Soulm8te
Rating: 3/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
When the rumors started that there was going to be an erotic A.I. robot film that is going to be set in the M3GAN universe, I couldn't believe that Blumhouse and Universal would actually go with that idea. Then it was seemingly confirmed and shut down from a theatrical release, and I honestly totally forgot about it until a couple of days ago. While online, an article popped up that said Soulm8te, the aforementioned erotic thriller, was going to be released VOD on August 1. So, when I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was buy the film digitally and watched it, waiting to see where this film was going to go. Surprisingly, I enjoyed myself with this one. While the plot is cheesy and predictable on where it was going to go, I applaud the filmmakers for really taking a leap of faith with this sort of premise and they crafted a mostly-entertaining feature about a sexual robot that goes on a killing spree. In fact, I would even say I enjoyed this one more than I did the sequel to M3GAN, which makes me wonder how well this movie would have done if they took the chances in the theater. I would have gone to see it.
The film follows David (David Rhysdahl), who is an engineer that is mourning the passing of his wife. He has felt incredibly lonely and at a loss since her death, and decided to turn to a virtual assistant that his company created to try and find some sort of communication with. When interacting with the A.I. woman on his app turned into something that David wanted to explore further, he decides to sign up for the test demos of this new robotic A.I. companion called Soulm8te (Lily Sullivan), that starts to work really well for him at first. However, when he changes her code and his new robot, Sara, starts to explore human autonomy and what it is like in the world, things take a deadly and dangerous turn.
Let's be honest - the sole reason that most of us watched this movie is to see some gory horror violence that Blumhouse is great at and to see if the main character really has sex with a robot. The answers for this is that the gore is gloriously on display and he does have sex with Sara... multiple times in fact. This movie is plentiful in kills and the erotic nature that the filmmakers promised, and they deliver on showing the audience what they want. While I wish we had gotten some more kills and a little more blood, the violence they do show here makes you squirm in your seat. I don't think I have ever seen a movie where a woman is able to explode a man's penis by making her vagina tighter on command. And yes, that is a real thing that happens in this movie. It's incredibly cheesy at parts, and I think because of that, it makes the movie a lot more fun. If you can go into this film and not take it too seriously and maybe have a couple drinks during, you're gonna have fun with this one. The plot and the character development is incredibly predictable and therefore there are no real stakes with this one, but it's enjoyable at least.
However, surprisingly at the same time, the filmmakers were able to craft this story about loneliness and the extremes some people would go to to not feel alone or to fill a void that was left in their lives. I was actually surprised by the amount of times that this film actually tried to be emotionally resonant with its audience, and actually somewhat succeed. It's definitely not moving or life-changing by any means, but it wasn't a complete disaster.
At the same time, I liked the performances here. I think Sullivan is terrific as the robot Sara, and there were times when she was genuinely downright creepy. At the same time, I think she has fun chemistry with Rhysdahl, and I liked seeing how these two actors were able to make this sort of relationship blossom throughout the movie. I also want to comment on Claudia Doumit's performance here as Aubrey; I think she was a lot of fun and did a great job with what she was given for this movie.
In fact, I wouldn't call this movie bad at all. Like I said, I was fully going in expecting to tear this movie apart due to its absurd nature, but it actually worked for me here. It definitely does not match what Blumhouse had been able to do in the past, but this is a lot better than other VOD movies out there. I don't think this movie will be for everyone and it is definitely not as accessible as other Blumhouse films, but for what it is, I was genuinely surprised by how well this sort of film did.
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