2050

2050 is a slow-moving science fiction movie that presents a humanist defense for making and using artificial android robots for human pleasure, including sex.

The movie begins with a quote from David Levy who said, “By 2050 people will not only be having sex with robots, they will fall in love with them.” This serves as the premise for this disturbing movie that examines not only the future of society but also the blurred lines between reality and fantasy and morality and immorality. From the first few scenes, it’s apparent that the filmmakers not only want to give viewers a glimpse into where society is heading in terms of artificial intelligence but also want to ask viewers, “What do you need to be fully satisfied?” In doing that, they don’t contradict the humanist conclusion of the two main characters, a married man who falls in love with a robot and his newly estranged wife.

At the urging of his spouse, Michael Greene and his wife, Brooke, suddenly drop in to see Brooke’s brother, Drew, who just happens to be making love with his new female sex-bot, called Quin. Drew lies and tells them Quin is his new human girlfriend. In fact, Drew just broke up with his longtime girlfriend, who left Drew for a male sexbot.

While Brooke and Drew are in the kitchen, Michael discovers that Quin is actually an android, a robot designed to look human in almost every way. Drew begs Michael not to tell his sister, and Michael agrees. Drew tells Michael, “Get the lingo right. They are called e-mates.”

As Drew explores his relationship with his e-mate, Quin, Michael becomes disenchanted with his marriage. Father to two small children and a tired wife, he tries to spice things up in the bedroom, but Brooke just laughs. Shortly thereafter, Drew he directs Michael to a place called Butterfly Chasers, a bar where people create, converse and have sexual relationships with their android e-mates.

Michael visits the club to scope it out. Most of the humans are just conversing with their android companions, but a couple are doing other things. Maxwell, the “bartender” at the club, shows Michael that he can custom design his own android and make her or him do anything he wants, innocuous or not.

On a second trip to the bar, Michael creates Sophia, a beautiful blonde with piercing blue eyes. Customizing her to his every whim, the two disappear into a room to have sexual relations. This quickly becomes a regular occurrence. At first, the relationship is just sexual, but eventually Michael believes he’s actually fallen in love with Sophia. Distraught that this is totally ruining his marriage, he goes to Maxwell the bartender to complain. Maxwell turns out to be the android company’s owner. Maxwell isn’t bothered at all by Michael’s revelation that he’s fallen in love with Sophia. In fact, he’s quite pleased that he has, even though he knows Michael is married. However, when Michael tries to blame his feelings for Sophia on Maxwell, for creating androids such as Sophia, Maxwell gives Michael a tongue-lashing about human free will and the amazing ubiquitous capacity of human beings to fall in love with just about anything, in many different ways.

Will Michael’s wife find out about Sophia? What will Michael say or do when she does?

2050 is too slow and talky. There’s not much jeopardy, and, except for a few moments and Dean Cain’s performance as the bartender, some of the acting is just serviceable. The cinematography is interesting, however, often panning the skyline as drones deliver pizzas and other packages, littering the sky like birds in a world where human society is slowly being swallowed up by technology. Also, the soundtrack is a bit strange, consisting mostly of quirky classical pieces underlying the scenes in lengthy bits.

In one scene, the movie makes some interesting points about the nature of human love. It also lays the blame on human beings for the crazy predicaments they often create for themselves. However, 2050 ultimately sides with mankind’s future creation of human-looking robots or androids to suit people’s pleasure, whether that be for mere companionship or even sex, both inside and outside of marriage. There’s also a reference to evolution and a comment that says people invented God. Thus, 2050 eventually takes a strong humanist, anti-theist, immoral, and amoral view toward the creation of sex-bots and androids. The movie also has lots of foul language, sexual content and explicit nudity.