When a futuristic family are doing their daily exercise regime one morning, the robotic companion for the young "Mika" (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) has a bit of a freeze. Pestered by the - frankly annoying - child, mum (Jodie Turner-Smith) and dad (Colin Farrell) decide it has to be fixed, so the latter takes it to a friend of a friend after it transpires their warranty doesn't cover "core" failure. Anyway, his new diagnostician suspects that the chip that controls the young "Yang" might contain secret spyware - and suggests that he goes to visit a scientist who might be able to open up the chip and get to the truth. It's got elements of iRobot (2004) to it, but otherwise I found it all a little too sterile. The story is delivered via flashbacks mixed within the contemporaneous plot, but essentially this is just a rather dry observation of a fairly unremarkable family whose toy has broken down. Such more sinister elements to the film as there are - a few big brother-esque themes - are largely undercooked. There is hardly any of Turner-Smith on screen, and what there is doesn't gel at all well with a Farrell who has lost much of his on-screen charisma and is now little better than a jobbing actor whose face we recognise. Perhaps it does tell us something about love and of the nature of affection, but only superficially and I can't say I found there to be much to write about with this. Sorry - it will look fine on the television, I wouldn't bother a cinema with it.
