AIMEE: The Visitor

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.

With no knowledge of this film or what it was about but seeing as it was the latest film by beloved acclaimed director Charles Band, and having viewed several of his films in recent years. Had some expectations of just solid entertainment.

Although the cover art looks relatively cheap, the overall quality of the film is watchable and not overly low budget. The special effects aren't terrible as the design of the AI character of AIMEE looks good, as do the background scenes.

The story is intriguing as while watching we are interested in where it is heading. Most of it is quite predictable but there is still some thrills and suspense to be had. Considering the subject matter, most would expect some skin to be shown. Although we don't see the character of AIMEE shed but there is an extended scene with the lead female Gazelle (Faith West- possibly a star in the making. Be on the lookout for her).

What makes this film worthwhile is the runtime being quite short as things move quite quickly. Although in the end, not everything seems to be answered such as who was behind the hacking of the AIMEE. Was expecting a reveal of sorts.

Perhaps these artificial intelligence sci-fi films will become more if a trend and they are highly entertaining. Overall decent film. Expect it to be more popular in the coming months.

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.

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.

OK, so I thought that perhaps this film would be reminiscent of some of those campy-technology based sci-fi films of the 80s & 90s, i.e., Johnny Mnemonic, Hackers, War Games, The Thirteenth Floor, to name a few. You know, those movies that were based on technology of the era that may have been decent movies at the time but are completely obsolete now and almost comical to watch.

This movie does not have to wait 30 years to be comical to watch. I could see this movie getting a B+ as a student film for a course at a Poughkeepsie, New York community college called "You can make movies too."

The only thing I liked about this movie was that the girl who played Gazelle was kind of cute. She had a rather Halston Sage kind a look. But unfortunately, her acting, although at times somewhat convincing, mostly missed the mark, as did the other actors' performances. I thought perhaps two of her 30 or so "What the f's?" were actually believable.

The scene where the two "FBI agents," (whose appearance in the film was completely irrelevant), were electrocuted, was reminiscent of Star Trek TOS 1966 special effects.

Ironically, the best actor in the cast was the artificial intelligence that played the character called AIMEE.

Here's the good news: if somebody forces you to watch this movie, it's only 69 minutes long!