Summary
Due to numerous story glitches, AI Love You’s story crashes.
This review of the Netflix film AI Love You does not contain spoilers.
What is labeled as a “modern” love story, the Netflix film, AI Love You, is a metaphor for our continuous love affair with technology. You’d have to admit our need to feed our appetite for the latest gadgets has become a high-wire act of sorts in the past decade. How many have lost their phones and felt completely lost or even vulnerable? The story here is, of course, set in the not-so-distant future (so, next week?). Here, the AI does not just connect you to your favorite devices by asking for Alexa but has displaced human assistants and run complete company towers. The only thing they cannot do is substitute the love of a good partner. Or can they?
Making their feature film directorial debut, co-directors David Asavanond and Stephan Zlotescu (the latter also co-wrote the script with Philip Gelatt), present a mashup of genres, ranging from comedy to science fiction. They are stolen from much better films like Her or Big, cult shows like Chuck, and mishaps like Johnny Mnemonic. While all being wrapped in what is supposed to be a hybrid of romantic comedy and live-action manga.
Here, Lana (Pimchanok Leuwisetpaiboon) is in trouble with a presentation at work. Here AI, DOB, helps her create the perfect presentation, saving her job. She celebrates by going on a blind date with Bob (Mario Maurer), a man so full of himself he starts to hit on a group of women right in front of Lana. He tells her to take or leave it and pulls up his shirt. Then Bob does something I’ve never seen a man do in a film before. He tells her to look at his pink nipples (uh, okay) and his six-pack (which he doesn’t have).
The guy is an utter disaster as a dinner date. Later, DOB, the AI who runs the office tower where she works, professes its love for her. She tells him no, he needs to be human. So, when Bob shows up to maintain the building’s AI, DOB downloads him into Bob so he can win Lana’s heart. The issue being DOB finds he has human glitches trying to operate Bob’s body, and Lana doesn’t want to give Bob a second chance.
The film’s story is dumb and not in a good way. It falls somewhere between zany and so bad it’s good, which is not where you want to be. Sure, it’s amusing when Bob learns how to walk again. The comedy then goes too far when it shoots for gross-out humor which isn’t congruent with the love story. For instance, DOB has no filter because he is learning to be human. He excuses himself because he tells Lana he must “defecate” and even passes gas in front of her. Yet, is she disgusted? No, she falls for him and finds it adorable as if he was a child learning how to use the “potty” for the first time. This leads to their first sexual experience, which is just weird or tells you a lot about Lana’s turn-ons. Let’s hope she doesn’t end up on The Dating Game.
The rest of the film combines a convoluted plot. Some thugs who own the building learn of DOB, an AI that has gone rogue, and they send some guys to rough DOB up. It’s a hackneyed finale. This only leads to the belief the film’s story is too thin and the run time is too long.
AI Love You’s mashup of better film ideas has too many glitches in its script to work before the story crashes.
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