A-X-L

Here's another story of a boy and his dog—except that the dog is a robotic killing machine, developed by an amoral arms manufacturer for the United States military. What could possibly go wrong?

The answer, expectedly, is a lot, and that doesn't have anything to do with the details of the plot of this strange movie. "A-X-L" wants its eponymous dog to be both cute and threatening, depending on whatever mode the screenplay by director Oliver Daly is going for at any particular moment. Daly goes through a few approaches to this story, taking it from a generic tale of a teenage dirt bike racer who feels stuck in his life and bonds with the robot, to a plot about hiding the dog from various locals and the dastardly arms mogul's mercenaries, and, at one point, to an all-out horror story, in which the robot tries to viciously murder a jerk teenager who, earlier, had attempted to kill it for a laugh and some internet views.

We're introduced to AXL (pronounced, "Axle") in a helpful, introductory computer simulation/marketing slideshow. The acronym stands for "attack," "exploration," and "logistics," meaning that it can display its skills with radar or a massive machine gun, depending on the situation. The war machine was created by Andric Craine (Dominic Rains) in the spirit of dogs serving as a companions/helpers to human warriors throughout history. This robot can pair with a single owner and form a bond that's as strong as any natural canine.

It escapes, naturally, and is eventually found by Miles (Alex Neustaedter), the aforementioned bike racer who doesn't see any way out of his current life. He and his father Chuck (Thomas Jane) manage his racing career and work in an auto shop. His dad wants him to think realistically about his future, but Miles doesn't think he's smart enough to go to college. That about ends any level of character development here.

After being left in the desert by Sam (Alex MacNicoll), a well-funded competitor who's jealous of Miles' talent, Miles discovers AXL hiding in a freight crate. Once the awkward misunderstanding of the robot trying to kill him for invading its territory is resolved, Miles fixes up the artificially intelligent dog (which seems to be damaged and incapacitated quite a lot for an advanced weapon of war). The two become buddies of sorts, and the robot helps quite a bit in Miles' attempts to gain the affections of Sara (Becky G), the daughter of Sam's family housekeeper.

The dog itself is portrayed by a disjointed combination of sleek visual effects (for the moments when it goes into action) and ungainly puppetry (whenever it's shot in close-up). The puppet seems bulkier and far more rickety in its movements than its digital counterpart, which smoothly runs and leaps and flies through the air with jet bursts. In other words, it never feels like a real thing, because it's always obvious that the dog is either a special effect or a puppet—and also obvious when Daly switches between the two.