'I Am Mother' – Netflix Original Movie Review

Before I watched It…

I stumbled across the trailer for this movie during one of my many deep dives into YouTube. From this brief glance into the movie, I was intrigued; it had all the elements of a movie that I would enjoy: it’s a sci-fi movie, filled with all the good narrative points of a thriller, and didn’t look like anything I had watched before.

Overall, once the trailer had ended I was excited for it to be released, yes it seemed rather cliché, and gave away a lot of what would happen in the movie, but I still felt like it would be a movie I had to add to my watch list.

Initial response…

After watching the movie I found myself really enjoying it. Much like the trailer, it gave me everything I wanted from a good film—it was an interesting concept with enough going on in the story to keep a good pace. I was intrigued that there was a lot more focus on the relationship between Daughter and Mother (the robot), it created such a conflicted dynamic to watch, yet was also surprisingly sweet at times.

The one negative I’ll take away from it was that it strayed further away from what the trailer showed. I was expecting an intense movie set in a rather claustrophobic setting. This is how a good three-quarters of the movie is set, but then it takes a sharp detour into a desolate dystopian land where the robots have destroyed humanity.

Introduction…

The first 20 minutes of the movie were relatively easy to watch, it showed the beginnings of Mother and Daughter’s relationship; with Daughter being born in the typical sci-fi fashion (with the embryo being grown in a glass bowl by a robot). From here we see the Daughter’s growing up quickly through various stages of her life into a young woman. This made for pretty interesting watching, with Mother (a robot) acting in a similar way a normal mother would. For me, it built a fairly decent relationship between Mother and Daughter.

There was the occasional twist where it alludes to a more sinister motive on the Mother’s part; however, this is yet to be discovered. I had an inkling something like this would happen as the trailer definitely suggests that the robot is going be evil.

Another human…

Of course, with the extinction of humanity confirmed at the beginning of the movie, it was pretty obvious that another human was going to appear to conflict with this information (again shown in the trailer). Hillary Swank soon enters, having been shot and desperate to enter the sanctuary and throwing Daughter into conflict with Mother. This whole interaction was interesting and made me start to wonder how the movie will continue from here on out.

At first, it implies that Mother is going to be evil, with droids (inc. Mother) being the reason behind the extinction of humanity. However, with this section quickly coming to an end and Mother discovering this new human, I’m starting to question whether Mother really is evil. I do hope that this isn’t the case as that would make this movie so much less predictable and more intriguing.

What did I enjoy most?

• Genuinely entertaining—I did have a lot of fun watching the movie. I’ve always enjoyed a good sci-fi movie, especially one that promises thrills and a dark twist on humanity. That’s what I got from this; I was inspired to continue watching with each new plot point. I had a moment of pause towards the end where the story went in a different direction to what I expected or hoped from the movie. In the end I still enjoyed watching it.
• Interesting Mother/Daughter relationship—So the whole movie is based around a mother/daughter relationship (it helps that it's called I Am Mother). It was a lot more interesting than I originally thought; it definitely changed how the relationships are shown, and gave an interesting conflict for the characters based around it.
• Rose Byrne—For me, she was definitely the stand out actor from this movie. She doesn’t even physically appear in it, only her voice is used, however, it is this that really gives depth and a sinister creepiness to Mother. There is the typical maternal tone that makes Mother seem kind and trustworthy, then there is the odd moment where she shifts, her tone becomes menacing—as if something isn’t quite right. Even at the end, she makes you wonder if she did truly care, or was always misled.

In conclusion…

If you’re a fan of sci-fi movies, I would definitely give this one a watch. It's an easy watch, and gives you everything that it offers in the trailer. There is the odd moment where you sit and question what just happened, but by the end of the movie, you should hopefully enjoy it as much as I did.