Review of Futureworld (1976) by Troy F — 21 Jul 2015

Futureworld takes places two years later after the disaster at Westworld. Westworld is closed and replaced with futureworld and the other parks, and the resort now open to rich people only. This film deals with reporters trying to find out the mechanics behind the resort and confirm their suspicions of something larger going on.

The ideas they play around with are interesting, and go beyond the mere purpose of pleasure, but rather replacing world leaders and rich people that vacation there with robotic versions. Sadly, the film really doesn't do enough to justify its significance.

Even Yul Brynner as the gunslinger is shoved in here albeit a very bizarre fantasy sequence that doesn't make a lot of sense. It creates its own ideas, and tries to imply that its building off of what happened in Westworld, except it never really does, and because it sways off from what it set to do, I found little reason to care about what was happening.

Futureworld as a sci-fi thriller isn't terrible, but part of what made Westworld great was how high concept yet simple it was. This film is proof that sometimes, it's better that we don't know more about something.

Futureworld really didn't need to be made and is really just cash in off of Westworld.