Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mother/Android’ on Hulu, in Which Chloe Grace Moretz Elevates Some Generic Sci-fi

Hulu’s Mother/Android is a thin-sliver-of-hope post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller from increasingly notable writer/director Mattson Tomlinson, who scripted Project Power for Netflix, and was brought into The Batman writing room to help out Matt Reeves (who has producer credit here). Last seen talking to spots on a green screen that later became Tom and Jerry, Chloe Grace Moretz headlines as a turbo-preggo woman trying to make her way across a hellscape with the baby’s daddy, avoiding the humanoid robots bent on eradicating all humans on their way to world domination. If that sounds like a familiar premise, you won’t be surprised to learn that Tomlinson’s next reported project is a Terminator anime series, which makes you wonder if Mother/Android is just a practice run for his involvement in a big franchise.

MOTHER/ANDROID: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Is Georgia (Moretz) superstitious? I ask because she finds out she’s pregnant on the very same night the robot apocalypse begins, which seems like a grim coincidence, maybe a harbinger, or perhaps a small-to-medium amount of doom-ridden portent. She isn’t even sure she wants to be with the dad, Sam (Algee Smith), despite his being a pretty sweet guy who loves her and is immediately ready to commit to her and the child. Good thing for her, since they live in a reality where androids are as common as iPhones, and exist to serve humans – think less Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons, more Ian Holm in Alien. And when the robot butlers get sick of serving canapes and plunging toilets, they rise up and become nasty killbots with glowing blue eyes, an event that comes to be known as The Blitz, which is much catchier than The Night the Robot Butlers Lost Their Shit and Started Killin’ Folks.

TIME PASSES. How much time? About nine months, because Georgia’s baby is duuuue. And she’s really gutting it out, sleeping in a tent and wearing a Headscarf of the Weary Traveler, following Sam as he machetes through an East Coast pine forest. Their goal is to reach Boston, a safe zone where they hope to catch a boat to Korea, where the robots have yet to secure their anti-organic rule. Easier said than done, since Sam and Georgia have to pass a military checkpoint populated with gung-ho hoo-rah soldiers who brand their company logo on each other’s prodigious pectorals, and one female doctor who actually shows Georgia some kindness and gives her confidence a little buff-and-polish.

Then our protags have to make it through No Man’s Land, which is said to be very very dangerous, but frankly looks like yet another stretch of forest. But it’s exactly where their plan goes sideways, and if that’s a spoiler to you, would you like to buy this bridge from me? I can give you a once-in-a-lifetime price for it, but it’s only good for right now. There’s a dirtbike chase, a weirdo in the woods named Arthur (Raul Castillo), a lady robot butler with badass zombie teeth, a big third act OH SHIT moment and other speedbumps on the road of life for Sam and Georgia – Georgia, who does so much serious bear-down tenacious-lady stuff in between contractions, nails look at her and go, man, she’s tough.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: You’ve got a full-metal Terminator premise here, with elements of A Quiet Place, The Road and Children of Men swirled into the mix.

Performance Worth Watching: Between this and fighting sexism/WWII airplane gremlins in Shadow of the Cloud, Moretz had quite a grit-your-teeth-and-sock-’em stalwart-action-lady 2021.

Memorable Dialogue: Mother/Android is the type of movie that includes a line like, “Well, that was the end of New York City.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: There’s a peaceful moment in Mother/Android where Sam asks, “Think it’ll ever go back to normal?”, and Georgia replies, “No. I don’t even know if it should.” In moments like this, the movie strains to be about something, to be more than just a flat B-movie survival story. It flirts with commentary on humanity’s hubris and reliance on technology, dilly-dallies with ruminations on the true nature of people, briefly tangos with ideas about masculinity and femininity – and digs relatively deep into motherhood, which finds fertile soil in Moretz’s raw portrayal of a desperate mom-to-be, who’s anxious but confident about giving birth sans doctors or epidurals, yet more concerned about the baby’s wails drawing unwanted attention from Jeeves the homicidal automaton and his kill-happy comrades.

Ultimately, however, the film feels more like a Plot with a beginning, middle and end. A Plot that takes itself a touch too seriously, mind you. Tomlinson doesn’t seem sure if he wants to give us metaphorical-message sci-fi or action-packed sci-fi, and ends up with something in the middle, technically and structurally sturdy, with a moderately thoughtful screenplay, but a bit on the generic side. The director ramps up to a few suspenseful moments, but disappointingly chickens out, cutting away when the drama is too intense, or the action too difficult (or maybe too expensive) to stage and execute. Without Moretz’s ability to convincingly emote while Sarah Connoring her way through the plot, the movie might bland itself right into the oblivion of streaming menus. She saves her toughest moment for the very end, and it’s as tough as it gets. It’s not uplifting, and definitely depressing, but neither is it hopeless. One does, however, walk away with one plain-and-clear message as the credits roll: DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY, LAZY BONES.

Our Call: Mother/Android is rock-solid, if unexceptional sci-fi that has the good fortune to capitalize on Moretz’s talent. STREAM IT, but don’t expect it to transcend the genre.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.

Stream Mother/Android on Hulu