Films about the end of the world and a post-apocalyptic planet are nothing new in Hollywood. This type of film has to deal with how people ruined the world and how they can move forward after said disaster or space anomaly has ravaged the planet. Finch is no different on that level than other films.
Finch Weinbaum (Tom Hanks) is a survivalist living a life in a bunker in the St. Louis area. He has a dog named Goodyear and a rover named Dewey. His everyday life is spent seeking out supplies and parts for a robot he’s building, until one day when a group of bad storms is about to collide over where he lives. He decides to venture out of his hole to go to San Francisco.
The robot he created is like a child. He has to teach him how to walk and talk and so forth. He even gets a name, Jeff. Like a child, he has moments of mischief and childlike behavior. He mostly provides Finch with teaching moments and moments of levity. He is a newborn robot after all.
Miguel Sapochnik is an established director, but his films tend to span about ten years between. This film is different from his others. The set design, production value, and cinematography are all pretty amazing in this film. From Jeff the robot to the lair Finch lives in to the mobile vehicle they travel in, everything is quite believable in a post-apocalyptic sense.
Finch is a good film, but it’s not a great film. It has some interesting story elements regarding Jeff the robot and his childlike nature as well as Hanks real-life health scare that paralleled his character in the film. It has some good set design, production value regarding the weather and sets, and cinematography. Still, the film as a whole doesn’t do anything new or innovative in the regard to being a post-apocalyptic film.
3 Stars
Dan Skip Allen
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Sean Boelman
Founder/EIC disappointment media
From the Fourth Row! 