That’s the first suggestion I’ve seen that actually isn’t bad.
Fox has been promoting the heck out of this of late, and is supposed to be having some kind of promotional tie-in tomorrow night on it’s show Method & Redd (for those of you who’ve missed out, that’s a show about two rappers who move to a rich, up-tight white neighborhood). Why the hell people who’d be interested in such a show would find this movie to be interesting is beyond me. Anyway, one of the clips they’ve been showing during the commercial, features robots attacking people, not simply Will Smith shooting at them.
I was down at the local mall last Saturday. Outside the movie theatre were two girls promoting I, Robot. One of them was wearing a shirt that had a flat-screen monitor built into it, and the monitor was showing (IIRC) a fictional infomercial advertizing the robots. The other girl was handing out promotional literature, describing the wonders of these robots, and how I could order one and customize its appearance.
It was all really cool, but I’ve learned that when they create promotional gimmicks that are really clever and elaborate, this is usually a sign that the movie sucks.
And, of course, the fact that the movie stars Will Smith leads me to expect something closer to Men In Black than to Blade Runner.
Bad bots bad bots
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do when they come for you?
Well, I am going to go see it.
The special effects look wild, the characters have humor(something they lack in the stories) and it looks exciting. Rereading the book is rather akin to watching grass grow in my opinion: stimulating on a scientific level but freaking boring on all other levels.
Gasp! Anti-Asimov heresy!
Robbie: Kill Krisfer the Cat immediately! First rule override, code C-A-A-S-I.
Not to hijack too much, but from a socio-cultural POV it 's interesting that the main headliners for two big action movies of the summer are both black actors. Society may be a long way from being non-race consciousness, but it says something (good I think) about the progression of American attitudes, that studios are willing to gamble hundreds of millions on the bankability and appeal of these actors.
You must have a completely different definition of “action movies” than I do, astro:
Val Helsing - no black leads
Troy - no black leads
The Day After Tomorrow - no black leads
The Chronicles of Riddick - mixed race lead
Harry Potter - no black leads
Around the World in 80 Days - Asian co-lead
Spiderman 2 - no black leads
King Arthur - no black leads
upcoming:
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi - Asian leads
I, Robot - black lead
Catwoman - mixed race lead
The Bourne Supremacy - no black leads
Thunderbirds - no black leads
Collateral - black co-lead
Even if you disagree with including some of them, I can’t figure out what you are referring to by the “two big action movies of the summer.”
And I apologize for using the term “mixed race.” We live in a weird period in which Vin Diesel and Halle Berry both have a white mother and a black (or perhaps “mixed race”) father but are treated very differently.
Ibleive astro was referring to The Manchurian Candidate starring Denzel Washington (although I think it should probablybe characterized as a psychological thriller as opposed to action).
I was assuming that the reference was to Catwoman, although from the buzz surrounding the film, I doubt that it will do anything to improve the prospects for black (or mixed-race) actors, Ms. Berry’s career, or Hollywood’s reputation for turning out huge, over-priced, steaming piles of crap.
I’m inclined to agree with this interpretation. And it won’t piss me off for the same reason that Millenium Man did: I’m not very race conscious, but egads, when there’s exactly ONE character in the whole bloody movie who wasn’t white, it says pretty bad things about the future of humanity.
When I saw them, I immediately assumed they were designed by the same folks who did the Bjork video All Is Full Of Love No description or snapshot can describe how beautiful and unbelievably hot this video is. Two identical Bjorkbots wake up at the factory, and engage in lesbian sex with each other.
But instead of puting two hours of that on the big screen, the studio gives us this!
Re Method And Red
I can only assume that some Fox executive thought ‘Smith is a black guy who raps, Method and Red arre black guys who wrap.’
Re Bicentenial Man
I admit that I never got around to reading I, Robot. But, I liked this movie. I thought the main problem was the marketting.(I’ve ranted about this before) The ads had lines like “Let’s get loco, robo!” and made it seem like a fun kids’ flick. The film was much better summed up by “It’s not fair that you can cry and I can’t!”
