Artificial intelligence has been the central subject for a variety of films. Some seem to make interesting and promising while others depict it as a futuristic nightmare. For Implanted, it seems to go beyond speculation to make it a bit interesting until you realize there’s no goal.

The year is 2023 and humans are being used as guinea pigs implanting a chip in their bodies to experiment with new technology that promises to coordinate their lives to deliver the best version of themselves. Sarah (Michelle Girolami), a girl living on the streets after quitting her job, decides to be part of the futuristic program because she feels she has nothing else to lose but, as time flies by, she comes to realize that what was supposed to be a test for improvement, is more of a definitive version taking control over her life to finish its own personal business. Could it be that artificial intelligence wants to take over the world or is someone posing for their own agenda?

Implanted starts fast and strong. As the story takes progress, the pacing slows and the story gets stuck forcing the viewer to watch a series of the character’s hallucinations and filler-flashbacks that lead nowhere but to a destination filled with more questions. I can’t deny the visual proposal is esthetically nice but it seems out of context. There are too many meaningless filler scenes that it made me question if I missed something while I was munching on some snacks. Including a side-story involving detectives could’ve added more suspense and thrill to the plot instead of just focusing on how the main character is constantly being bullied by a microchip. Besides, with the number of characters getting killed through the timeline of the film, it seems impossible any cop wouldn’t be present following every crime scene created by Sarah.

There is a huge problem with the way it sets the story. It starts by mentioning it’s been two years after the pandemic without even taking it further into consideration. There is no correlation between the events of the real world and the proposal that it makes for the near future. The premise promises too much until it begins to develop its story in little detail with the excuse of delivering an unexpected but inexplicable twist that never comes and probably would’ve been better— unless the twist is I expected too much of the film.

Movies without a motive can leave a horrible unsatisfactory void, and Implanted is one of many. It seems to be in a parallel universe with the film Upgrade but instead of having an ultra-developed microchip we get a nosy/toxic version of Amazon’s Alexa taking control over every detail of your life for no substantial motive and without outsmarting the concept of AI.

3 OUT OF 10 INSTRUCTIONS