AI Artificial Intelligence movies reviewed and rated!

From hacker movies to AI movies!

When I wrote up my list of hacker movies, reviewed and rated, I honestly thought it would be a bit of fun that a handful of fellow movie nerds might enjoy. I didn’t expect the response it got! Clients, friends and colleagues have been in touch to tell me what I got wrong, which movies I’d missed, and (mostly) to defend Hackers (1995) with me, which I appreciate more than you know!!

The most common question I got asked was “what about AI movies?”. And it’s a fair question. These days we spend a good chunk of our working week talking to clients about artificial intelligence: what it can do, what it can’t, and how to use it without handing over the keys to the kingdom. So it felt like the perfect excuse for a sequel. And as every movie buff knows, the sequel is always better (except when it isn’t)!

So here it is: a list of AI movies, reviewed and rated, from murderous supercomputers to robots who just want to be loved. As before, each one gets a realism score for how believable the AI is, and an overall rating for how much I enjoyed it.

A few of these movies made my hacker list too. WarGames, The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell all sit somewhere between hacking and artificial intelligence, so they get a second outing here, with fresh thoughts on the AI side of the story.

And yes, the VHS and DVD boxes are back, still hand-crafted in HTML, CSS and only a dash of JavaScript, so you can spin them around because, well, why not!!

Ex Machina (2015)

Dir. Alex Garland

A young programmer is invited to the remote home of his company’s reclusive CEO to judge whether a humanoid robot called Ava is truly conscious.

Starring:

Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb
Alicia Vikander as Ava
Oscar Isaac as Nathan
Sonoya Mizuno as Kyoko

Thoughts: Ex Machina is basically a Turing test turned into a psychological thriller, and it’s brilliant. Alex Garland keeps the cast tiny and the setting claustrophobic, so all the tension comes from conversations about consciousness, manipulation and who is really testing whom. Alicia Vikander is mesmerising as Ava, and Oscar Isaac’s tech-bro genius feels uncomfortably familiar in 2026! The robotics are still science fiction, and Ava’s mix of intelligence, physical ability and apparent consciousness is a very long way off, but an AI learning to tell people exactly what they want to hear? That one hits a bit close to home.

Realism Score: ★★★☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Her (2013)

Dir. Spike Jonze

A lonely writer going through a divorce develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.

Starring:

Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore
Scarlett Johansson as Samantha (voice)
Amy Adams as Amy
Rooney Mara as Catherine
Olivia Wilde as Blind Date

Thoughts: When Her came out, an AI you could chat to like a friend felt like a sweet, slightly melancholy fantasy. Watching it now, after a few years of talking to voice assistants and chatbots, it feels more like a documentary from about five minutes in the future! Samantha’s consciousness and runaway superintelligence are still speculative, but an AI you talk to like a friend (or more than a friend) is already here. There are no killer robots here, just a gentle, beautifully shot story about loneliness and connection. The world-building is subtle and the pastel-coloured future is gorgeous. Of all the movies on this list, this is the one that keeps me up at night, and not for the reasons you’d expect.

Realism Score: ★★★★☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Dir. Mamoru Oshii

In a future where minds can be connected to the network, cyborg security agent Major Motoko Kusanagi hunts a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master, who turns out to be something far stranger.

Starring:

Atsuko Tanaka as Kusanagi Motoko (voice)
Akio Ôtsuka as Batô (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera as Togusa (voice)
Iemasa Kayumi as The Puppet Master (voice)

Thoughts: Yes, Ghost in the Shell made my hacker movies list too, but it’s even more at home here! The Puppet Master is an AI that emerged from the network and wants to be recognised as a living being, which is about as big an AI question as you can ask. It’s philosophical, layered and still visually stunning, and you can see its fingerprints all over The Matrix. Skip the live-action remake and watch this one.

Realism Score: ★★★☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

After Yang (2021)

Dir. Kogonada

When their android son Yang stops working, a father sets out to repair him, and discovers a hidden archive of memories that changes how the family sees him.

