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As AI technology continues to make headlines on a daily basis, people are taking sides, debating whether or not these new technologies are a good idea—or if they’re just tempting fate. And the sci-fi satire The Pod Generation offers a look into how this tech takeover could change our daily life.
The Pod Generation is set in the not-too-distant future, where technology has made everything more convenient—from preparing meals to having children. When Rachel (Emilia Clarke) is promoted within her tech company, Pegazus, she’s offered the opportunity to work with the company’s cutting-edge Womb Center to have a child. Reluctantly, her old-school botanist husband, Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), agrees to go through with it, and they begin the process of carrying a child in a mobile pod. But the process doesn’t turn out to be as simple and natural as they originally expected.
As this adorably eager couple begins their artificial pregnancy, this unusual sci-fi comedy explores not just the process of becoming parents but the possibility of a computerized existence. Everything about this tech-centered future is more than just a little bit eerie—from the 3D-printed food to the AI therapist with her one giant eye to the way that computers monitor everything from mood to productivity. Technology has taken over in such a way that Alvy’s students are afraid to eat anything that was grown on a tree. And while Alvy struggles with this AI existence, Rachel’s company is at the center of it all, and she’s fully embraced the new reality.
On the surface, this film is just a comical story about parenting—about this more balanced kind pregnancy, which allows both parents to care for and bond with their pod or to let the Womb Center do all the work for them, whichever they prefer. But it’s also an all-too-timely film about the fine line that we seem to be walking between using technology for important advances and letting it take over everything from art and emotion to nature and childbirth. Though its cautionary message has been offered up in films for decades, this playful film offers its own clever take on the haunting possibilities.
With its lovable characters and their unusual parenting journey, The Pod Generation is an entertaining comedy about the possibilities of our tech-led future. But it’s also a not-so-subtle warning about the dangers of turning our backs on the things that make us human.
Join this couple on their parenting journey when The Pod Generation arrives in select theaters on August 11, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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