Electroma (2006)

Why so much hype?

A Major Disappointment

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

You know what Daft Punk's Electroma felt like? It felt like Daft Punk were making a music video, but wound up with too much footage and instead turned it into a movie.Actually, that's exactly what happened. This movie started out as a music video for Daft Punk's song, "Human After All," but they got a little too ambitious and made it into a movie, and there are some things about it that work. The filming is very artistic; the message is nice, taking a spin on the classic Pinocchio moral of wanting to be human and mixing it with undertones about plastic surgery; the music—when there is any—is nice; and the acting is fairly decent, getting the message through despite the fact that we can't see anyone's face or hear what they're saying. The problem is that when you take a five-minute music video and expand its plot to a feature-length movie, you have to pad it out with extended shots, bizarre editing, and incredibly slow pacing. It definitely would have worked better as a music video, or even as a longer music video at ten minutes. But it's not a complete waste. Thanks to the Internet, fans have made several alternate cuts of Electroma. Many switch out the soundtrack with Daft Punk music to fill in the blank spaces, and there are even some fan visions of what the movie would have looked like in its intended form as a music video for Human After All. If you're going to check out any version of Electroma, watch those versions. I don't know how much of this is bias on my part, seeing how amazing their earlier film Interstella 5555 was and how underwhelming this was as a followup, but I would only recommend this movie if you're a huge fan of art films.

If I'd seen this in a art-house cinema I would have walked out. But it was on my local public TV station so I watched it. Why? Well it was free. But that's all. This movie starts nowhere, goes nowhere, and finishes up nowhere. And in marked contrast with other reviewers I find silence just a bit boring when overdone. And it was really overdone in this self-indulgent "art work". And to think it took four, that's right four! writers to make this. Sure the scenery was good, but so what? It's been done a thousand times before (and better). Sure the music was atmospheric, but so what? it's been done a thousand times before (and better). Basically, the local public TV 30 second promos had the entire film in them. I kept waiting for something to happen. But no, watch the 30sec promo a few hundred times over and that's Daft Punks "Electroma".Cult film? I don't think so...

It doesn't bother me in the slightest whether people think this film references others or not. That's irrelevant because it just works - it's delightfully simple, beautifully shot, visually arresting and surprisingly poetic.Part of the charm of this film is both the fun (the makeover) and then the quite moving climax in the desert. It works against all your expectations of Daft Punk (and their music) and in many ways this is what makes this also quite special. The choice of music is sublime, and the pace itself becomes quite hypnotic. In fact the pace seems to be one thing that people use to critique this film as though it's somehow pretentious..which itself is an absurd and dimwitted comment really, because the playful charm of the silent characters themselves is anything but pretentious. Hell, if that's pretentious, the world needs a lot more of it because we are drowning in the bile spewing from the Hollywood trough.As an older Daft Punk fan, probably more in tune with their own age and tastes i loved this film. Also worth a mention that there's a very Kubrick-esquire 2001 look to one scene (thumbs up there!)Ignore the doubters. Sit back and immerse yourself in Electroma. In time this will definitely considered a classic concept film by one of the more innovative electronic artists of our age.Human After All

I saw Daft Punk's Electroma late last night at the Stockholm Filmfestival. This was right after seeing Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" which was brilliant! This evening turned out to be a great french evening.. Even though I have always been a big fan of Daft Punk's music, especially their live performances, I didn't really think that I would enjoy Electroma that much, but I was wrong! I was really touched by this story of two Robots (the members in daft punk) trying to become human. The theme is similar to that of their latest album "Human After All". It reminded me of Kubrick/Spielberg's "A.I", but Electroma is much more symbolical and humans play a less important role. The movie depicts the robots desire to be unique and human, and just like "Stalker" and other Tarkovsky movies the scenes are very long and for the most part there is no music just background noise, this made me really get into the movie. The whole movie is fantastic but the high rating is mostly due to the ending which is crazy good! I don't know if Daft Punk's robot-era is over after this movie, but I'm looking forward to seeing more stuff from them.This is probably a movie that many people might find boring because it is a very silent and slow movie (heard a guy in front of me snoring..) but give it a chance... The french are not as stupid as the look! oh and the music is not daft punk, but I heard some Brian Eno and Curtis Mayfield, overall the music choices were excellent! Merci;)