Superintelligence movie review (2020) | Roger Ebert

There is a plot to work through, though, and it is oddly convoluted. Carol was a high-tech big wig who chucked it all to live a more altruistic existence, volunteering at Seattle pet adoptions and such. (Falcone loves his filler aerial shots of Seattle. Youll feel as if youve seen the entire cityand parts of Newcastle and Whidbey Islandby the time this thing is done.) Henry plays her best friend, Dennis, a high-tech guru who exists primarily so she has someone to talk to on the phone.

One day, an all-seeing, all-knowing voice starts talking to her through her TV, cell phone and rice maker. It sounds like Corden in an effort to soothe her when she freaks out. This naturally leads to hackneyed Carpool Karaoke bit in which McCarthy belts out the Barenaked Ladies One Week not once but twice over the course of the movie. (And now this song is stuck in your head, too. Im so sorry.) Its a supercomputer that became sentient, and now is trying to decide whether or not to eviscerate humanity and start over. Carol, as his test subject, is the planets only hope.

Its the kind of high-concept idea youd see in an 80s comedysomething like Electric Dreams, where the computer tries to understand what makes people tick. But instead of being playful or satiricalor, god forbid, insightfulSuperintelligence is crammed with uninspired jokes that go on forever, such as Carol wandering the halls at Microsoft when she visits Dennis at work because she cant find the exit. This is also the kind of movie thats got a ton of pop culture references, but it doesnt trust its audience enough to get them on our own, so it spells them out for us afterward. Its not enough to play the instantly recognizable bum-bum sound effect from Law & Order. Carol has to tell us its the bum-bum sound effect from Law & Order. During a meeting to hash out a plan to contain the A.I., the Tic Tac Toe board from WarGames pops up on the screen, along with the famous line from that 80s classic: Shall we play a game? So of course someone in the conference room has to tell us this is a WarGames reference. Knight Rider, the Beyonce Single Ladies dance, it goes on and on, and the hand-holding would be aggravating if this movie werent so incredibly weak. (There is exactly pop-culture joke that made me laugh, and its in a reference to The Help, and thats all I will say.)

Besides stocking Carols bank account with millions of dollars, giving her a makeover and moving her into a luxurious penthouse with spectacular viewsall to compensate her for her troublethe James Corden voice also orchestrates a reunion with her ex. Cannavale plays a professor named George, the one who got away, but theres as little to him as there is to her. Hes weirdly goofy. His primary character trait is his adolescent obsession with Ken Griffey Jr., which leads to an awkward cameo from the Hall of Famer at a Mariners game. McCarthy and Cannavale have all the romantic spark of two strangers standing in line for tickets to the Space Needle. Then again, they have practically nothing to work with.

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Superintelligence movie review (2020) | Roger Ebert