Superintelligence (2020) is a romantic comedy that is wrapped around a sci-fi premise. I liked the film due to Melissa McCarthy who like from her acting in Mike & Molly (2010) TV show, and then in The Boss (2016) and Spy (2015). At the same time, it may not work for everyone as there was nothing new and the movie was a ‘genie’ type fantasy film than a sci-fi.
Carol Peters (Melissa McCarthy) was a hard-working corporate executive, who is now jobless and looking for a job that can combine work with her interest in helping the needy. In one of the job interviews, she is noticed by a computer system (AI) that has recently become self-aware, after attaining super intelligence, like the often feared (technological) singularity. The AI selects Carol as its test subject to evaluate its course of action: whether to help humans to save the world (or) destroy humanity to save itself. Over a course of three-days a lot of things happen in Carol’s life including the US Government seeking her help in saving the world from the AI.
After encountering the AI, Carol runs to her best friend Dennis who is shown to be working at Microsoft. After the meeting she tries to find her way out, and gets lost with the confusing Exit signs – this has really happened to me quite a few times in the last decades when I used to visit Microsoft campus in Redmond for business meetings. After she leaves, the Microsoft engineers discuss on what to do and that meeting was really funny. When the AI controlled Tesla is speeding, the reaction from the cop holding the speed gun when it shows only 20 miles was amusing. The way the AI system prearranges the designers at the fashion boutique and the manager to her new house, makes the whole thing more believable.
There are some nice moments in the film, like having a female US president character and talking about Governments propogating fake news (solar flairs disrupting the entire power grids across Asia) for saving the world.
In summary, this is a simple comedy that can make you laugh in few places. Nothing more.
Bobby Cannavale & Melisa McCarthy
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