Film Review: “Uncanny”
Uncanny, 2015
dir. Matthew Leutwyler
★★
Ever wondered what the SyFy channel version of Ex Machina would look like? Well, look no further, because here is Uncanny! I was genuinely surprised that people in the festival seemed to enjoy this, because I found it so baffling, predictable, cheap, and awkward.
It follows a young journalist Joy (Lucy Griffiths) for a week while she interviews robotics prodigy David Kressen (Mark Webber) and his AI android Adam (David Clayton Rogers). As she learns more about the research being conducted in their lab, she uncovers truths that change her life. Sort of. Maybe? I don’t know. They don’t say what happens to her in the end. The ending is ridiculously predictable, though.
The whole film is just awkward, the look of it is cheap and the characters are very irritating. Especially Mark Webber’s character, who is like a mixture of Sheldon Cooper and Dan Clark from The Item. And the other guy may as well have been a robot in real life for all the range she showed in this film. They just aren’t engaging at all and come off annoying at best and obnoxious at worst.
Also, Rainn Wilson is in this for some reason, and he appears for a total of three minutes, and it’s a complete misuse of Rainn Wilson because he’s great. (Do you want to see a Rainn Wilson film, check out Super, ignore this inane piece of nothing.)
While I did not like it at all, I do feel bad that it came out right after Ex Machina, because it’s not innovative enough to stand out in the aftermath of it, and it will probably fade out into oblivion. Out of all the films I’ve seen this year, this was probably the most disappointing, because the premise was interesting, and they just ruined it with bland camera work, bad acting and a lazy script.
I would not recommend it. Not at all, Just got watch Ex Machina instead. Or any other movie with AI. Just not this one, because it’s just really blah.
review by Mariana Duarte
Filmology 
June 29, 2015 at 2:44 pm
[…] Uncanny […]
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November 8, 2015 at 6:33 am
I’ve seen both films, and although while watching Uncanny I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching Ex Machina, but I thought the twist in Uncanny was bigger than in Ex Machina? You don’t agree? Also, how was the ending predictable to you? Please share your thoughts because it left me with a big question mark?
***** SPOILER ALERT ******
Is “Danny” also A.I. ??? Why did it end with him seeing a picture of Joy? I’m lost
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November 8, 2015 at 9:30 am
I will admit I saw this film five months ago and it was incredibly un-memorable to me, so I won’t be able to reply to this with any sort of accuracy. I do remember that while the twist was bigger, it was far less effective, because Ex Machina isn’t about the twist anyway, and in Uncanny I got the feeling from the get-go that one of them was going to be an A.I. (obviously) and that there was going to be a sort of lock-down situation because there was one in Ex Machina and I was just expecting it because of all the similarities that I’d already noticed. At first I thought Adam was going to be the A.I. because they were so obviously hinting at it, then I figured not because they were so obviously hinting at it. So I wasn’t really FULLY expecting David to be the A.I. (thought maybe Joy might be?) but when it was revealed it wasn’t like a huge twist, it was just sort of “oh okay, no that makes sense” so I wasn’t shocked or surprised or even particularly excited about it because it just seemed sort of blah. So, yeah, the ending was predictable in a way that I wasn’t too keen on (I usually don’t mind predictable endings) because the film was so heavily leaning on their twist, and they failed, at least on my part, to deliver any sort of tension. It was just boring, really.
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November 8, 2015 at 6:22 pm
” At first I thought Adam was going to be the A.I. because they were so obviously hinting at it, then I figured not because they were so obviously hinting at it.” They weren’t ‘hinting’ at it. It was the main premise of the film.
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November 8, 2015 at 7:14 pm
I agree with some of your points. The twist was bigger, but it was just so blah and too short once the plot became alive. I thought Joy maybe was an A.I. myself at one point haha. I agree with John Seldon though… they weren’t hinting that Adam was the A.I. because the audience knew from the beginning that Adam WAS the A,I., but Adam was really David, and David was really Adam. The “real” David was “Adam.” I just don’t understand the ending of the movie? What does the end mean when he’s looking at his phone of a picture of Joy and then they supposedly go viral on the innovation.
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November 13, 2015 at 4:26 pm
why is joy pregnant in the end of the movie?
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January 5, 2016 at 9:26 am
This Will Change Your Whole outlook on the Film!
David & Adam are both Robots!
Castle is the Creator.
That’s why when he asked ” David ” if he was ready for the next stage .. He answered for him , YES
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January 10, 2016 at 6:02 am
“I do feel bad that it came out right after Ex Machina,”. You do realize it came out 4 months before Ex Machina right?
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