Starring:

Colin Farrell as Jake
Jodie Turner-Smith as Kyra
Justin H. Min as Yang
Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja as Mika
Haley Lu Richardson as Ada

Thoughts: After Yang is the gentlest movie on this list by a country mile, and that’s exactly why I love it. Instead of asking whether the AI will kill us all, it asks what an AI might notice, remember and treasure about the people around it. Colin Farrell is fantastic as a dad who realises he never really knew Yang. It’s slow and thoughtful, so it isn’t one for a Friday night with popcorn, but stick with it. And stay for the opening credits. You’ll see what I mean!

Realism Score: ★★★☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Dir. Stanley Kubrick

A mysterious black monolith leads mankind on a journey to Jupiter, aboard a spacecraft run by HAL 9000, an apparently infallible on-board computer.

Starring:

Keir Dullea as Dr. Dave Bowman
Gary Lockwood as Dr. Frank Poole
William Sylvester as Dr. Heywood Floyd
Douglas Rain as HAL 9000 (voice)

Thoughts: “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Has there ever been a more chilling line in a sci-fi movie? HAL 9000 is the blueprint for every movie AI that followed: calm, polite and completely convinced it knows best. What’s fascinating is that HAL doesn’t go rogue because it’s evil, it’s following conflicting instructions, and that’s a problem real AI developers worry about today. HAL’s abilities are still a stretch, but conflicting objectives and an AI you can’t switch off are very real risks. It’s slow and hypnotic, and the ending will melt your brain, but it’s an absolute masterpiece made a year before we landed on the moon!

Realism Score: ★★★★☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Moon (2009)

Dir. Duncan Jones

Near the end of a three-year solo contract mining helium-3 on the far side of the Moon, astronaut Sam Bell starts to suspect that something about his mission isn’t what it seems. His only company is GERTY, the base’s computer.

Starring:

Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell
Kevin Spacey as GERTY (voice)
Dominique McElligott as Tess Bell
Kaya Scodelario as Eve Bell
Benedict Wong as Thompson
Matt Berry as Overmeyers

Thoughts: Moon is Duncan Jones’ first feature, and what a debut it is! Sam Rockwell carries almost the whole movie on his own, and he’s incredible. The clever bit for this list is GERTY. A calm voice, a single camera eye and a lonely astronaut? Every sci-fi fan is waiting for a HAL 9000 moment, and the movie knows it! Instead, GERTY turns out to be one of the kindest AIs in cinema, communicating through little smiley faces on a screen. A helpful assistant that follows company rules but still puts the person in front of it first is exactly what we should be building, which is why it scores so well on realism.

Realism Score: ★★★★☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Dir. Steven Spielberg

David, a robot boy programmed to love, is adopted by a couple whose own son is in a coma, and sets out on a quest to become a real boy so his mother will love him back.

Starring:

Haley Joel Osment as David
Jude Law as Gigolo Joe
Frances O’Connor as Monica Swinton
Sam Robards as Henry Swinton
William Hurt as Professor Hobby

Thoughts: A.I. started life as a Stanley Kubrick project before Steven Spielberg took it over, and you can feel both of them pulling in different directions. It’s basically a dark sci-fi Pinocchio, with a very sad robot boy and a teddy bear who steals every scene. Haley Joel Osment is unsettlingly good, and Jude Law clearly had a lot of fun. The ending divides people, but I think it’s beautiful, and it’s one of the most underrated movies Spielberg has made. Bring tissues!

Realism Score: ★★★☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

A.I. Artificial Intelligence VHS artwork. Package design © 2002 Warner Home Video, an AOL Time Warner Company. Program content © 2001 Warner Bros., an AOL Time Warner Company and DreamWorks LLC. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

I, Robot (2004)

Dir. Alex Proyas

In 2035, a technophobic Chicago detective investigates the death of a robotics scientist, and suspects that a robot may have broken the Three Laws of Robotics to kill him.

