Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Theo Robertson Did someone mention this feels like a pitch rather than a short film in its own right ? Just checking with both the IMDb and The Short Of The Week website it just so happens to turn out that writer/director Rob McLellan has been given the go ahead by MGM to turn this in to a feature length film . If we're being cynical then it's easy to state that this was indeed the agenda behind ABE the short film . Not to be entirely cynical it should be pointed out that a lot of short films use the exact same technique and when it's obvious like the Edward Snowdon inspired short VERAX boy oh boy it is too painfully obvious for words and if someone was standing at a street corner holding a begging bowl with a sign round their neck saying " Give me some money to make a feature film guv . I haven't eaten for three days " it wouldn't be any more cynical In its favour it does in grammar terms have a present continuous feel . By that I mean the actions Abe has started happened before the story started and are still continuing . Some suspension of disbelief might be needed as to why someone felt the need to build a robot with emotions and the fact a robot walking around kidnapping or at the very least stalking women might lead to police attention , but I guess if recent cases are to go by the police can't investigate any sort of sexual crime unless it's thirty years old . Abe does give away enough exposition to make the audience clearly understand his motives and they are believable to an extent . What ABE holds as a winning hand is the emotionless but effective vocal talents of Sam Hoare . Yeah a flat computer voice wreaking havoc while speaking calmly has been done many times before most famously in 2001 but here it works very well . I somehow doubt if the feature length version of ABE will be a massive success but here's hoping it doesn't pander to Hollywood by having lots of explosions and CGI

bob the moo A familiar scene to horror viewers – a victim wakes up chained to a bed in a dark place, surrounded by plastic sheeting. Her captor comes in and delivers a monologue to her while toying with the knives which lay close by. It is nothing particularly new as a thing however in the case of Abe the lead character is a robot rather than a human. In the monologue we hear of his programming to love and his desire to achieve love back but at the same time he is frustrated because maybe he is not worthy of it, maybe he has no soul as others do but at the end of the day he is yet to find consistent love and the fault not being with him must be with others.Sometimes with short films you get the feeling that the maker is only interested in his piece in so far as it serves him or her; so rather than the film being made because the medium of short film is the perfect way to tell the story, it is done as a calling-card or pitch to try to get a bigger project off the ground. In theory I understand this and don't mind watching these but generally it must be said that the films that take this approach are generally not as good as those that set out to deliver from the get-go. This unfortunately is the case with Abe because it works better as a suggestion than as a whole; in fact if the structure feels like anything it feels like a pilot for a series because we get the introduction, we get interest in the character and we get the continuation as the conclusion. On this level it works and I enjoyed the genre style of the delivery and the writing, but only when viewed as a pilot.Watching it as a standalone you wonder why it didn't try to do more and why all aspects of it seem to be pointing to something else. Take away the goal and the animation and you have a serial killer scene the type of which Dexter has done for many years and not too much is added to enhance it as a genre scene. The sci-fi element makes it interesting and the monologue from Abe is good so it is enjoyable in that sense, just frustrating to have it be so specific and then open into nothing. Animation is very good though and Abe mostly blends well with the real world.Abe is a character I would have liked to see more of and I do think that this short could have been a pitch and a complete short with a more satisfying conclusion and delivery. It still works on its strengths but it feels like a pitch or a pilot and as such has weaknesses inherent in the approach; it is good I wanted to see more, just a shame that as a result the short feels like it fell short of what it should have achieved.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews The scene is quickly set: an attractive young woman wakes up restrained in a secluded area, and sees a collection of operating knives. Then someone approaches, and it turns out not to be a fellow person, but... a humanoid robot. He starts talking, and the terrifying truth becomes clear to us.I won't give away more. While the backstory isn't original, this is without a doubt the most compelling representation in this medium. The 8 and a half minutes running time flies by with no lulls. This goes into themes that would make Asimov proud: are robots equivalent to people? At what point does building and programming them as servants become a civil rights issue? And this adds a rarer, chilling point: what will be the consequences of this, arguably, slavery?The acting is excellent. If any one performance carries this, it is without a doubt that of Abe, the former butler-bot, or botler, if you will. It effortlessly strikes the difficult balance between a sparse, detached tone and a more affected one. Never letting us forget that this is a creation, not something... someone? who was born, and yet with the ever-present quality of emotion, drive, a past that has left an imprint.FX are flawless, our titular mechanical endo-skeleton always feels like you could reach out and touch him. And they show the necessary restraint, with such graphic tools at their disposal - at no point is this flashy. The design is simultaneously creepy and vulnerable, and you could see this/him in a normal home, with a mix of the utilitarian and the "familiar".There is disturbing content(as an underlying sense throughout the entire production)and blood in this. I recommend this to any fan of Asimov. 8/10

Kane Hudson This is a very beautiful looking short film. I adore the way Abe draws me in with his innocent and welcoming exterior whilst offering such a misunderstood and tortured interior.For A, a short film, and B, a robot, this protagonist really does provide a good depth within such a short space of time. I would genuinely like to see more of him since there clearly is a past leading up to the situation we witness here.The character of Abe does well in offering a thought-provoking premise. It contains an honest and upsetting realization concerning human existence.I consider it difficult for a film to get an audience to side with murderous and unforgiving characters, but with Abe, I see reason, I see a tested tolerance, and most importantly, I see a story.