Netflix has released the first trailer and poster for the upcoming sci-fi filmI Am Mother. Directed byGrant Sputore, the film actually debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year as an independent movie, at which point Netflix picked it up to distribute it through its streaming service. The film opens in an abandoned, non-de-script, and very clean bunker zero days after an extinction-level event wiped out humanity. Mother (voiced byRose Byrne), an anthropomorphic robot, has been put in charge of 63,000 human embryos and selects one to harvest, nurture, and raise. Enter “Daughter” (Clara Rugaard), who lives her life as the only human on earth, bound to the sterile hallways of this labyrinthine science lab. Until one day her world is upended when a stranger, played byHilary Swank, arrives outside the bunker.
This trailer gives a solid overview of what to expect from the film, which I saw at Sundance. It’s compelling from start-to-finish, but becomes kind of frustrating as its story starts to pull from every sci-fi trope in the bag, resembling a mishmash of10 Cloverfield LaneandTerminator 2. Lots of twists ensue, but you can see most of them coming a mile away.
That’s not to sayI Am Motheris devoid of value. I’m sure plenty of folks will find it a compelling watch, and the practical robot design for Mother is genuinely impressive—as is Byrne’s voice performance. Moreover, Rugaard announces herself as a young talent to watch. But ultimately, I came away from the movie kind of frustrated.
Check out the trailer for yourself below, andclick hereto read my full review.I Am Motherhits Netflix on June 7th.
Here’s the official synopsis forI Am Mother:
I AM MOTHER is a sci-fi thriller about a teenage girl (Clara Rugaard), who is the first of a new generation of humans to be raised by Mother (Rose Byrne), a robot designed to repopulate the earth after the extinction of humankind. But the pair’s unique relationship is threatened when an injured stranger (Hilary Swank) arrives with news that calls into question everything Daughter has been told about the outside world and her Mother’s intentions.