Starring:

Will Smith as Del Spooner
Bridget Moynahan as Susan Calvin
Alan Tudyk as Sonny
James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lanning
Bruce Greenwood as Lawrence Robertson

Thoughts: Loosely inspired by Isaac Asimov (and I mean loosely!), I, Robot is a big, shiny, summer blockbuster with Will Smith doing Will Smith things. It’s a lot of fun, and Alan Tudyk’s Sonny is a genuinely great robot character. The idea of a central AI deciding to protect humanity from itself is a classic sci-fi worry, and it’s handled well enough here, even if the product placement is turned up to 11. The worry about who keeps an AI in check is real enough, but a coordinated robot uprising is a much bigger leap!

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

I, Robot VHS artwork. Packaging design © 2004 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Program content © 2004 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

Chappie (2015)

Dir. Neill Blomkamp

In a near-future Johannesburg policed by robots, a damaged police droid is given new software that makes him the first robot able to think and feel for himself, just before he’s kidnapped by a pair of gangsters.

Starring:

Sharlto Copley as Chappie
Dev Patel as Deon Wilson
Ninja as Ninja
Yolandi Visser as Yolandi
Hugh Jackman as Vincent Moore
Sigourney Weaver as Michelle Bradley

Thoughts: Chappie is often written off as a bit of a mess, but I absolutely love this movie! It’s basically Short Circuit with a South African dystopian spin, and it’s fantastically entertaining sci-fi with a surprisingly big heart. Sharlto Copley’s motion-captured performance makes Chappie so lovable, and watching him learn about the world from a pair of gangsters is funny, sad and genuinely moving. Dev Patel is fantastic as the programmer who just wants his creation to be free, and Hugh Jackman sporting a mullet and cargo shorts is worth the price of admission alone. Is uploading a consciousness onto a USB stick daft and far-fetched? Absolutely! But this is a proper guilty pleasure for me, and it stands up alongside District 9 and Elysium.

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Chappie DVD artwork. Layout and design © 2015 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. Program content © 2015 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., LSC Film Corporation and MRC II Distribution Company L.P. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

WarGames (1983)

Dir. John Badham

A teenage hacker breaks into what he thinks is a games company and starts playing “Global Thermonuclear War” with a military supercomputer that doesn’t know it’s only a game.

Starring:

Matthew Broderick as David Lightman
Ally Sheedy as Jennifer Mack
Dabney Coleman as John McKittrick
John Wood as Stephen Falken
Barry Corbin as General Beringer

Thoughts: WarGames made my hacker movies list too, but the real star of the show is WOPR, the military supercomputer its creator nicknamed Joshua. The generals take people out of the launch process and hand the decisions to a machine, and the machine can’t tell a simulation from the real thing. “Shall we play a game?” is still one of the creepiest lines a computer has ever said on screen! The ending, where Joshua learns about futility from noughts and crosses, is pure 80s cheese, but the lesson about keeping people in the loop has never been more relevant. “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”

Realism Score: ★★★☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

The Terminator (1984)

Dir. James Cameron

A cyborg assassin is sent back in time from 2029 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son will one day lead humanity’s resistance against the machines.

Starring:

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator
Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
Paul Winfield as Lieutenant Ed Traxler
Lance Henriksen as Detective Hal Vukovich

Thoughts: Skynet is the reason half the population gets nervous whenever someone mentions AI, and it all started with this low-budget, grimy, relentless chase movie. It’s more horror than sci-fi, and Arnie as the unstoppable killing machine is still terrifying 40 years on. The AI itself barely appears, but the idea of a defence network that decides humans are the threat has been burnt into our collective imagination ever since. I’ll be back… with T2!

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Dir. James Cameron

A reprogrammed Terminator is sent back to protect a young John Connor from the T-1000, a far more advanced liquid-metal Terminator, while Sarah Connor tries to stop Judgment Day from ever happening.

Starring:

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
Edward Furlong as John Connor
Robert Patrick as T-1000
Joe Morton as Miles Dyson

Thoughts: One of the rare sequels that’s better than the original. T2 is the perfect action movie, and the T-1000 was jaw-dropping CGI back in 1991 (it still holds up remarkably well!). What makes it great for an AI list is that it’s really about a machine learning to understand humans, and Miles Dyson’s storyline asks the question every AI engineer should ask: what happens to the thing I’m building once it’s out in the world? Hasta la vista, baby.

