JCC Dear Jabba-wocky,

Wocky likes anything featuring his people.




By which I mean robots.

 

he really perfected his craft here. by the way im glad solojones racist joke beat me to the top of the page here

 

I try to start every thread page with a racist joke.

 

I, Robot wasn't a bad film.

 

*sneezes dramatically*

 

I, Robot was an excellent movie. Many people criticized it for not being true to Isaac Asimov's original, but I'm somewhat confused by that in that the titular work was a collection of short stories. Throughout the narrative, they make nods to several of them, including the messiah robot with the reworked positronic brain, the attempt to find one malfunctioning robot among a crowd of hundreds by manipulating the Three Laws. The villain of the film itself also captures something approaching Asimov's Zeroeth Law.

No one would claim that this is the sort of story Asimov would tell. But if we are honest with ourselves, we'd also admit that Asimov's greatest strength was never characterization or story-telling in the first place. He wrote stories about ideas, in which the characters almost seemed incidental at times. But they were thought-provoking in how they made us consider technology, and consistently left a sense of wonderment about the future. "I, Robot" at times captured that same sense of wonderment while at the same time making a hearty Will Smith action vehicle. I don't see what there is to be disappointed about, in particular.

 

I've always found his characterization in Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation to be much better than most people give him credit for. The Mule is a great character and so is the girl in Second Foundation. I forget her name, but she's very well written.

 

I liked them both as well, but that's two out of how many? Not the best batting average.

 

Fair enough.

 

i saw this thread and decided to comment.

I still have no idea who this Jabber-wokky person is.

 

I, Robot did not suck but Harlan Ellison's write up should have been a film. The best thing about this film was Sonny.

 

Yes it is.

 

I dare you to elaborate, Recession Spending. You have thrown the gauntlet.

 

aaawwwwww HEEEELLLLLL NAW

 

I'd argue that on its own, I, Robot might, might, be a passable action flick, of the typical Will Smith variety, with the usual lack of character depth and the usual shallow thematics that implies, but the fact is that as an adaptation of an important work of science fiction it simply fails on every level. The movie uses its name, and the three laws of robotics simply as recognition points to help turn a profit with some pre-built tie-ins and basic recognition. The inanity of the world building, with all its toss-off advertising for Converse and others masquerading as markers of the time is kind of insulting in its nakedness. When you consider that the film was first created as an original property, and then later retrofitted into an Asimov adaptation after Fox realized they still owned the rights, it kind of tells you everything you need to know. It doesn't even bother to honor the spirit of Asimov's work.

 

okay now i KNOW u trollin

 

More importantly: Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman AKA the guy who wrote Batman and Robin.

 

That's not much of an answer. In what ways do you think it failed to live up to Asimov's work? I tried to address this all in my original comments on the subject, from the films nods to his contributions to his relative lack of skill as a storyteller in the first place. So it started out as an independent story? Why does that make the finished product terrible, and what would you rather have seen?

 

THE CONVERSE SCENE, WOCKY. VINTAGE 2004 ALL STARS?

GTFOTB.

 

They guy whose favorite film series has more brand name-dropping than a rap video wants to complain about product placement? Really? This doesn't make a movie bad.

 

AKIVA. GOLDSMAN.

 

That doesn't mean anything. The director of the best comedy series in the modern era is also the director of the absolute worst of the X-Men films (though I suppose its something of a competition with X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Directors have misses sometimes, just like everyone else. Every film should be judged on its own merits. When you do so, I, Robot clearly shines.

 

a beautiful mind

he kinda owned you pretty hard right there, endbro

 

Really overrated.

Except Goldsman misses all the god damned time, I, Robot included.

 

I gotta say, as someone who doesn't really hate product placement as a rule unless it interferes with the plot, anachronistic product placement is some wackness. This has been true ever since Marty McFly rehydrated his first Pizza Hut.