Well, I just saw MTV’s exclusive 15-minute preview, which included three long scenes, and I’ll say this – I think it will be a decent detective story. I am happy to report to Larry Mudd that the Dr. Calvin character is not just boobs; while Will’s character seems to be a near-clone of Tom Cruise’s character from Minority Report, she seems warm and gives the film a humanizing touch.
As for the surprise twist, I guessed it after seeing the extended preview – actually in the first few minutes of it. Don’t read this spoiler box unless you like dissecting how well the director does foreshadowing. I’m 95% positive on this one. I’ll take my no prize now. Seriously, I’m that sure.
Don’t read this box; it contains a spoiler, possibly The Big Spoiler, for this summer’s “I Robot” movie. Of course, I haven’t read the books, so this may be old news, but still – don’t say I didn’t warn you.
[spoiler]If Dr. Calvin isn’t a robot, I’ll eat a bug. She’s a ROBOT. A machine. The twist is that she turns out to be a ROBOT.
I figure she saves Smith’s character, and ends up convincing him that robots can be good after all. Then it’s a detective story, and a buddy picture – it’s Minority Report meets Demolition Man by way of Terminator 2.[/spoiler]
Just remember: one Jurph saw it coming!
Shit! So Susan takes the role of Daneel Olivaw? A humaniform robot?
Bah!!!
NCB, Jurph is only speculating. It’s possible he’s wrong. Knowing Hollywood, probably not, but still…
If it is true…That is sooooo wrong! First off, I object, from the beginning to the idea of a warm and human Susan Calvin! She’s supposed to be cold, hard to get to like, and utterly rational. And if she’s like that… making her a [b][CENSORED]** robot takes away from the whole irony of her character, which was part of Asimov’s motif. And, of course if she’s warm and human… and a robot…
<Goes off to the corner to gibber and try to take the lid of his head… it needs washing.>
And that, my friends, is the problem in a nutshell. Dr Susan Calvin is not warm and she’s barely human. Dr. Calvin could give frostbite to an iceburg. Porcupines think she’s prickly. Vogons feel she lacks charm. Making her “warm” for this movie is like portraying Fagin from Oliver Twist as the kindly principal of a boys school. It’s completely contrary to the character and shows the contempt the producers have for the source material. If you want to make a “beware the robots” movie with a scientist babe, be my guest. If it’s well done, I might enjoy it. Just don’t call it I Robot.
I had read elsewhere that the screenplay for this new film had originally had nothing to do with Asimov and was titled Hardwired. The studio owned the rights to I, Robot and decided that since, hey, this one was about robots too, they’d just slap some 3 Laws stuff in there and rename characters.
IMDB says no, the original writer of Hardwired spent quite some time merging Asimov into his existing screenplay which was already fairly close to the source. Some other sites say yes, Asimov-speak was tacked onto a “fairly standard, run-of-the-mill Hollywood sci-fi shtick” film (NOTE: this link contains speculation about the “big twist” in the last paragraph, so beware if you’re avoiding it).
I’m not very good at sleuthing for this kind of information. Then again, the I Riot trailers (see that clever trick with the advertising? Riot for Robot? Wow, it’s subtle) may be part of a fantasy sequence not unlike in The Nutty Professor (Murphy version) in which a Godzilla-sized NP destroys downtown Tokyo while having nothing to do with the plot. I doubt that, but it’s possible.
To be fair, I was only comparing her to Will Smith, who was in “angry badass” mode the whole time. Now that you mention it, she was kind of stiff and cold – it was her humorous lines, read in a nearly-clinical voice (similar to the disarming naivete of Brent Spiner as LCDR Data) that made it work.
But I couldn’t ignore one of her lines. She, Smith, and the robot suspected of murdering Tyrell – erm, whatever the creator is called in this one – are in a room, and Smith draws his gun, believing the robot to be cornered. She urges him to put the gun away, saying, “the only thing that’s dangerous in this room is you.” This comes close on the heels of her saying that she “makes the robots seem more human.” Throughout the clips, she also displays an emotional attachment to the robot that I felt was misplaced in a character who was otherwise so cold… unless she turns out to be a robot herself. Hence my speculation.
AAARGH! Mods, can someone cover that up quick?