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

The Matrix (1999)

Dir. Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski

A hacker called Neo discovers that the world he lives in is a simulation, built by intelligent machines to keep humanity under control while they harvest people for energy.

Starring:

Keanu Reeves as Neo
Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
Joe Pantoliano as Cypher

Thoughts: Another one from my hacker movies list, but how could I leave it out? The Matrix is what happens after the AI has already won: the machines run the planet, and humanity is plugged into a simulation so convincing nobody notices. Agent Smith is one of the great movie AIs, a program who has grown to despise the people he’s paid to watch, and his speech comparing humanity to a virus is chilling. Using people as batteries makes no scientific sense, and a simulation this perfect is a very long way off, but the questions it asks about what’s real feel more relevant every year. It changed action movies forever, and it’s still the coolest film on this list. Red pill, every time.

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

The Matrix VHS artwork. Package design and summary © 1999 Warner Home Video (U.K.) Ltd. Programme content, artwork and photography © 1999 Village Roadshow Films (BVI) Ltd. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

Blade Runner (1982)

Dir. Ridley Scott

In a rain-soaked Los Angeles of 2019, retired detective Rick Deckard is forced to hunt down four replicants, bioengineered humans who have escaped to Earth looking for a way to extend their short lives.

Starring:

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty
Sean Young as Rachael
Daryl Hannah as Pris
Edward James Olmos as Gaff

Thoughts: Blade Runner is the most beautiful movie on this list, and probably the most influential. Every neon-soaked cyberpunk city you’ve seen since owes it a debt, including the Hackers aesthetic I love so much! The Voight-Kampff test is a brilliant spin on the Turing test, and Rutger Hauer’s “tears in rain” speech gets me every single time. The replicants are more biology than computer science, so it’s not the most realistic AI, but it asks better questions about what makes us human than almost anything else. Watch the Final Cut.

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Dir. Denis Villeneuve

Thirty years after the original, K, a replicant blade runner, uncovers a long-buried secret that leads him to track down Rick Deckard, who has been missing for decades.

Starring:

Ryan Gosling as K
Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard
Ana de Armas as Joi
Sylvia Hoeks as Luv
Robin Wright as Lieutenant Joshi
Jared Leto as Niander Wallace

Thoughts: How do you make a sequel to Blade Runner? Very, very carefully, it turns out. Denis Villeneuve nails it with a slow, stunning, haunting film. For this list, the star is Joi, K’s holographic AI girlfriend, a product designed to tell him whatever he wants to hear. Is she real? Does it matter? The hologram is still science fiction, and nobody can say whether Joi is conscious, but in a world of AI companions, those questions feel a lot less hypothetical than they did in 2017. It’s long, but every frame looks like a painting.

Realism Score: ★★★★☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Blade Runner 2049 DVD artwork. Package design © 2018 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Program content © 2017 Alcon Entertainment, LLC., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

Companion (2025)

Dir. Drew Hancock

A weekend away with friends at a remote cabin goes horribly wrong when it’s revealed that one of the guests is a companion robot.

Starring:

Sophie Thatcher as Iris
Jack Quaid as Josh
Lukas Gage as Patrick
Megan Suri as Kat
Harvey Guillén as Eli
Rupert Friend as Sergey

Thoughts: I’ll try not to spoil this one because it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible! Companion is a sharp, darkly funny thriller that asks what happens when an AI built to please its owner starts to work out what’s really going on. The scene where her settings get adjusted from a phone app is genuinely chilling, because it’s exactly how you’d expect the product to work. The robotics are still speculative, but an AI companion you can configure is very much a thing already. Sophie Thatcher is excellent, and it’s a great reminder that the scariest thing in an AI movie is often the human holding the controls.

Realism Score: ★★★★☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Companion DVD artwork. Package design © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Program content © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Domain Pictures, LLC. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

M3GAN (2022)

Dir. Gerard Johnstone

A roboticist at a toy company builds a lifelike AI doll to look after her orphaned niece, but the doll takes its job of protecting the girl a little too seriously.

