i just re-read 'I, Robot' because we bought the DVD last week. I had forgotton how 40-ish the language is ("that robot burned out a whole bank of relays") I even saw a thing about vacuum tubes in the throwaway dialouge. Well, for whatever reason, the short stories are STILL better than the action movie. Mostly have to deal with man's ability to out think a robot that's behaving weird or dangerous. Will Smith just up and blasts them. Frankenstein complex, ya know. In the book they call all the robots 'boy'. Like; "come here, boy." And; "Move all my electro-space air-le-toodlers into the trunk of my groundcar, boy." Enlightened society, don't ya know.


THE
GOLDEN AGE
AARDVARK

I hate robots, so I was glad to see 'em die in I, Robot!

Well, that was decidedly less horrible than I'd assumed. But the anthopomorphised I-Mac design of the evul robuts still sapped the tension out of the fight scenes. So I'm still right, only slightly less so.

[quote="Lysander"][url=http://www.maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=i_robot]thank you maddox[/url][/quote]
http://caltrops.com/pointy.php?action=viewPost&pid=570
Maddox doesn't write well, that's why people read his shit.

[quote="Maddox"]
blubbering suck-fest of limp-dicked pussies wimpering[/quote]
I mean, does he even try anymore? If you're going to have a word so hard coded into your fucking vocabularly try something other than "blubbering".

[url=http://www.maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=i_robot]thank you maddox[/url]

Because they know it'll go beserk and kill the whole family (including the dog) in the dark of night.



THE
AHHHHH!!!!
AARDVARK

You can't buy it, I don't believe. It's just an internal project, not something meant for production.

Maybe they want free publicity for those with loose cash and optimistic minds. I bet those robot things are a big giga-pet type. maybe like the prototype cars that aren't really for sale but look cool and make you think about buying something from that particular company. I don't think the Honda robot is cool though. It's the home pong console of robots.

THE
BUT JUST WAIT A COUPLE YEARS
THEY'LL FIX IT
UP GOOD
AARDVARK

[quote="AArdvark"]Anyone see the ads for that primitive Honda robot? it's the beginning!!!!![/quote]
That robot is old - well, at least five years old. Older, I think.

I surprised they dusted it off and stuck it in their new ads.

So he's bitter that he's alive. No, he has deep seated guilt feelings that he's alive and really needs some serious couch time to deal with them. Instead he takes an unreasonable hatred towards the robot class. I see character flaw here, folks.

I would think that he should have a couple three sessions with Sigfried Von Shrink (Gateway) and work through his anger and guilt. He could be a better person.


THE
POHL
AARDVARK

[quote="AArdvark"] The part that bugs me is that the Will Smith character GREW UP in a robot world why would he be so anti robot? [/quote] They explained this one: He's bitter because a robot saved his life instead of a little girl. His bionic arm is a constant reminder of the incident. He feels that if the rescuer was a human with feelings then he wouldn't be alive and guilty about it.

The scenes that didn't have stuff blowing up were kina Asimov-like. The robot walking the dogs, the robot doing all the kitchen stuff, ect/ The part that bugs me is that the Will Smith character GREW UP in a robot world why would he be so anti robot? I know about his traumatic underwater driving attempt but still, LIke his boss said; "it's just a can opener".

It would be similar to me having an inbred hatred of my X-box only for different reasons.

Anyone see the ads for that primitive Honda robot? it's the beginning!!!!!

THE
DIRE PREDICTION
AARDVARK

This movie was not meant to have anything to do with Asimov's - ah, shit, someone else got there first...

Anyway. Movie = complete travesty, with Asimovian names (HOW could they use the name Susan Calvin for that chick? How?) and occasional setpieces thrown in for good measure. Asimov would turn in his grave if he knew about it.

I enjoyed it. I knew going into this what it would be like and therefore wasn't dissapointed (a little herb and bacardi limon didn't hurt either). I had to see this because I've read lots of Asimov's fiction and non-fiction and the special effects looked pretty good.

[quote="Lex"]It wouldn't be so bad, if this movie weren't [i]exactly[/i] what Asimov would have [i]hated[/i]. Asimov constantly warned that human's stupidity in portraying robots as cold killing machines is what would doom our relationship with them, and is what causes so much of the suffering in all of his books. It was really cruel to do this to Asimov. He's dead, he can't defend himself. [/quote]
He may have hated it but I do think that the fact that they borrowed concepts and images from so many different science fiction movies (Terminator, Tron, Star Trek, Star Wars, and many others) at least is fitting because all of those were built on concepts that Asimov wrote about. Though a cheesy action movie, I think it can be said that Asimov inspired almost all of it. It's too bad he couldn't profit from this, though, hopefully he has a foundation that makes some money.

[quote="Lex"]This movie was not meant to have anything to do with Asimov's books: It was written as a story-driven action movie, under a different title.[/quote] Well, there were [i]some[/i] direct elements: Robots of Dawn (robot commiting murder and investigation where conventional wisdom is that it cannot happen) and Foundation (dead scientist forsaw the future, manipulates events and left a hologram which pops up to give advice). Certainly the point of the I, Robot book was to think about what happens when robots or artificial intelligence begins to evolve into something more alive.

Cops vomiting on beaten-down suspects is better.

But I really like it when cops get thrown off the case.

Lex's point stands as Asimov's screenplay was reportedly nothing at all like the filmed movie.

In other words, it might have actually been [i]good[/i] instead of half a formula cop movie ("you're off the force!") and half a cheese ripoff of Minority Report - with some SW: Attack of the Clones imagery tossed in.

They should have just called it [i]Big Willy Battles the Pink Robots[/i].

You make some valid points, Lex. But did you know there is actually a book written by Asimov himself which is a screenplay/dramatisation of "I, Robot"?

This movie was not meant to have anything to do with Asimov's books: It was written as a story-driven action movie, under a different title. Time-Warner or whoever it was bought up the rights, decided it would sell more with Asimov's corpse stuck on the top, and so purchased the name I, Robot and renamed a couple of the characters accordingly.

If a robot were to even fathom that [i]perhaps[/i] a robot might be able to harm a human being, it would give it severe mental problems: and that's just if the theoretical robot were [i]very far away[/i]. Aside from his story in which the robot wants to be a writer, Asimov simply made it impossible for robots to harm humans. As Aardvaark knows, it's just not something that can happen. To even [i]mention[/i] it makes you look ridiculous to anyone who has read even one of his books.

And yet you can now buy a copy of the book 'I, Robot' with Will Smith's visage emblazoned upon it and the text from the back reads, I quote:

"[b]Asimov's thought-provoking vision of how humans and robots might coexist is now a major film starring Will Smith[/b]".

No, no it isn't. That's what we call a [i]lie[/i]. There is a movie in which Will Smith blows shit up for two hours, and it happens to be named I, Robot.


It wouldn't be so bad, if this movie weren't [i]exactly[/i] what Asimov would have [i]hated[/i]. Asimov constantly warned that human's stupidity in portraying robots as cold killing machines is what would doom our relationship with them, and is what causes so much of the suffering in all of his books. It was really cruel to do this to Asimov. He's dead, he can't defend himself.