Lord of the Stickpins, I think.
Ah, but if 2nd Law’s financial input made the Hollywood beancounters decide to spring for a sequel, wouldn’t that harm humans and therefore cause a First Law violation?
Don’t mind me, just passin’ through.
It was a great actioner; I was on the edge of my seat during the tunnel scene, not to mention the finale.
Weird vehicles with spherical wheels. Wonder if anyone’s ever tried to build those commercially.
All those infrastructure improvements built in only 30 years. It’s not only the future, it’s an alternate universe too! 
IMHO, true artificial intelligence is a bad idea. I’m an introvert, and want to relax when I get home, not have to worry about offending my appliances by not making smalltalk with them. Also I don’t want anything in my house which might take a dislike to me.
I was a huge fan of Asimov’s robot stories back in the day. Asimov’s “I, Robot”, the movie is not. Look past the title, and it’s a surprisingly enjoyable summer popcorn film that’s more faithful to the spirit of Asimov’s books than I’d expected. The plot definitely spins out of a suggestion in one of Asimov’s stories, though it’s been far too long to remember the title. More action-oriented than anything Asimov would have done, but I doubt he’s rolling in his grave either.
Will Smith plays Will Smith - but his performance is at least a tad more interesting and nuanced than than his boilerplate widecracking cop. The post-“The Recruit” question of whether Bridget Moynahan can emote remains unanswered. Somewhere on a cutting room floor is a romantic subplot wherein the chilly scientist breaks down with a story of horrible trauma in her past, and winds up in Will Smith’s arms (good riddance to it!). The most involving emotional journey of a character is that of … one of the robots. There are several moments in the action sequences that may result in minor eye-rolling, but less than I had anticipated.
For anyone who can’t get past the title, it’s a definite miss. For anyone looking for a fun, gorgeous film to watch while munching popcorn, it’s worth a look.
Saw this last night. I would argue that if you take away the passion that this movie instills by its connection to Asimov, and that Spiderman 2 instills by its connection to the classic comic book series, then I, Robot is the superior “summer action” movie.
Just something to think about.
-K.
But the tentacles! The tentacles!
You might want to have a little chat with your toaster, then. She’s been IMing about some stuff.
I’m just sayin’…
Since it takes place in New York, not Neo-Tokyo, I doubt that will be enough to sway my opinion.
I haven’t seen the movie but How exactly are the robots circumventing the laws of robotics? Is it the Zero Law conjecture put forth by Asimov himself, or just something hollywood?
Asimov reminds me of Poe. Great stories/books/novels that are hard as hell to adapt to cinema. People should just stop trying to do so and enjoy their works on paper.
However, with that being said, I am planning on the seeing the movie but I am not going to call it I, Robot. I am going to ask for one ticket to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air vs. The Killer Robots. Rolls off the tongue pretty nicely don’t you think?
Both. The actual robot hordes were actually built with a master controller that allows them to override the Three Laws - i.e. Hollywood style. However the reason they are being so built ties back into the Zeroth Law.
A thoroughly mediocre film IMHO. From my perspective it even was fairly weak at the mindless action film level - just way too obvious to fully enjoy. The overtly intrusive level of product placement alone was enough to irritate.
- Tamerlane
Although I think the movie was a pretty enjoyable action flick, I definately agree with the product placement point. Will smith was even nice enough to mention to us that the Chuck Taylor throwbacks are available RIGHT NOW!! I’ve also seen just about enough of Audi for one lifetime.
Overall, very good from an action perspective the plot was decent enough to keep me occupied, it had a small small twist at the end, had a cute woman and cool robot . Sure, the dialogue was a little weak but it wasn’t nearly laughable weak so it’s okay.
I even got a little sad when I thought sonny was being shut down
Based on the trailers, the movie appears to be a great popcorn flick.
I’m not about to see it, though, because I don’t want to contribute to the possible success of an “inspired by” type film.
If you’re going to adapt a book, do it right. Cashing in on an existing work’s name recognition and then pulling a bait-and-switch is nasty. This movie should have been released as Hardwired, with little emphasis on whatever Asimovisms were in the script. How does the release of this film affect the chances of I, Robot being adapted properly? It pretty much excludes it, doesn’t it? Or could a decent adaptation be done with another title? The Evitable Conflict?
Even if this movie is a lot of fun if you avoid comparing it to Asimov’s work, it deserves to fail, because if efforts like these go over well, in a couple of years we might see A Canticle for Leibowitz starring Bruce Willis in a standard tough-guy vs. mutant flick.
There are so many great (and smart) books that Hollywood hasn’t touched. I’d like to see them made into good movies, instead of being transmuted into formulaic crap that’s exactly like last year’s summer popcorn flick, but with newer special effects.
