In the near future, an environmental catastrophe has left Earth a virtually uninhabitable shell where only a tiny percentage of humanity remains. A new type of robot, dubbed the Pilgrim, was created in the hope that it could stem the advancing deserts by building high city walls and erecting zeppelin-like artificial clouds – but to no avail. There are distinct shades of Isaac Asimov’s seminal novel I, Robot in Automata, with its future full of servile machines governed by pre-programmed laws. Ibanez, who co-writes as well as directs, riffs on those hard-SF ideas artfully, and convincingly depicts an uneasy symbiosis between human and machine. It helps that Automata’s robots are, for the most part, depicted with practical effects; we can feel the weight and potential strength in them, and the paranoid feeling that we never quite know what’s whirring away behind those round, unblinking eyes. Automata seems equally influenced by the dirty, down-at-heel future of Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, and Ibanez uses real industrial locations (in Bulgaria) plus dashes of CGI to create a similarly oppressive future city. For the first hour, Automata effectively builds an air of intrigue as Jacq tries to find out what exactly those furtive robots are up to. The tension’s heightened further by the presence of a trigger-happy, robot-hating cop named Wallace (Dylan McDermott, almost unrecognisable behind a bramble patch of stubble and a huge pair of shades) and Robert Forster as a surly yet likeable superior at ROC. While the thriller element doesn’t quite get going, Automata convinces as a speculative story about how artificial intelligence might emerge and what form it could take. This isn’t a reactionary one, either; there’s an implication throughout that artificial life may actually be a worthy successor to our own species. Automata’s indie budget tells at times, but Ibanez wisely tips his funds into making his robots seem real. I like the way they tread the line between vulnerability and menace, unreadable blankness and pathos. Ibanez has an eye for simple yet striking images, the most memorable being a shanty town devoted to robots, where they lie around gloomily under makeshift roofs made from pallets and plastic sheeting. Visually arresting but often messy and over-familiar – Banderas plays yet another hard-drinking sci-fi protagonist – Automata is more a collection of interesting shots and ideas than a complete, satisfying film. Like one of its battered, tired-looking Pilgrims, Automata is imperfect and ungainly, but it’s also studded with occasional moments of intrigue and pathos. Automata is out on VOD from the 27th April, and arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on the 4th May. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.