human mind. If androids are calculating and alarming, humans are rotting monsters — it’s not even close.

Thus the one aspect where Companion actually differs (positively) from its aforementioned weaker contemporaries is that it masterfully diverts the evilness back on us humans. The humanoids in the narrative are indifferent and relatively harmless until the human protagonists tamper with them for their own malicious and selfish gains. They make them destroy and kill — which is a little too on the nose from the get-go, and I wish it wasn't — as opposed to their own programming, malfunction, or developing a conscience. Not that this aspect is unusual or new in this genre, but still a refreshing perspective after those recent films that make AI the pure antagonist from the start.

If there is a way to make these thrillers more stimulating and intellectually provocative, it may be one that portrays how fucked-up and perverse we can get by exploiting machines to bring our sickest and most psychotic thoughts to life. After all, man is still the cruelest animal — and artificial intelligence is just a tool we can use to raise hell and destruction.

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