I could watch Tom Hanks star in a film where all he does is read instruction manuals on how to build Ikea furniture. The man is that compelling. He’s a father figure to all, and it’s no coincidence that the main story of FINCH is watching him teach a robot to be human. Sadly, that’s the entire plot of this simple and over sympathetic post-apocalyptic movie.
Hanks stars as Finch, a man who’s trying to survive a futuristic world where global warming has taken its toll on humankind. His goal is to build a robot to take care of his pet dog. The robot, Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones), visually looks like a cross between something Aardman Studios and Neill Blomkamp (DISTRICT 9) has created.
All of FINCH feels like something audiences have seen before. It has a LAST OF US / A QUIET PLACE II vibe mixed with the earth scenes in INTERSTELLAR while also borrowing theories from Asimov’s Robotic Laws. But again, with Tom Hanks behind the steering wheel, it’s enough to keep audiences engaged just when they think it’s drifting into autopilot.
There are many worse ways to spend an evening than hopping into the passenger seat with Tom Hanks, a robot, and their pet dog.
It’s available on Apple TV+.