Review of Futureworld (1976) by Jeffrey B — 11 Jun 2013

This film is utterly disappointing. I will get the good points out the way first. Fonda and Danner act well in the film and the creepyness is very well done with brilliant sound and a claustrophobic sense from inside the tunnels.

The sets are impressive for the most part and the robot effects are very well implemented. Now for the bad points, the script is dire with characters such as Ron who is set up in the beginning (only to tell people its the sequel to Westworld we are watching) and then removed from the movie halfway through to focus on the main characters.

The plot surrounding identity is laughably done with no mystery. The film could have made the clones of Fonda and Danner mess with the real humans and integrate the movies message of 'Is this you or are you you' but no the clones never really pose any frightening questions as the main characters find out that they have clones instead of keeping it a mystery.

The robot (Clark) is shown to have emotions and knows how to cheat which is never explained with Harry saying that the robots only do what they are programmed to do and Clark very clearly does not follow these rules which would have made a more fascinating movie in itself.

Harry's (Margolin) death is brushed aside with no mention by the main characters despite helping them escape and apparently befriending the main characters. Danner dreams about a sexual relationship with Yul Brynner's cowboy robot despite having only seen him once in the recap of the earlier film at the start and is obviously just a way of shoehorning Yul into the cast.

Fonda has little to no reaction to Danner dreaming about a relationship with a robot she has never met and shrugs it of like a bump on the knee. The ending ties up the fact that some of the world leaders are doubles quickly and cheaply giving no payoff.

The other world besides Furtureworld are glossed over (as is future world in some aspects). Westworld remains intact despite Medievalworld and Romanworld having been removed (supposedly). The death of the clone or Fonda could have set up a 'is he the real one' moment but is again shoved out the way and it is revealed that the real one survived despite being weaker than the clones/robots.

The female clone survives being shot and gives off sparks, despite the Dr stating that the clones are completely human. Cloning now somehow generates telepathy. Dalos has become an evil company all of a sudden which is interesting but is never hinted in the first movie and feels like an excuse just to make a sequel rather than a proper plot point.

The paranoia of all the people being robots is never fully utilized. The other guests never flag up that Fonda and Danner are missing despite them being high profile guests. The use of clones to generate good press for Dalos is pointless as if they had just acted as if everything was normal and stopped them from wandering off then they would have written good press anyway meaning that they would not have had to waste money on genetically cloning journalists, or if they were afraid that the journalists would write bad press because of their suspicions then why didn't they get journalists who were less suspicious.

The robots are shown in the bar scene to be working for the company when teh picture Fonda has is taken by the robot but the rest of the robots apart from the guards and samurai do not pose a threat to Fonda, Danner or Margolin.

The love between Danner and Fonda seems to materialize out of nowhere. Harry and the murdered employee have little to no back story and Harry seems to convert from strictly no giving away information to blabbermouth quickly.

Harry seems to workout how to bypass teh system to get in the secret room very quickly considering he has tried to get in on many occasions. The company does not really state why they have Harry around if they rely on robots due to human mistakes and whether there are more humans working in the resort as Harry is shown to be the only workman besides the dead man at the start.

Surely Dalos can stop there own train and stop Danner and Fonda from leaving. Danner and Fonda are very quick to come to the conclusion that they are both human when so are the clones who also think alike.