Review of Futureworld (1976) by Monsieur R — 16 Aug 2010

Westworld was beautiful in its simplicity. Futureworld takes Westworld and just shoves new idea after new idea into it. The whole roleplaying element of the park is lost in favour of it being a themed-resort where people acknowledge that they're robots. And if the people are just waiting on you rather than acting really well and getting killed, then what's the point in them being robots? Hell, the park seems to have a lot of attactions of its own with the restaurants and skiing and games and a fucking dream-machine. The robots are not only 100% unnecessary, but a liability after the events of Westworld. And whilst the plot-twist at the end of the film explains why robots are there (sort of), it just raises the question of why would they bother building all those attractions then? Hell, why would they do this big elaborate plan when they could've just abducted everybody from the instant they got into the park. It's not like the first film didn't have plot-holes either but they were minor and forgivable due to how enjoyable it was.

Then on top of that, there's a bizarre genetic cloning thing in the mix, some conspiracy bollocks and a load of other stuff I don't care about. The film's climax comes down to (and yes this is a spoiler, but who cares, it's not a good film) the lead characters being chased by organic clones of themselves. Not robots. In Westworld, part of the horror came from the fact that the guy was being chased by a robot. You know? Something with all these non-human powers to track you down, super-human strength, etc. That's lost when you're being chased by an exact double of yourself as is the case with this film. They think like you do, but you think like they do as the film points out. So it's basically 50/50. They're pretty good stakes for a 'horror' film.

But yeah, the storyline is horribly messy, as is the concept. The special effects aren't bad considering when it was made though and the actors all do a reasonable job. Stick with Westworld and ignore this one.

Personal enjoyment: 4/10.

Actual quality as a film: 4/10.