When the cat's away the mice will play, and when the kids are spending a couple of nights with grandma during the school holidays, the parents will watch porn with the volume turned up and generally have a good time. Since we knew we could sleep in and not have small people prodding us awake early in the morning, we could stay up late. We had a bunch of newer porns to watch which we had been putting off due to their length. Now was our chance. We grabbed a copy of 2040, released last year by Wicked and bunged it in the player. 2040 picked up 18 nominations for the 2010 AVN awards and won 3 including best art direction and group scene. Now, we had been disappointed with previous multi AVN award winners but in this case they were spot on. The art direction in particular was fantastic. 2040 is a dark, cyberpunk style porn. I have to confess here to being a real cyberpunk geek. My bookshelves are loaded with books by Gibson and Sterling. Cyberpunk is a genre that has gone somewhat out of fashion in mainstream media. The only ones doing cyberpunk these days are the porn studios. Probably because cyberpunk is just so damn sexy.
The year is 2040. Three decades previously, three sexually transmitted diseases joined together into a sort of super plague that devastated the human race. Sex has become almost unheard of (one supposes that IVF clinics are doing a roaring trade to keep the species alive). Masturbation is now the only socially acceptable form of sexual activity. Due to the massive amounts of wanking going on, the porn industry is now one of the most important industries in the world. The mainstay of the porn industry are performer droids - hyper-realistic androids who have sex with each other and the few remaining human performers left in the industry. The problem is that no matter how good the droids are, people can tell the difference. Until a new model hits the streets, put out by a independent manufacturer taking on the might of Real Doll Industries.
We start the film in a small indy porn studio in 2040. Ryan Spears (Randy Spears, playing his own son) is one of the few human performers left in porn. When his scene with a sex bot (Alexis Texas) goes wrong, an independant bot designer Morris Lanning (Marcus London, last seen by us in Operation: Desert Stormy and Operation: Tropical Stormy) and his sidekick Kimi (Kirsten Price) get a chance to demo their new creation - Mira (Alektra Blue), the most advanced sex bot ever constructed. No only does she react like a human but she moves, sweats, lubes and fucks like a human as well. Even an old veteran like Ryan Spears is impressed. Mira is a sensation.
Mira also attracts the attention of the CEO of Real Doll Industries, Duncan Caldwell (Brad Armstrong, also the director of this film) who, against the advice of his assistant/cohort... it's never quite made clear, Monica Sweet (Jessica Drake, also the narrator of the film) sends in some hired muscle, Myoto (Kaylani Lei) to make our independent designers sign over their creation to Real Doll. She interrupts Kimi trying out the new male version of their robot (come on.. if you made hyper-advanced sex dolls, you tell me you wouldn't try them out first?). What follows is a dark, cyberpunk, industrial thriller with plenty of sex. It's also a love story as Ryan falls for Mira, whose upgraded programming seems to allow her to learn like a human as well.
This was a great story with plenty of good (and some great) sex as well. Pretty much every scene was good and they all fit the story well. Except one, which was a massive orgy set during the 2040 AVN Awards Night. This is the scene that won them the 2010 AVN award. Everyone seems to fuck everyone regardless of them being on opposing sides in the plot. As orgies go it's a great scene and really well shot, but it seemed out of place in the film.
Even the acting in this film is good. Alektra is pretty convincing as a robot (usually porn performers have difficulty convincing us they are human) and the others play their parts well. No Oscars but a solid porn performance. As I mentioned before, the art direction was fantastic. The locations, the costuming, the sets, everything. This was a really well made film.
The only downside to this was, as usual, its length. A film that crams in 9 long sex scenes plus story is going to be a very long evening. I think they would do much better if they either cut out some scenes or made the scenes shorter. Pre-Viagra porn (from the 70's, 80's and even the 90's) had 10 minute scenes max. These days 20 minutes is a short scene. It just isn't necessary.
Anyway. Ranting aside, this is a great film. It's well acted, the sex is good, the story is good. If you are after 3 hours of hardcore gonzo action you won't like this, but if you want a porn with more to it than just sex, then this should suit you fine. Well worth the investment. Grab a copy today.
