Movies: Her

(Drivebycuriosity) - Software is becoming more and more important in our life. Computer programs (including operating systems of smartphones, tablets and similar devices) are advancing with an accelerating speed, getting better and better. Maybe sometimes software will develop into an artificial intelligence (AI), a computer program which is learning, adapting and able to communicate and to understand its environment. No wonder that A.I. stars in many science fiction books & movies like  "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Dark Star", "Westworld", "Blade Runner", "Alien", "A.I." and more.

The movie "Her" offers an interesting variation of the AI genre (imdb). Director Spike Jonze, who also wrote the script, tells about a lonely man who fells in love with an intelligent operating system, called "Samantha" (with the voice of Scarlett Johansson).

I don´t really believe in love between a man and a software. I don´t think that a operating system is really a feminine being, a "her".  You can not touch, smell and taste it. Dating an operating system is pathetic. But I enjoyed the film anyway. There are so many ideas about a possible (near) future, that could inspire the whole science fiction genre. I was fascinated by the extreme speed how the AI ("her") was "thinking" and learning, using the almost infinite knowledge of the cloud (access to a global network of  computers). I was impressed how fast the AI advanced and progressed, changing its identity.

The cinematography displayed a realistic and believable near future. You can see a technology which is often an extrapolation of already existing gadgets like iPad, Siri (vice responding software), game consoles & TV controlled by hand gestures, 3d projections. And Spike Jonzes merged the skylines of Lost Angeles and Shanghai to a fascinating cityscape. In contrast to the popular dystopian movies you can see a pleasant and wealthy future, a world I would like to inhabit and maybe will sometimes.

"Her" is an entertaining glance into a possible future even with a not really convincing love story.