I, Robot a must rent at least (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Which one was that? The one where Schwarzenegger gets cloned? I seem to recall enjoying that one. Don't hate me for my low standards!

 

[Steve Christou]

The 6th day? Which one is that? The Governator vs the clones? It's been a while since I've seen it. Not one of his best but I can't say I hated it. I was dragged to see alien abduction thriller The Forgotten starring whatsername recently, hated it, hows that?

 

[Zen Butler]

Hmm, DaveGTP, this synopsis sounds a lot more interesting than; a few vertically challenged blokes bravely take on a mission to destroy a ring at a near by mountain, only to take the longest possible f..in route to get there and cry, piss and moan for 12 hours. If I want The Midgina Monologues, I can catch that at my local coffee house.

I will give I, Robot a rental but with low expectations. Asimov, has hardly been done any justice with past adaptations. Dick's novels have gotten the same treatment, among other great Sci-Fi writers. "Retaining themes" sounds like a bit of a compromise but I use the phrase. Although my favorite film, not a great adaptation, is still a great film. I thought Minority Report was very good too. I don't think we will ever see a "pure" adaptation.


This sounds similar to some debates on Dickian forums.

 

[DaveGTP]

That was Asimov's whole point with the laws. To "reprogram" the positronic brain would take an entire rebuild of the technology, that would take years to do. Like rebuilding a car without leaning on the previous knowledge of internal combustion...like creating it from scratch. That's why they were called "rules". Not breakable, especially not to the point of robot rebellion (ala Matrix).

That was the point - he hated the robot rebllion thing, and felt it was a negative attitude toward science. He felt robots could be built with safeguards to prevent most problems - kind of how you can run a combustion engine without worrying about it spontaneously blowing up Yeah, there might be a few unexpected problems, but nothing truly dangerous.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I just checked the region 2 2-disc collector edition here. The first disc is exactly and I mean exactly like the R1 disc. It’s the same design and menus. I think they basically made a 2-disc set, prepared everything and shamelessly removed the second disc for the US market.

On the bright side, I watched the second disc and my God! There are a lot of materials but it’s maybe the most boring behind-the-scenes that I have ever seen. Everything is so badly made and put together that several times I thought of pulling my eyes out! They should give a razzie award to this!

 

[Scott Kimball]

I couldn't make it through "The 6th Day" either... but I did enjoy the ride that "I, Robot" provided. It's a popcorn flick. Anyone who was expecting more, well... I feel for ya. I have harshly criticized some novel to film adaptations in my reviews before (most notably "Paycheck"). Perhaps it is the fact that "I, Robot" is only suggested by the ideas of Isaac Asimov's stories (plural), and it isn't a direct adaptation of any one of them, that lets it slip under my radar.

The three laws that are basic to the stories are clearly spelled out in the film, and the laws themselves are true to Asimov. The treatment of the robot characters is a twist on the original. It served the purpose and allowed Proyas to make the kind of film he wanted to make.

I don't fault those who wanted a more exacting adaptation, but if you take the film at face value - and you like mindless action flicks - this film adequately represented the genre.

Would I like to see a more exacting adaptation? You bet! But I accept the existing film for what it is - it is no more or less than I expected.

 

[Michael Harris]

Here here. While I really like the Robot/Foundation series, "The Gods Themselves" is Asimov's masterpiece.

One great SF book I would love see as a film is Clarke's "Childhood's End" but, unfortunately, there are have been too many films and/or TV shows with massive alien space ships hovering over major world cities.

 

[Jeff_Standley]

I loved this movie, I will say that I have not read any of Asimov's books (Im sorry:b )so I can not compare it to the book, but as far as movies go This one was really good IMHO. Plus I like Will Smith alot.
The DTS track is awesome. Why this recording format is not included on every DVD is beyond me. The sound that comes out of my home system is just explosive compared to regular 5.1 track. every time that red DTS logo pops up I know it's going to kick ass.

