Review of 'Big Bug'

big_bug.jpg In a clean futuristic world the needs of the increasingly technology-distracted population are met by androids. We follow one family whose lives are disrupted when they are informed by their house and their robots that they are not allowed to leave their home – for their own safety. Their anxiety increases (as does the heat due to the malfunctioning climate system) with tensions between the group rising…Outside their door the world is being taken over by the next generation Yonyx robots that bear a frighteningly close resemblance to Robocop except with a disturbing wide-eyed smiling continence. With the group rejected by the technology that once did their every bidding they try to find some way to live with each other and survive the experience.

“Big Bug” makes the point that technology can imprison us as well as set us free with complacency a recipe for disaster…but said in a fun and silly way with an amazing technicolour palette. The characters are all incredibly over the top including the robotic contingent - A bust of Einstein that operates at a configurable level of intelligence (disappointed when he is dialled down), the very robotic lady robot that serves the household needs, an aggressive, erratic vacuum cleaner as well as a sex robot with the IQ of a turnip.

For the geeks amongst us there are the obvious references to more serious pieces of SF including Blade Runner and even shades of The Fifth Element.

Quite a bit of mild-mannered absurdist French SF fun with a huge amount of satire thrown in. Not a deep movie by any means but looks really cool and is fun to watch with the clean “world of tomorrow” and the mindless humans both inhabiting and enslaved by it. It does often seem to drag on a bit but it is worth sticking with though with a disappointingly “cop out” ending.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2022-05-15


Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Studio: Eskwad

Year: 2022

Length: 111 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11541872/


Other reviewed films by Jean-Pierre Jeunet: