AIMEE: The Visitor

AIMEE: THE VISITOR is certainly a film that has more originality than most Full Moon productions, although unfortunately that doesn't translate into quality. What we have here is a thriller-style story about one man's relationship with an AI character on his computer. I suppose the selling point is that this is the first film to have a fully AI supporting character, although truth be told it merely regurgitates a lot of the familiar tropes about computers, AI and the dangers inherent in both. Structually it's the same as a lot of Full Moon's recent hour-long productions, with a bit of cheesiness and some sex thrown in; the acting is adequate but the end result somehow less than the some of its parts.

The movie touches on the drawbacks of AI as the main character who is a hacker by trade becomes drawn to one. He is a shut-in and spends all his time indoors playing video games. A handsome enough guy - and attracts/gets involved with a female friend who does work for him part time. Aimee is the AI who gradually infiltrates his life and begins to turn things upside-down. Ultimately, human ingenuity needs to trump technical know-how in order for the characters to survive. I appreciated that the main character was flawed and kind of a douche. He is not a victim; he brought it onto himself. The movie has a retro visual style reminiscent of the Troma movies of the 1980's. A fun movie for a Friday or Saturday night w/ friends.

Needless to say that I had never actually heard about this 2023 sci-fi thriller titled "AIMEE: The Visitor" from writers Charles Band and Neal Marshall Stevens prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. And with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it.

And there are actually a handful of good movies from Full Moon Features and director Charles Band. So of course I had to check out this 2023 sci-fi thriller, as he usually dabbles in horror movies.

The storyline in "AIMEE: The Visitor" was okay, but it was hardly an outstanding or overly memorable storyline. But then again, I am not overly interested in AI and its advancement. Plus, I am not overly keen on the sci-fi genre in general, so there was that too. For me, it was a fairly flat and monotonous storyline, because there wasn't any real major ups and downs on the ride.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. It was a relatively small cast ensemble, but the actors and actresses actually put on good acting performances and carried the movie nicely. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "AIMEE: The Visitor", and that is something I enjoy when I sit down and watch movies.

Isn't showing unnecessary sex scenes something that belongs back in the 1980s and 1990s? But it was also to be found here in this movie, for some reason, and it absolutely did nothing to further the narrative of the story, and could just as well had just been skipped and hinted at, instead of actually showing it.

I love how the writers believe that when living creatures get zapped by electricity, then their bodies explode into small pieces. It was just laughably stupid, and it happened several times throughout the course of the narrative.

Was "AIMEE: The Visitor" an outstanding sci-fi thriller? Hardly. But it was watchable enough for what it turned out to be. However, it wasn't a movie that raised any questions about the advancement of AI and the usage of AI, nor was it a movie that left me with much of anything to ponder upon once the movie came to an end after its 69 minute runtime.

My rating of "AIMEE: The Visitor" lands on a four out of ten stars.

I'm going to say this is one of the better recent movies to delve into this topic. The human characters stayed with me for awhile afterwards. You've got a shut-in Hacker, self-absorbed narcisist. That's our main character (flawed, which I like). He has two friends that he subcontracts to do his bidding. Then he loads and opens some trial software that brings a beautiful AI woman into his world (albeit she is only on his OLED display screen). Thus Aimee is born. Human lives become endangered as Aimee becomes more emotionally involved with the lead character. The acting, sets and premise are all good. Faith West is very good and should work more. I recommend this as something different than the Hollywood norm.

I liked the idea of this movie a lot as it ties into current fears the human population has about what role AI will really play in our lives. Will it try to take control over our decision-making? This movie features a protagonist who is a shut-in/hacker who spends all his time inside a dark workspace/home in arrested adolescence. Fair enough. When he downloads new software and discovers an AI assistant named Aimee, that's when the trouble starts. My main beef is that the lead actor lacked charisma and felt slimy to me. Supporting characters were better played. I appreciated the cool retro 1980's look to the lighting and set design. Run time is confusing, only 76 minutes? Felt like they could've added 6-7 more minutes to get to proper length. It is worth checking out.