Qt3 Movie Podcast: I Am Mother

What’s the “they” there?

Sorry, I mean the themes the movie “nodded” to - ethics and the limitations of the Three Laws of Robotics. Mother’s “plan” - and Daughter’s actions by the end of the movie - depend fundamentally on those two.

It does far more than nod to ethics, surely. It’s pretty much the entire text of the film.

Yeah, but it stays as subtext. And I appreciate it about the movie… it’s just that I’d like to see a movie in which that is the main feature instead of a “who is lying and what is the truth” take. Ultimately, the way the story goes is indeed informed and motivated by the two concepts I mentioned, but it’s focused elsewhere for most of the movie. And it works; its focus is on the personal experience of Daughter, and how she behaves. I get that. A movie that explored those topics further, directly, would be a very different movie. But that is a movie I’d like to see, that’s all.

I dunno, that is the movie I saw. It’s about teaching ethics in as close to a blank slate environment as you can get. And about what happens if the teacher doesn’t share the ethics that are “supposed” to be taught.

But the teacher is not human, and sees herself as an enabler of those ethics, not as a follower of them (because to enable those ethics she must not be bound by them). It’s an interesting contrast, in fact, but it is not developed, and it’s barely stated, even if it’s implied.

But I’m probably rambling. I guess I’m trying to understand what left me wanting.

Like I say, I fundamentally disagree that it’s not developed. The film is the development.