The film’s biggest weakness is its intellectual aspirations. The producers could have simply paid the Asimov estate whatever they wanted for the “Three Laws” mumbo-jumbo, and left the title and any even half-hearted attempt to represent Asimov’s social commentary out of it. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. By trying to be both a slick and fun effects-driven Will Smith Sci-Fi vehicle, and a somewhat preachy allegory along the lines of “AI”, it does a dissapointing job at both. The film certainly worked better as an action flick, and I was very impressed with the CGI; most especially with the blistering Spooner vs. robot confrontations, which were so seamless I completely bought the visuals.
But the sometimes-improbable motivations of the characters, and the predictable diabolus ex machina were so sloppy in their conception, and so full of holes, if you use your brain one iota while watching the film, you’ll be irritated. Worse, all the lame attempts at social satire amount to little more than wasted time, as the exposition justified by the aforementioned slapdash conceptual foundation intrudes on the action and makes for some ultimately annoying interruptions between the exciting CGI spectaclulars.
“Independance Day” was certainly a dumber movie than “I, Robot”, but it was way more fun to watch because it never tried to be anything more than Will Smith Wisecracks While Blowing Shit Up. Will Smith can most certainly act, as his turn in “Six Degrees of Separation” aptly demonstrated. Plus he makes an excellent action hero, as we have seen many times before. He’s got the goods to be the ultimate ass-kicking renaissance man. Not only that, it IS possible to write entertaining and smart Sci-Fi (though Hollywood gives us precious little of it), as we’ve seen in films like “Blade Runner”, and, to a lesser extent, “Minority Report”. Such is the promised package of “I, Robot”, and if they had pulled it off, it would have been an exceptional movie. It’s at best a C- sci-fi concept film, and a B- action flick. It couldn’t successfully be both at once, and it’s clear those who made it shouldn’t have tried.
Eh. Titles can’t be copyrighted. If they want to call it “I, Robot,” or “Naked Came the Robot,” or “R.U.R.,” they pretty much can.
That said, “Hardwired” was a good title suggestion. Hollywood expects too much from using existing titles.
My wife enjoyed Spider-Man 2, and that was her first exposure to anything Spidery.
Yet Another Summer Action Flick vs. Summer Action Flick That Manages to Be Emotionally Deep? Spidey wins, webs down.
The big question on my mind has been what relevance it could possibly have to the sequence of stories titled I, Robot, and the answer is none. This film does not try to tell any of those stories. However, it does touch on an Asimov story that I have not read but have been told about, though this part of it is not clear until the big reveal in the end. When I say big reveal, I don’t mean to suggest that anyone will crap themselves in shock.
And, as it turns out, Asimov’s laws of robotics are central to the story, though even as that’s revealed it becomes even clearer that these laws have been simply conveniently bypassed earlier. But you definitely don’t get the kind of excercises in the logic of morality that are prominently featured in the book. Until the end, that is. There was what I would consider some cheating in building the mystery, but I wouldn’t say they actually lied to the audience. They even resorted to one minor sin of the turns-out-it-was-the-cat fakeout, though this was not characteristic of the film at all. The movie buys sufficient credibility, even through it’s egregious product placement of Converse All-Stars, that somehow this cat gag seems out of place.
The movie is visually gorgeous, and they definitely did not waste the best action sequences on the previews. Proyas took his time over the slow build of tension in the beginning, which would have benefited from dialogue that stood out more. The robots are beautifully designed and animated, and the newer models are clearly inspired by the iMacs, with a convenient light installed to tell you when they are in evil mode.
This is not a telling of any story in I, Robot at all, but it is more science fiction than sci-fi, and although it continues to burn me that they named it after a book to which it had very slim relevance, overall I’d have to admit I’d recommend it even to fans of Asimov, but especially to fans of Dark City, to which a certain family resemblance will be recognized. It really is kind of a shame that they chose to alienate the film’s core audience by loosly attaching it to a book that is not just well loved but, I would also argue, important, when they knew damned well they were not filming the book by any stretch of the imagination.
Yeah, but the problem is that they optioned the book, I, Robot, and then gave us this instead, which means that no-one else has the legal right to produce an adaptation of I, Robot, even if they choose to call it QT-locks and the Three Laws.
That sucks.
…until the option expires, of course. But still.
What ticked me off it the movie title sequence capitalized the “i” in the title. tsk, tsk.
What pleased me was the Dr. Calvin was not as out of character as I expected, though she is damn good looking for someone that old.
Good pacing, and the trailer did not give away the best parts.
The plot reminded me of Asimov’s mysteries and detective stories. Everything was there for you to figure out, if only you can see it in time.
Second biggest disappointment though was:The shower scene. Was I the only one asking him to turn just a bit?
lee, no, you weren’t the only one. And I’ve decided that hubby needs some black boxer briefs for Christmas