You’d think with all of those robots running around, the future would get a good scrubbing. Not so much, according to director Gabe Ibáñez’s sci-fi feature, Automata. It’s dirty, dirty future, and only Antonio Banderas can clean it up.

Or not: set 50 years into the future Banderas plays an insurance investigator looks into a case of a robot breaking one of those Asimov-ian rulesand modifying itself. Is there some kind of robot apocalypse on the way or are these ‘bots just trying to get the latest version of iOS?

From the official synopsis:

An insurance agent of ROC robotics corporation routinely investigates the case of manipulating a robot. What he discovers will have profound consequences for the future of humanity.

This is the second feature for Spanish visual effects pro Ibáñez following the 2009 thriller Hierro. And… it looks a little busy. The Automata trailer is loaded with all sorts of floating holographic projections, dirt, grime, amid a nocturnal city – like a blend of Blade Runner with the robots of District 9. It’s not that the two elements don’t mesh – because they can – there’s just so much on screen at any given point in time, that it’s hard to focus on any one element.

But between the desert settings and what appear to be crowded, overpopulated cities, it seems like Automata might be touching on some of the looming global catastrophes that we’re currently ignoring today.

Anyway, maybe the performances will sell it: Banderas (currently goofing off in The Expendables 3) is joined by wife Melanie Griffith, Dylan McDermott, and Robert Forrester.

Automata will be in theaters and OnDemand October 10 from Millennium Entertainment. You can see a pair of posters for the film below.

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