Big Bug

While "BigBug" could work great as an opera, musical or theater play, Netflix put this dystopian view of an AI controlled future right into their streaming service. It is about a family and their peers trapped in a suburban home. Most of the story takes place in the living room reminding me of old sitcoms. Sure it must be more fun to watch it in the original French language, since the tone of voices and the grimaces of the actors work best this way.

The visual presentation is great, considering the small budget of roughly 13.000.000 EUR. What amazes me is that the faces of the robots are constantly manipulated through facial AI or some sort of enhanced sfx. The music is held mostly classical with orchestral instruments. Fans of G. Rossini will certainly be pleased.

However the story could have been more entertaining. The characters are well enough drawn, but the repetition of events like the misshapen new romance always goes back to square one and this stretches the movie for too long. Anyway if you are in the age of the cast you might have a good laugh with this dystopian comedy.

I was very hopeful when this movie started but as it got further along it never really took off. There doesn't ever seem to be a real point to this movie. The goal of getting out of the house is limited and does not occupy the movie enough. The movie seems to be all over the place with no real direction. There is all the flirting with no conclusion and it does not keep attention for the movie to be worth watching. The robots "taking over" is also a weak theme in the show and not captivating enough to make the movie worth while.

After many poor projects on Netflix I have almost resigned to see something refreshing. BigBug is nothing more than conversation comedy in dystopian future with fancy CGI and blue screen effects. It reminds me another wonderful piece Le Dîner de cons. French was always excellent in these kind of movies only sometimes too slow and too long. If you take it like this and don't be lazy to read subtitles, of course if you don't speak French, you will be awarded with almost two hours of inteligent fun and extremely hilarious characters. I especially enjoyed Claude Perron as Monique.

The pacing was a little off at parts, many the film was a little too long, but overall it was very enjoyable. It was pretty unexpected and weird for a dystopian future, but it had a lot of nice touches.

I loved the fact their was AI that wanted to help the humans in the situation. The humour was pretty cool too, and it certainly was an interesting watch.

The ending was pretty great too!

It's like a very long goofier episode of blackmirror. The overall plot AI vs humans, what does it mean to be human and the danger of AI is interesting and makes you really hate AI. LOVED that part. I really hope it never goes that far but seeing how many people already love being spied on by their Alexas just because their phone does it too is disturbing.

The romance parts were repetitive and not interesting to me. The main romance was actually quite uncomfortable, standing awkwardly close and interacting very hastily and clumsily. Didn't care for the teenage romance.. other than that the plot is too drawn out but it was not painfully slow. The trailer pretty much tells the whole plot except for one slight twist in the end. It's fine but not outstanding.