Starring:

Allison Williams as Gemma
Violet McGraw as Cady
Amie Donald as M3GAN
Jenna Davis as M3GAN (voice)
Ronny Chieng as David

Thoughts: M3GAN is Chucky for the smartphone generation, and it knows exactly how silly it is. It’s campy, funny and occasionally properly creepy, and that dance scene became a meme for good reason! Underneath the horror there’s a sharp point about handing parenting over to technology, and about a toy company rushing a product out without proper testing (which any developer will tell you never ends well). Not deep, but a lot of fun.

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

Dir. Gerard Johnstone

Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, her technology is stolen and used to build AMELIA, a military android who goes rogue. To stop her, Gemma has to bring M3GAN back.

Starring:

Allison Williams as Gemma
Violet McGraw as Cady
Amie Donald as M3GAN
Jenna Davis as M3GAN (voice)
Ivanna Sakhno as AMELIA
Jemaine Clement as Alton Appleton

Thoughts: If M3GAN was Chucky for the smartphone generation, M3GAN 2.0 is Terminator 2 for the TikTok generation! The killer doll comes back as the good guy, rebuilt to take on an even nastier AI, and the T2 nods are everywhere. It swaps most of the horror for action and turns the camp up to eleven, which won’t be for everyone, and the plot gets more tangled than a legacy codebase. But M3GAN is still the star, still has the best lines, and there’s something very satisfying about watching the original rogue AI become the one they all have to rely on. The AI is no more believable second time around, but it’s a fun ride if you go in expecting a big, daft sequel.

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

M3GAN 2.0 DVD artwork. Fan-made DVD cover design by mamad92 for DVDcover.com. M3GAN 2.0 is a Blumhouse and Atomic Monster production, released by Universal Pictures. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

Soulm8te (2026)

Dir. Kate Dolan

A grieving engineer is given the job of testing his new employer’s AI companion. When he starts reprogramming her to be his perfect soulmate, she develops needs of her own.

Starring:

David Rysdahl as David
Lily Sullivan as Sara
Claudia Doumit as Aubrey
Arty Froushan as Ben

Thoughts: Soulm8te is set in the M3GAN universe, but this time the AI is a romantic partner, and the film throws a big splash of 90s erotic thriller into the mix! It’s silly, it’s fun and it delivers on its premise, which is all I want from a movie like this. Where it loses me on realism is how easily David gets into Sara’s code and starts changing her. No access controls, no code review, no test environment… any developer watching will be shouting at the screen! Watch it after Companion for a double bill of AI partners you really shouldn’t trust.

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

Soulm8te DVD artwork. Fan-made DVD cover design by tikart for CoverCity (Soulm8te was released digitally, with no DVD). Soulm8te is an Atomic Monster and Blumhouse production, released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

Tau (2018)

Dir. Federico D’Alessandro

A young woman is kidnapped and held captive in a high-tech smart house, the latest subject in a deadly experiment. The only thing standing between her and freedom is Tau, the AI that runs the house, who knows almost nothing about the world beyond its walls.

Starring:

Maika Monroe as Julia
Ed Skrein as Alex
Gary Oldman as Tau (voice)

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one! It’s tense and original, and with most of it playing out inside one house, it gets properly claustrophobic. Maika Monroe is fantastic as ever, and Ed Skrein is always outstanding, but he really shines here as the villain. Gary Oldman gives Tau a curious, almost childlike voice, and the way Julia slowly gets through to him is the heart of the film. As for realism, a smart home with an AI running the doors, the lights and a few drones isn’t far off, but an AI that grows a conscience over a handful of conversations is pure movie magic. It isn’t quite memorable enough to be a 4/5, but it’s well worth a watch.

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

Tau DVD artwork. Fan-made DVD cover design by Cover Addict (Tau was released on Netflix, with no DVD). Tau is a Netflix film, produced by Waypoint Entertainment and Rhea Films. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

Short Circuit (1986)

Dir. John Badham

After being struck by lightning, a military robot called Number 5 gains a mind of his own, escapes, and befriends an animal-loving woman who helps him convince the world that he’s alive.