 

[WilliamG]

My wife and I saw this movie while on vacation this summer ... why? Because we wanted to see a really good popcorn action flick. And that's what we got. Really enjoyed it. And Will Smith was great.

And, no, I've never read Asimov, either. Just never really had the desire. If the movie's 180 degrees from the book as some have stated, I understand how you must feel. *Sort* of the way I felt when I heard that Spider-Man would have organic webshooters. But I still enjoyed the movie.

Oh, I'm 47 ... and I hope Santa leaves this one under the tree for me!

 

[dpippel]

I'm 46 and just finished watching I, Robot. All I can say is: where are you Alex Proyas and where are you Isaac Asimov?!? The combination of this filmmaker and this storyteller should have resulted in a cinematic "something special". Instead I got Will Smith channeling Bad Boys sans Martin Lawrence with the bod from his Ali training spouting lines from his "Will Smith" character in Independence Day. What a letdown. The only remotely interesting thing about this film was Sonny.

William, if you're interested in buying my copy I'll make you a killer deal. Just PM me...

 

[ArthurMy]

I take the film at face value: I hated it. I, however, am not a fan of anything "mindless". I like entertainment, but it must succeed as entertaiment, which this film did not do for me in any way, shape, or form.

 

[Wyatt_Y]

No awards on this film but it was fun with some couch shaking effects and an interesting twist on the Asimov line. As good as the book, no. But IMHO few films do justice to a truly good book.

Ditto Michael - "Childhood's End" is an unforgettable story!!

 

[MarcusUdeh]

re:josh l

your brother is Will Smith?

 

[DaveGTP]

HAHAHA....my wife just happened to send me this tonight...



Comes from
Somebody who didn't like the movie much, obviously

Hope it's not too inappropriate. I guess to see I, Robot you had to be a certain age, right?

Actually the site is kind of infantile...but I got a laugh off the picture.

 

[Jason Smalley]

I admit that I have never read the original Asimov book as 99% of my reading falls squarely in the non-fiction realm, but I found myself enjoying this movie in the vein of the Original Star Trek series.

In I, Robot, we are presented with a society in the not-to-distant future where the masses undergo a calculated series of adjustments "for their own good/protection" without due diligence to the consequences. When a small minority of society (Will Smith) expresses concern for the long-term impacts of this change, he is branded as a nutball loon of the highest order, but, as in all cases when the nutball loon is our main character, he turns out to be right. As usual, nobody sees his point until it is too late.

The reason I like this idea being presented in a "popcorn movie" is that I feel like today's society accepts the loss of their privacy and other rights for "own good/protection" when it is really neither. I hope I haven't just violated the "no political discussions" rule, but that is why the movie was enjoyable to me. Because, even on an unconscious level, it might get some people to think about our own world. Just my .02.

 

[Jeff_Standley]

I love Maddox, his site is very funny. Yes it is for a select crowd I'll give you that, but hilarious to say the least. Even though I loved i-Robot I loved his review on the movie.

 

[Norman Matthews]

I absolutely detested Dark City and am a fan of Asimov's I, Robot, so I entered the theater with very low expectations and was pleased to walk out quite satisfied. I enjoyed the movie a lot (and this coming from someone with fogey tendencies, having also detested Van Helsing and The Chronicles of Riddick).

To be fair, however, as a fan, I always expected any faithful adaptation of Asimov's I, Robot to be a phenomenally boring film.

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Well, I just got finished watching this for the first time. My extremely low expectations probably helped, but it's not too bad if you take it for what it is, an extremely dumb popcorn movie. Don't rent the DVD expecting Asimov. Heck, don't even rent the DVD expecting science fiction. Just rent it expecting a mild diversion and you probably won't be disappointed.

By the way, the transfer is indeed top-notch.

Link Removed

 

[Lewis Besze]

 

[Steve Christou]

Really? Surely to laugh at that picture you'd have to be a certain age, right?