WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Eden, now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix's Eden follows in the vein of movies such as A.I., depicting a world where robots could and probably should rule all by themselves. Due to Dr. Weston Fields, they actually do get this chance to create a cyber-Earth as he interferes in destiny, believing mankind's penchant for war, pollution and overall destruction is harming the planet.
However, while Fields transfers his consciousness into a machine and vessel called Zero to carry out this mission, a big problem with Eden's sinister robot legion rears it head.
The robots' designs are cool and whatnot, but Eden's four episodes lack a sense of gravity due to them not being that smart or robust in the field. We don't necessarily need killer bots or giant Pacific Rim-like mech-units, but surely they could be more effective in their duties. After all, Zero prides himself on efficiency and results.
Right off the bat, it's disappointing as the bots can't sense baby Sara, right there in the apple fields in front of their eyes when her sleep pod underground opens up. Their failure to see Sara allows E32 and A97 to scamper off with her instead. It's weird since the scans should detect the baby, especially as Zero has a no-human policy where they can identify these organisms.
To make it worse, the drones Zero deploys are pretty feeble and don't even pose a real threat when they start coming into Sara's zone as she gets older. At this point, they too can't properly locate the teen despite having scanning capabilities. It leaves us wondering why Zero's such an intimidating Darth Vader-like figure but his tools are so laughable.
It isn't any better later on when Sara is captured and uses a pipe to smash the bots. The legion doesn't fight back well at all and the sad thing is, this is Sara's very first scrap. She's a pacifist and while it's understandable they can't directly kill her, they don't even stun her or come up with sound countermeasures.
Eden's robots are slow, incompetent and boring, coming off even worse than the droids Star Wars' Empire used in battle. Speed, intelligence and the ability to predict and quell situations are essential -- qualities that, ironically, Sara's machine family have -- leaving viewers clueless on why a genius like Zero couldn't do the same for his minions. They're too restrained and feel like set decoration, which sadly culminates with Zero as well.
When he tries to throw Sara into a cauldron, she escapes thanks to help from her robotic Uncle John, but that fight's really poorly conceived, leaving Zero looking like a joke as well. The end does have Sara and Zero using some giant Zords to fight each other, but there too, the rebellion looks and acts much more impressive, leaving the enemies in Eden well short of respect.
