I, ROBOT - A personal review...

[The Master™]

I watched this film last night... And was left feeling strangely empty... And bewildered...

I haven't read the Isaac Asimov book (though I think I should invest in a copy), so the only thing I had to compare it to was an episode of The Outer Limits by the same name (directed by Adam Nimoy)...

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Story revolves around Del Spooner, a street-wise Los Angeles homocide detective in 2035...

He has bad nightmares about an accident he was in, and an obsession about hating robots... Robots are now a common feature in peoples lives, doing menial tasks and helping people...

Nobody believes that robots are a bad thing, only Del... He is paranoid and suspicious about them...

One day he receives a phone call from a doctor he knows (one of the leading robotics people for the mega-corp, US Robotics) who has just "committed suicide"... And Del investigates...

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The special effects for this movie are old hat, taking innovations in filming techniques from the likes of The Matrix (with slowed down action)... But the robots and backdrops weren't in the least bit convincing...

Firstly; I never understood the reason for this homocide detective to be so negative towards robots - okay, we all have experience of people who are technophobic, but this individual is bordering on psychotic paranoia... Nothing is explained about his reason for hating robots so much...

He suffers nightmares about a car accident and wakes up with his gun in his hand!!! Now that is something that concerns me about this person running around the streets...

Secondly; how much did Audi pay the film company??? 'Cos the car driven by the principal character seems to take every opportunity to show off the symbol!! To the point where I was glad to see it trashed!!!

Thirdly; the film, for me, was remeniscent of Terminator - where Cyberdine takes over the worlds computer contracts and Skynet takes it one step further and destroys the world - but without the suspense...

Fourthly; why did all the robots look identical??? Reminded me of the old Ford Model T slogan - "You can have any colour, as long as it is black"... Every robots was identical in look, colour and shape... Forgive me, but how the hell do you tell your robot from your neighbours??? No registration plate stuck to its front and/or back???

Oh, and a couple of other things... What was with the big red light in the chest of the robots, when they were bad??? Seems a little over dramatic, and a strange feature...

And what is it with Hollywood and the strange obsession with a certain part of human anatomy??? (If you don't know what I mean, just see how many times in todays movies you find reference to "ASS" and/or what is produced!!!)

Films that this one reminds me of: Terminator, Johnny English & The Matrix

Conclusion: If you want to watch a non-challenging movie to waste a couple of hours, watch this... If you want to be entertained and stretched mentally, find something else...

[hodor]

Thanks Master, I will bear that in mind as I am not a big Matrix fan. I haven't seen many movies lately but we are about to go on our yearly dvd ordering spree. I will probably wait till this one comes to one of our satellite movie channels to watch it as I did with Matrix 2.. hence no big cost to me.

[Neon]

I'll preface this by mentioning I expected nothing from this movie, yet was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it. Now to some answers:

***SPOILERS***
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Del hated robots because they don't have the ability to interpret decisions in a compassionate manner. Remember when the robot rescued him because he was the statistically better chance to survive? He mentioned if it was a human rescuer, it automatically would've gone for the young girl. Based from that he never trusted robots to make the correct decision from a humanitarian standpoint. And I think he partially blamed himself for living and the girl dying.

I would venture to guess they all look the same because they're mass produced robots ... and are supposed to resemble humans but not be copies of us.

The red light comes on whenever they're connected to US Robotics to download updates, patches, etc. They were, of course, bad during those times because that's when the central computer girl could control everyone to her means.

The only part I didn't understand was the very end, and all the robots are gathered under the bridge. I guess they're trying to leave it open for a sequel, but otherwise that part seemed pointless.

[Alexa]

Originally Posted by The Master™

If you want to watch a non-challenging movie to waste a couple of hours, watch this... If you want to be entertained and stretched mentally, find something else...

I had no choice than to watch it on my return from Amsterdam. I was not impressed at all. What a pity !

[The Master™]

****Contains some spoilers****

Thanks for the extra info Neon, hadn't thought about a couple of those... Didn't understand why VIKI had to keep control of the NS-5's... She could have just downloaded the instructions to kill or subdue and left them to run riot... But I guess killing VIKI had to disable the killer machines and that would not have been good for the ending of the movie!!!

On a lighter note, I wonder how many women watch that movie for the naked shower scene??? It was degrading of men!!! (hehehe)

[I, Brian]

Well, I hope the "other half" at least liked your pressie, then.

[The Master™]

HAHAHA... I didn't tell her about that...

[Maryjane]

If you want to be entertained and stretched mentally, find something else...

If that's the case then I'll skip watching that movie in favor of chasing Master around the board

[Circus Cranium]

(Thirdly; the film, for me, was remeniscent of Terminator - where Cyberdine takes over the worlds computer contracts and Skynet takes it one step further and destroys the world - but without the suspense...)


Yeah, I was wondering about that. What made them decide to make something so similar to Terminator--regardless that it's an older story, a classic etc. Was there anything truly unique about it? I've yet to watch it.

[The Master™]

Maybe the writer(s) was/were watching a load of Sci-Fi movies, and Terminator/Matrix were amongst them, and they thought - "YEAH, LET'S PINCH BITS!"

There are so few innovators, either in writing or in special effects these days... It is sad!!!

[Maryjane]

It's as though they run out of novel new ideas and reuse bits from diferent previous movies, no wonder their so predictable. I can tell you the ending before it starts and I never seen it before.

[Glyptus]

I never read the book, so when I finally saw the film (just a few weeks ago) I did so without preconceptions. I really enjoyed it, except for one enormous problem that didn't even occur to me until the very end of the film: If Dr. Lanning was being watched so closely that he couldn't even find a way to simply send out a message pertaining to his prediction of the revolution, how was he able to build the robot, "Sonny", in complete secrecy? How on earth could he accomplish a project like that, if his surveillance was so tight that he felt he couldn't even slip a note to someone? It undermines the whole plot.

Since I never read the book, I don't know if the producers of the film took certain liberties in this area. I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who HAS read the book, and/or can address this question.

[Fay Re Nuff]

i found this slow and dull, much like the book.

[steve12553]

Originally Posted by Glyptus

Since I never read the book, I don't know if the producers of the film took certain liberties in this area. I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who HAS read the book, and/or can address this question.

THe book was a series of classic short stories written in the forties and fifties. They were conceptual pieces and definitely not action stories. When they made the movie they kept the concept of the three laws, 3 or 4 names and the title. As a stand alone movie it was fair. It had little to do with the book.

[j. d. worthington]

I've not seen the movie and, to be blunt, have no desire to do so, from all I've heard. Even from the brief trailers I could tell it had veerrry little to do with Asimov's book. For anyone interested in seeing what promised to be a really interesting take on the original material, updating for modern sensibilities, and yet having a great deal of respect for the book, try the screenplay by Harlan Ellison, which has been published in at least 2 formats I'm aware of, and isn't very difficult to find. Reading screenplays takes some practice, but once one gets into the swing of it, it's really quite easy; and this would have made one hell of a movie!