Hulu Sci-Fi Thriller Turns Helpful Android Into AI Nightmare
The 2023 British sci-fi thriller movie, T.I.M, is now readily available to stream on Hulu. Starring Georgina Campbell, most known for her performance in the Black Mirror episode “Hang the DJ,” the film tells the tale of an AI robot turned rouge.
In the movie T.I.M., a prosthetics engineer named Abi, played by Cambell, is hired for a top-level position at a company called Integrate Robotics. On her first day, Abi is gifted a prototype of the product the company is hoping to sell, a humanoid AI robot servant named T.I.M. However, when the robot begins to grow obsessive, he decides he will stop at nothing to make sure Abi is his and his alone. Quickly, the couple’s lives are turned on their heads, and together, they must figure out how to permanently shut T.I.M. before he kills them both.
Direct-To-Streaming
The movie T.I.M. premiered in the UK and had a direct-to-Netflix release. The film was directed by stand-up comedian Spencer Brown and stands as his feature directorial debut. He co-wrote the script with novelist Sarah Govett who just so happens to be Brown’s lovely wife. As for who T.I.M. was backed by, the UK company Stigma Films headed the production, and Altitude Films led the sales.
Standard Killer AI Movie
The movie T.I.M. had a pretty lackluster reception, earning itself an unimpressive critic score of 43 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While the bones of the project had a promising setup for a killer sentient robot movie, the meat of it was not up to standard. The script failed to keep the audience hooked, and the clunky pacing left behind a feeling of irritation and confusion.
Wendy Ide, a movie critic for the UK’s Observer, justified the 2/5 Rotton Tomato rating she gave the T.I.M. movie with, “T.I.M. Stirs up a hornet’s nest of paranoia about AI and deep fake technology, but then rather misses the point with a clunky cyborg stalker plot.”
Fails To Reinvent The Genre
While the movie’s audience score was significantly higher at 78 percent, many still held sentiments similar to those of the critics. The majority expressed disappointment towards the plot’s execution and felt like the film could have had much more to give.
Rotten Tomato user, Daniel F. wrote, “Aiming for a Black Mirror tone, even going so far as to cast alum Georgina Campbell, the film has a shiny, detached futurist and minimal aesthetic. And that’s all that’s good about it. There is no internal logic, just parodies of things we’ve seen done before- and better.”
Runs Out Of Plot
Many viewers were also unimpressed by the romantic plot point and felt like the love triangle situation quickly got boring. Audiences found it too predictable and dragged out, for there was not nearly enough plot material to make each second of the over an hour and a half film count.
A movie revolving around sentient AI is hardly a new idea, and the trope is already saturated with some great titles. Take, for example, 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Disney Channel original movie Smart House. Unfortunately, the T.I.M. movie just failed to stand out.
Judge For Yourself On Hulu
Even with its unfortunate reception, it’s always said that you have to personally try something before you can honestly judge it. So, for those who haven’t seen the T.I.M. movie, head on over to Hulu and start watching. For those who have, well, feel free to go ahead and watch it again; maybe it’s better the second time around.