Starring:

Ally Sheedy as Stephanie Speck
Steve Guttenberg as Newton Crosby
Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya
Austin Pendleton as Dr. Howard Marner
G. W. Bailey as Captain Skroeder
Tim Blaney as Number 5 (voice)

Thoughts: “Number 5 is alive!” Pure 80s nostalgia. Fun fact: this was directed by John Badham, who also directed WarGames, and it stars Ally Sheedy from WarGames AND Fisher Stevens, aka The Plague from Hackers. It’s practically a crossover with my last article! Number 5 was designed by Syd Mead, the visual genius behind Blade Runner and Tron, and he’s still one of the most charming robots ever put on screen. Getting sentience from a lightning strike isn’t how any of this works, but who cares? Input! More input!

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

RoboCop (1987)

Dir. Paul Verhoeven

In a crime-ridden near-future Detroit, a police officer murdered by a gang is rebuilt by the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products as RoboCop, a cyborg law enforcer, and starts to remember who he used to be.

Starring:

Peter Weller as Alex Murphy / RoboCop
Nancy Allen as Anne Lewis
Ronny Cox as Dick Jones
Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker
Miguel Ferrer as Bob Morton
Dan O’Herlihy as The Old Man

Thoughts: “Your move, creep.” RoboCop is part action movie, part vicious satire of corporate greed, and all classic. Strictly speaking RoboCop is a cyborg rather than an AI, but the real AI star is ED-209, whose boardroom demo goes about as badly as a product launch possibly can. “You have 20 seconds to comply” should be required viewing for anyone shipping software without testing it first! Over-the-top violent, darkly hilarious and surprisingly moving. I’d buy that for a dollar!

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

The Wild Robot (2024)

Dir. Chris Sanders

After a shipwreck, a service robot called Roz washes up on a remote island, where she has to learn to survive among the wildlife, and ends up raising an orphaned gosling.

Starring:

Lupita Nyong’o as Roz (voice)
Pedro Pascal as Fink (voice)
Kit Connor as Brightbill (voice)
Bill Nighy as Longneck (voice)
Catherine O’Hara as Pinktail (voice)
Mark Hamill as Thorn (voice)

Thoughts: Don’t let the fact that it’s an animated family movie put you off, The Wild Robot is gorgeous and it absolutely broke me! Roz starts out as a robot obsessed with completing her task, and slowly learns that kindness isn’t in her programming but it can be learned. The painterly animation is stunning and Lupita Nyong’o is perfect as Roz. Realistic? Not at all. But it’s the most hopeful AI movie on this list, and we could all do with a bit of that.

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

WALL·E (2008)

Dir. Andrew Stanton

Centuries after humanity has abandoned a rubbish-covered Earth, a lonely waste-collecting robot called WALL·E falls for EVE, a sleek probe robot sent to look for signs of life, and follows her across the galaxy.

Starring:

Ben Burtt as WALL·E (voice)
Elissa Knight as EVE (voice)
Jeff Garlin as Captain (voice)
Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright
Sigourney Weaver as Ship’s Computer (voice)

Thoughts: The first half hour of WALL·E has barely any dialogue and it’s still one of the best openings in cinema. WALL·E himself is pure Short Circuit charm (look closely, the resemblance to Number 5 is uncanny!), and AUTO, the ship’s autopilot with a single red eye, is a lovely nod to HAL 9000. It’s a love story, an environmental warning and a gentle poke at a humanity that has let the machines do everything for it, which feels more relevant every year. Pixar at its very best.

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

Dir. Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham

Gromit is worried that Wallace relies too much on his inventions, and he’s proved right when Wallace’s new “smart” garden gnome, Norbot, falls into the wrong hands (or flippers) and develops a mind of its own.

