Slamdance Film Festival 2025 – Whether we like it or not, AI is everywhere. It’s becoming increasingly inescapable. Just consider the wave of AI-generated ads during the Super Bowl, or the front row of tech bros at the U.S. presidential inauguration in January. Universe 25, written and directed by Richard Melkonian, is a moody meditation on what it means to be human. Its central character claims to be an angel but is an advanced AI bot from the future, more than anything else. Though Universe 25 stumbles in its execution and trips over some of its broader themes, it’s not afraid to ask big questions and toy with timely concepts.

The feature stars Giacomo Gex as Mott/Tom. He’s given a task by an unnamed, God-like entity, played by Andre Flynn. Mott refers to the entity as The Master. I read the character as Mott’s programmer/creator. The Master, speaking in a garbled voice, gives Mott three tasks: find a saint who doesn’t know he’s holy, locate a sacrificial lamb and offer its blood for the sacrament, and write everything he sees and experiences on Earth on a scroll. Oh, and Mott has to complete all of these tasks prior to the next Sabbath, when the world will end.

Mott’s writings are discovered by a dead letter handler (Jacob Meadows). In terms of a framing device, this wasn’t totally necessary. The dead letter handler doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the story, other than to detail to the viewer Mott’s violent journey, which takes him from London, to Romania, back to London again. The framing device is a bit of a befuddling choice, though it does prove that Mott completed at least one of his tasks, recording everything he experiences on Earth.

The film, like other sci-fi features before it, works best when it explores the very nature of humanity and Mott’s complicated feelings once he’s on Earth.  Like Ash in Alien or some of the androids in Bladerunner, Mott’s intentions are dubious and conflicted, especially the longer he’s around humans. There’s a scene where he walks around London, awed by the technology, including digital advertisements flashing all over. Though he calls the technology primitive, he’s still struck by the barrage of colors and lights. He increasingly begins to feel emotion and questions whether or not he wants to complete the mission or become human, especially once he falls in love. Though it’s an understatement to call the relationship turbulent, it deepens Mott’s character arc.

Mott’s conflicted feelings are one of the film’s strengths. However, some of its themes don’t quite land. For instance, there’s a lot of heavy religious overtones. This includes a sequence where Mott straps himself to a cross and runs around the streets, shirtless. Some cheer. Others jeer. One small group even pushes him down. Though the sequence is visually arresting, I couldn’t understand its purpose within the greater narrative. There are a lot of moments like that in the film. They confuse and confound more than anything else. Meanwhile, the film’s title refers to a rodent experiment that’s a cautionary tale about overpopulation. Yet, that idea is only briefly mentioned in the film. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Universe 25 is a gritty journey about a non-human entity who starts to feel emotion and even falls in love. Like plenty of other sci-fi movies, the film works best when it explores what it means to be human. Though the work contains textured imagery and some big ideas, it fumbles in its execution and doesn’t manage to fully integrate its broader themes. Still, despite some of its muddled ideas, Universe 25 isn’t afraid to ask important questions.