Talking' 'bout my generation

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2016)

** This review kind of contains spoilers **
I watched this again recently and I liked it even more the second time. While I agree that this film isn't totally original, I really don't mind. Even the films that a number of people claim that this "rips off" did the same thing themselves. Those films also lifted ideas from previous works (like Silent Running, which the director flat-out mentions in the production video). Perhaps people should be less concerned with originality and more with whether or not the film resonated with them.
In this case, I'm even more willing to let some things slide since I see a huge influence here from Saberhagen's Berserker series of stories. I may actually be the first reviewer to mention this connection. If that's the case, there are a lot of people who really should go out and read more books. I'm happy to see anything that resembles his works on screen. This is also why I really enjoyed the end sequence for this film. Nicely done.
The pacing of the film was fine. I can appreciate a film that takes its time. The look of the film was pretty cool too, in fact it reminds me of Syd Mead's American Steel paintings. The score was pretty good and had some really inventive elements. However, it was the sound design that really was remarkable -- especially for drones (very cool). It's rare that I see good sound design in modern films. Thankfully they spent the time to nail down those details.
Acting was fine. I didn't see any glaring issues. It was suitable for the genre. Visual effects were mostly seamless. Again, nothing glaringly problematic.
Cinematography was good, although not to the level of Geoffrey Unsworth or Jordan Cronenweth. To that end, this film feels more like a big episode of the Twilight Zone than like a massive epic film. Regardless, it's an enjoyable watch.
If you approach this as a sci-fi short story that was adapted to the screen, you'll likely enjoy it (especially if you've read your share of 60s and 70s science fiction). I should mention that I'm the same age as and have a similar background to the director, so perhaps that's contributing to my affinity to this film.