Wash in "I, Robot"

POSTED BY: Lucretia
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 15:06
VIEWED: 12324
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HEB

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 5:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by debbiebuk1:
Anything with Alan in is worth watching, even Knight's tale and 28 days have their moments.

What do you mean 'even'? A Knight's tale probably makes my top five movies ever. If you take it for what it is - a fantastic feel-good movie - then it is just so much fun and does it's job really well. They kept showing it on Sky Movies when I got in from college and (despite the fact I have it on DVD)I must have seen it at least 20 times when I was revising for my A-levels after college (it made my physics revision a whole lot more interesting). It's one of those films that never gets old and cheers you up every time you see it. The characters of Wat and Chaucer are perfect and their interaction is one of the best things about this movie.

Sorry. I just think this movie is very underrated. If you haven't seen it already check it out - if it doesn't make you smile I'll be very surprised.

"It's called a lance. Hello?"

heb

Ps. sorry for the off-topicness

Well, my sister's a ship... we had a
complicated childhood
.................
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.

LUCRETIA

Thursday, July 15, 2004 9:00 PM

For those that say I can't make a judgement call before seeing a film, of course I can. I'm not going to see every movie that comes out, nor do I want to. Maybe this movie will be good, maybe not. But I know enough of my preferences to get a feeling from the trailer of whether or not I'm going to be disappointed in it. I don't like to throw away $8.50.

As for Will Smith. I'm not slamming on his acting skills. What I'm saying is that I don't feel he's right for the movie. It's personal preference. Not that he couldn't do the movie. But it didn't look to me like he was doing the "drama acting Will", but more the "action star Will". And action stars don't do it for me very often.

As for the Asimov thing, yes it's disconcerting. What if someone in 20 years picked up Firefly and made a movie that you felt was nowhere near Joss's original story. Would it bother you? Of course! Perhaps the movie will pull it off, but it just doesn't look like it.

Despite all of that I am excited about the movie because of Alan's role. And also because I have a little hope that it might be good, mostly based in nostalgia.

NRKANGEL

Thursday, July 15, 2004 9:24 PM

Hey... can you imagine how GOOD this would have been with Denzel Washington? (whoa!)

Anyway, I'm going to see it because I'm into sci-fi. The part of me that loves the I, Robot book is going to hate it. The part of me that likes sci-fi eye candy is going to enjoy it. The part of me that is spending $10.00 to see a movie is going to be as patient as possible and allow the movie to prove itself or not.

Sigh...the part I hate is that they give you the title of a well known book and change the story so much that it has nothing to do with the original books. (Yes, I know it's based on "hardwired". I don't care if they want to call it that, 'cause I'd probably see it anyway, but to "steal" the title to the Asimov book is disingenuous at least and downright deceitful at best. Enough rant. I'll wait until I see the movie to say more.

DOUBLESHINY

Sunday, July 18, 2004 5:55 PM

I've seen quite a few interviews and previews but they're always centred around Will Smith, so have to take chance and watch the movie without a judgement call.

The reviews of Alan's performance have been so complimentary I can't help think it'll be a great watch despite the Will Smith element.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

ECGORDON

Monday, July 19, 2004 12:43 AM

I've already posted about this on another thread, and at other sites. I had not intended to see the film out of respect for the memory of Asimov. But I changed my mind a few days ago when Alan posted here, imploring us not to pre-judge it. Alan's voice work was very good, and I could recognize him, however it is hard to judge about the motion-capture work since he has said they did CGI work on the robot a lot too, so I don't know exactly how much of the movements were his.

As for the film itself, I would give it at most 2 stars out of 5, or 1½ out of 4, whichever system you usually use. Perhaps I would rate it a bit higher if they had not tagged Asimov's title and character names to it, but since they did I have to judge it more harshly. Will Smith was all wrong for the movie, and even though there have been a couple of people who have said they disagree with me on this point, they totally screwed with the Three Laws, and however they tried to justify it was totally illogical.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

EMBERS

Monday, July 19, 2004 1:05 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
I would give it at most 2 stars out of 5, or 1½ out of 4

Well, I went expecting nothing more than a summer 'beach film' and it came through...
silly light-weight entertainment!

I didn't see anything wrong w/Will Smith's performance, few people can deliver bad jokes with so much panach (and he can't be held responsible for how bad they were).

But I wasn't bored, like I was in Tom Cruises' pretensious recent films, or Geo Lucas' last two Star Wars failures...

SHINY

Monday, July 19, 2004 1:40 AM

I just got back from seeing it. Disclaimer: I read all the books in the Robot and Foundation series in my youth, but I don't consider myself a 'purist' and went to see the film with an open mind. Overall, I'd say it was a B or B+. The dialog was hit-or-miss, with a good section often ruined by some Arnold Schwarzenneger(sp?)-like quip from Smith. Overall the story and plot and themes were clearly inspired by Asimov's stories but not terribly faithful to Asimov's vision -- Asimov's stories were always more nuanced and the mysterious three laws 'violations' were always more subtle and intellectual (of course, if you get too subtle and nuanced you lose too much of the audience -- and face it, you can't make a film just for hard-core Asimov purists, you'd never recoup your expenses/costs).

