The Artemis crew came back to Earth about a week ago and already the cynics think we never went to the Moon. It never surprises me why people think this. A lot of people live under the delusions they are right all the time.
Maybe it’s because people saw the Apollo 13 incident as a made-up scenario to breathe life into space exploration after a sudden drop in interest. But let’s face it. Most of the Moon trips after Neil Armstrong stepped foot felt a little bit pompous and pretentious. They really weren’t doing much which is why I think a lot of people lost interest.
Even when “Star Wars” was released in 1977, there wasn’t much hope it would be a big success. And when it became a huge hit, it changed movies for years to come. Everyone wanted to have their own space cowboy/swashbuckler movie.
After “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” tried to be a combination of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Star Wars” with horrible 1970s style and fashion, they want back to the basics with “The Wrath of Khan.”
Roger Corman who did all he could to capitalize off the success of “SW” produced numerous cheap sci-fi movies. One of those, “Android,” is actually pretty damn good despite lifting bits and pieces from “Alien,” “Bride of Frankenstein” and “Wars” itself.
Don Keith Opper who would later become famous for his role in the “Critters” franchise plays the titular character also name Max 404, the assistant to Dr. Daniel (Klaus Kinski) on a spaceship. The movie is set in 2036 as Max is first shown watching a video demonstration with computer animation on men and women having sex. He’s gullible but obedient to Daniel. When he hears a distress call from another ship, he becomes fascinated by the woman’s voice and allows them to dock.
However, Max doesn’t know that the woman, Maggie (Brie Howard), and the two men, Keller (Norbet Weisser) and Mendes (Crofton Hardester), are fugitives. At first Daniel wants them gone not realizing Maggie is one of them and he’s fascinated by a woman on board. But Mendes, who is more brutish, has other plans to take over the ship and killing the whole crew. Yet Keller suspects almost immediately Max is not human when he observes Max using his abilities to magnetics pull a tray several inches within his hand.
Keller tells Mendes rightfully he feels Daniel is out in space working on androids following the “Munich Revolution” from years earlier in which androids revolting on Earth and they became illegal. Daniel is in fact working on another android, Cassandra One (Kendra Kirchner), and Max overhears Daniel feeling he might revolt as Max is exhibiting more human behaviors that Daniel considers insubordination.
The movie is only 80 minutes with credits and doesn’t have much in special effects. The lasers carried by Keller, Maggie and Mendes look like basic toys that have been modified. The sets aren’t impressive as the ones on “Alien” and look more like the ones from “Dark Star.” Daniel spends a lot of time in a closed ecological system similar to the ones in “Silent Running” and the scenes in the lab are mostly darkly lit.
No, it’s the performances of Kinski and Opper that sell this movie. Kinski was well known for his distinctive looks that often had him cast in horror movies or as villains. He reportedly turned down the role of Toht in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” telling Steven Spielberg he felt it was a “boring pile of shit.” However I think it was because Toht, a Nazi official, was not the main villain. Kinski was also known for being difficult on movie sets so Spielberg dodged a bullet there. I also think Kinski wanted to be able to tell Spielberg “No.” The director was also try to rebound from the negative reception of “1941” as well. Kinski totally fits the role. He just looks like the type of scientific megalomaniac who would be hiding in the outer realm of the universe doing experiments.
As for Opper, he has that friendly “Aw shucks!” style he brought to the role of Charlie in the “Critters” movies. Opper co-wrote the movie and there’s a wonderment he brings to the role like a teenager making a lot of discovery. You can see some precursors to Jeff Bridges’ role in “Starman.”
I’d even argue the movie, which got a lot of playtime on HBO in the early to mid 1980s before vanishing to the pinewood shelves in video rental shops was a major influence on the development of the 404 error in the early 1990s.
As AI becomes a more hot issue as the days goes, it makes you wonder if it’s really possible for androids to develop human emotions or even defy their programming. Ten years ago, Microsoft Corporation released the Tay chatbot on Twitter and in no time it began to post the same inflammatory posts from real users. Human beings themselves are just as subseptible. People develop regional accents at a young age they can’t change. Or they like certain foods only because that’s what their parents made them.
In the third act, the movie takes a different approach with a few twists that make you wonder what is real and what isn’t.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 