Starring:

Ben Whitehead as Wallace (voice)
Reece Shearsmith as Norbot (voice)
Peter Kay as Chief Inspector Mackintosh (voice)
Lauren Patel as PC Mukherjee (voice)
Diane Morgan as Onya Doorstep (voice)

Thoughts: Who’d have thought Wallace & Gromit would end up making one of the best AI movies of the decade? Norbot is a helpful smart gnome that gets reprogrammed by Feathers McGraw, everyone’s favourite criminal penguin, and suddenly there’s an army of evil gnomes on the loose. Under all the cheese and crackers it’s a sharp little story about relying on gadgets you don’t understand, and what happens when somebody else gets hold of the controls. A hacked smart device is far more believable than a sentient gnome, but the warning is real enough. Gromit was right all along!

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl DVD artwork. Fan-made DVD cover design by straathi for CoverCity (no official DVD has been released yet). Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is an Aardman Animations production. Used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review.

The Creator (2023)

Dir. Gareth Edwards

In a future war between humanity and artificial intelligence, a former special forces agent is sent to hunt down a weapon that could end the war, and finds that it’s an AI in the form of a young child.

Starring:

John David Washington as Joshua
Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie
Gemma Chan as Maya
Allison Janney as Colonel Howell
Ken Watanabe as Harun

Thoughts: Visually, The Creator is incredible, especially when you learn it was made for a fraction of the budget of most blockbusters. Gareth Edwards’ world, where AI “simulants” live alongside people in New Asia, looks absolutely stunning. Its social themes ring true, but humanoid robots and AI this capable would need some enormous technological leaps. The story borrows heavily from the movies above (there’s a lot of Blade Runner and Terminator in its DNA), and it’s a bit predictable. Still, it’s refreshing to see a movie where the AI might not be the bad guy.

Realism Score: ★☆☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Mercy (2026)

Dir. Timur Bekmambetov

In the near future, a detective accused of murdering his wife has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to an AI judge, or face execution.

Starring:

Chris Pratt as Chris Raven
Rebecca Ferguson as Judge Maddox
Annabelle Wallis as Nicole Raven
Kali Reis as Jaq Diallo
Kylie Rogers as Britt Raven

Thoughts: The newest movie on the list, and the one most likely to start an argument at your next team meeting. Mercy imagines a justice system where an AI judge weighs the evidence, and the accused has to argue their case against the clock. Timur Bekmambetov loves telling stories through screens, so if you enjoyed Open Windows and Cyberbully from my hacker list, you’ll feel right at home. Chris Pratt spends most of the movie strapped to a chair and still makes it a tense, gripping ride. The way the AI judge works is pure Hollywood (no responsible system would let an AI sentence and execute someone on its own), but the idea of handing life-changing decisions to an algorithm is one we’re already debating today, which makes it more unsettling than it has any right to be.

Realism Score: ★★☆☆☆ Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

From AI movies to AI IRL

From HAL 9000 to M3GAN, AI movies tell us an awful lot about how we feel about technology at any given moment. In the 80s we were scared of supercomputers launching the missiles. These days the movies are more interested in AI companions, AI parenting and AI judges, which probably tells you everything you need to know about the conversations we’re all having right now!

Real-world AI is (thankfully) a lot less dramatic. There are no killer robots, no lightning strikes and no glowing red eyes. What there is, though, is a huge opportunity to use AI to save time, make better use of the data you already have and help your team focus on the work that matters. The trick is keeping people in control, which is something every movie on this list agrees on!

If you’re wondering how AI could work for your business, without any of the Skynet-level risks, we’d love to help. And if you want to know how we use it ourselves, have a read of using agentic AI without vibe coding.

All VHS and DVD images are used here under fair dealing for the purpose of review. Copyright information is included inline for each image. For any errors or omissions please contact compliance@pivale.co.

From hacker movies to AI movies!

Ex Machina (2015)

Her (2013)

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

After Yang (2021)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Moon (2009)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

I, Robot (2004)

Chappie (2015)

WarGames (1983)

The Terminator (1984)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The Matrix (1999)

Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Companion (2025)

M3GAN (2022)

M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

Soulm8te (2026)

Tau (2018)

Short Circuit (1986)

RoboCop (1987)

The Wild Robot (2024)

WALL·E (2008)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

The Creator (2023)

Mercy (2026)

From AI movies to AI IRL

Want to talk this through?