Film Review: More Than Robots provides insights into young scientists' lives

Every week Jen Shieff reviews a new film for the Taupō & Tūrangi Herald. Photo / Getty Images

More Than Robots (M, 89 mins), streaming now on Disney+
Directed by Gillian Jacobs

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, FIRST is the brainchild of American inventor Dean Kamen, who tells us that "imagination is more important than knowledge" and "all problems are an opportunity to create a solution".

He appears several times in the documentary More Than Robots to talk about how the FIRST robotics competition is an ideal forum for encouraging global innovation among young aspiring scientists.

His key point is that responsible adulthood is not about competition, it's about co-operation.

Is the film just a worthy cause for backers Disney and Lucasfilm, a lesson in how to improve the world? To some extent it is, but More Than Robots is more than that.

It's packed full of insights about 17– to 18-year-olds in different parts of the world and will likely inspire any young scientist out there, as well as their teachers and parents.

The four main teenagers in the film are a diverse group made up of Jacob (USA, privileged), Aaron (USA, poor), Noi (Japan) and Mariana (Mexico), who demonstrate how people of colour can overcome barriers to science and technology, how the socially inept can learn to be team players, how the amount of money you have doesn't dictate your opportunities and above all, how we are part of a global community.

The film opens at its endpoint, the final of the 2020 FIRST robotics competition, a huge convention for robot-mad kids, their families and supporters. There are thousands of excited people in a pavilion, with cheerleaders. It's a competition with high stakes, but stakes that are different from what we might expect, with the emphasis on competition having been all but removed.

Over the 12 weeks leading up to the final, the team members build their robots, using only assigned components, with no instructions except that the robot has to weigh less than 57kg, be able to throw a ball up into a catcher, and hang itself upon balancing bars.

Youthful mentors assist with the practicalities of wiring, coding and building robots and provide support for the teams as they grow their technical competence, increase their ability to co-operate and keep pushing through - despite setbacks.

It's devastating in the end. Or is it? Picking up where the opening scene leaves off, the FIRST final, in the midst of the build-up, is cancelled because of Covid-19. Mentors and teams seem equally distressed by this but soon equally inspired by the many worthwhile projects that result from what could have been a major setback.

Director Gillian Jacobs, working as Covid-19 first brought the world to a standstill, doubtless had to work out - just as the robotics teams did at many stages of the competition - how to keep pushing on through, when everything seemed to be going wrong.

A true story with important messages. Recommended.

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