My recommendation: if the trailer offends your sensibilities as an Asimov fan, DEFINITELY skip this movie. If you like the trailer or can watch it with only mild discomfort, then watch it -- it doesn't get any worse than the clips they show in the trailers and the bulk of the movie is a good deal better. It is uneven at times, and the dialog is as mentioned hit-or-miss, but the pacing is good, the guest stars (including Alan as Sonny the robot!) turn in solid performances, and there are even a few surprises thrown in for good measure. The casual Asimov fan will notice a number of shout-outs to the robot series and while the action scenes can be hollywood/matrix-esque, there is more depth to the film and the plot than I had anticipated. At one point (everyone who's seen the film knows what I'm talking about), I really believed there would be a B-movie depth-less charictature(sp?) of a villain, but I guess I was lulled into a false sense of stupidity by Will Smith and the action scenes, because I actually was surprised by the revelation late in the film about the villain.

"I left my heart in Seren-ity Val-ley..." <-- the farthest I've ever gotten in writing filk. ;)

JAKE7

Monday, July 19, 2004 4:32 PM

Saw the movie Saturday night and I really liked it!

Never read the "I, Robot" series so I was able to come in with no preconceived ideas on how the movie "should be."

I wanted to see this movie when I saw the first trailer on TV and didn't know what it was -- it just looked like fun. Once I realized on of our BDH was in it, I then made sure to go see it!

It was great entertainment and I thought Will Smith and Alan did a great job.

--------------
MAL: Everybody's makin' a fuss.

JADEHAND

Monday, July 19, 2004 6:54 PM

I saw "I, Robot" this weekend also and have not read the books. I enjoyed the film, and maybe that's because I had no expectations other than a summer action flick. But Alan was great! this was more than just a summer action flick, I thought it was really good. Maybe not a top ten, but I've seen a lot of movies, and there's only 10 slots. Really I woould recommend this film to anyone. Think of it as a new story in the series, or if the title is all that bothers you, think of it as

Select to view spoiler:

"A.R.C.H.I.E."...

Visit WWW.Marillion.Com for a better way to live

ZOID

Monday, July 19, 2004 7:09 PM

Hello 'coats (and especially 'Fred', if it is in fact Alan T., as elsewhere implied):

My son, his friend and I attended a matinee of "I, Robot" in celebration of my son's 11th birthday (and my 46th, which fell on the next day). I was initially leery of the movie's concept; however, I was favorably swayed by the obviously top-notch production values I saw in the theatrical trailer and HBO First Look feature. When my son asked to see the film for one of his b'day gifts, I was able to agree with less reservations, at least.

We saw the film in the central premiere theater at an upscale cineplex. Cost was $5 per ticket x3, and including sodas and popcorn the total ran $32US. It was the best money I've spent on a movie in a long while.

It was not a 'Will Smith Movie', although there may have been some intention toward that end. The female sub-lead was a little frazzled and overemotive without sufficient justification (maybe it was on the cutting room floor?). The other human roles were a bit comicky, but not too distractingly so.

This movie is about Sonny, and the nature of consciousness and conscience. Of course I'm enough of a geek to have considered "2001: A Space Odyssey" to be a movie about HAL. Sonny is the enigma and the ingenue of the movie. By comparison, the human characters are as consequential as the chorus of a Greek drama. This movie is about plot and story more than one particular role or portrayal, a characteristic that Firefly shared, and one of the main aspects -- in addition to sparkling dialogue -- that drew me to the series when it originally aired.

On the whole, I was very pleased with the movie, the storytelling. While I could generally care less about individual performances and special effects except where these advance (or hinder) the story being told, I felt the special effects were spectacular and flowed with the story, and the acting and dialogue were not a distraction, and gave the occasional chuckle.

On that subject, a caveat to Firefly fans: I had to remind myself that it was Alan's voice and body representing Sonny. From the criterion that a perfect acting performance makes one forget that one is seeing an actor, rather than a 'real' person on the stage, Alan's performance was perfect; Sonny became real for me. Bravo. The only better performance by this standard that I have ever seen was Ray Liotta's in "Something Wild", and that was based on total unfamiliarity with Mr. Liotta prior to that film. I truly believed the creator of that film had sprung a homocidal psychopath from death row to play the part (turns out that's just Ray being himself). To reiterate, if you're thinking about seeing the movie because of Mr. Tudyk's fine past performances in comedic roles, you may be disappointed: Alan is invisible, and I can think of no higher compliment to pay an actor as an artist, especially in so nuanced a main protagonist. If you do go to this movie, please honor his work by losing yourself in his portrayal as much as he obviously did.

In closing, I highly recommend the film to discerning fans of the genre. It exceeds any sci-fi I've seen since the original "Matrix", and since the director's cut of "Bladerunner" before that. To those who are easily distracted from plot, story and subtext by action sequences, special effects and star performances: you might not enjoy the movie as much as I did; the candy may spoil your appetite. To the latter, I recommend "Spiderman 2" instead, which I felt was as good or better than the initial installment, although a SpideyFan friend of mine said he was disappointed they revealed his secret identity so thoroughly. S2 is more of a romp, and is less of a 'think about it' entertainment than I,R.

Different strokes for different folks. Asimov fans -- of which legion I am a member -- will not be disappointed by the robot-centric heart of the story, so long as they don't fall into the trap of thinking of it only as a 'Will Smith Movie', of seeing only the flashy outer layer and losing sight of the underlying story. T

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