People are silly

IMDb :: Boards :: I, Robot (2004) Take special note of the grammar discussion, which ensues ad nauseum despite the fact that you can't reason with the irrational. Also, it amazes me how many people comment about what they think a movie is going to be like based on very short trailers, and often have no intention of seeing the movie before making up their minds. Reminds me of all those silly parents convinced Harry Potter will lead their precious little ones into witchcraft who never crack open a page.

By the way, I saw I, Robot, and I enjoyed it immensely (okay, the surfing away from the explosion with cat firmly under arm was a bit much, but otherwise....) I won't get into any disputes about how closely the movie follows the book, because frankly I cannot remember anything beyond the Three Laws, or for that matter, whether I read the stories in the first place or not. It was a long, long time ago, if at all. Besides, it isn't really meant to be a faithful adaptation, but rather is 'inspired' by Asimov's work.

Favourite quotes: 'You just have to die!'; 'Don't make me call your grandmother.' I have also decided that if we are ever presented with something like the freeway scene in our Cthulhu game, it's time to just piss our pants and run.

What I did like about the movie...it deals with prejudice, and how that prejudice was used (banked on, actually) to bring about the events of the movie. The fact that the prejudiced character is played by Will Smith, who is black, helps underscore the issues playing out in the background, such as slavery, revolution, dismissive trust, and sentience--things that all played into the racial history of our culture, but applied to a new form of life. It also examines the problems when life is so unbalanced as to be strictly logical or strictly emotional, and how some prefer the logical, less-human messiness because it is somehow safer, while others fear that the logic lacks a soul. True life, true art, I think the movie is saying, requires an infusion of both, plus a little faith. I saw the movie surrounded by a lot of pre-teen or early teen boys, and although they probably came for the special effects (which use CGI without being so blatantly CGI, for which I'm grateful), I heard them passing plot points and motives around, and they 'got' the full ramifications of what was going on, so even though there's quite a good jumping point in terms of philosophy and what makes us human and sentient, it wasn't lost on them.

I rather like how Will Smith has taken roles and 'made' them his own, infusing his personality and humour without it grating. In Wild, Wild, West it was totally anachronistic, but it was also campy 'Steam Punk' style alternative history, and wasn't meant to be taken seriously. In this, it's a much more serious film, albeit science fiction (although his manner does help keep the tension from building too quickly to climax.) But you could see a man with his beliefs and incredibly weird luck bucking the system everyone else believes in. He also seems to be able to get naked in his movies and make it work. :) In this one, there is a rather...breath-taking shower scene, completely non-sexual, but I do admire the man's physique.

And although it was slightly tangential and could easily have been left out, I rather like his interchanges with the adoring white kid who goes into the hip-hop mode and just gets told to stop cussing, because he isn't good at it, and go on home where it's safe. :) If a kid is actually raised in a neighbourhood where everyone talks that way, it's one thing. When nice little surburbanites start wearing their pants down to their knees, gesticulating all over the place, and using 'yos' and 'homies' a lot, it's silly, and a bit pathetic. Oh, and I wouldn't take on the grandmother for anything. That lady would whip them all into shape.

One last thing, before going to bed. The CGI was lovely, but because my brain works in sloppy, bizarre ways, I had for a moment an image after coming out of the movie of what a 'Sonny'/'Gollum' hybrid would be like, and it was really quite disturbing--really. Shiver.