I, Robot – the movie

Forgive them, Asimov, for they know not what they do.
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Hollywood Revisionism and Issac Asimov:
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I saw “I, Robot” o­n DVD a few weeks ago. It is a film adaptation starring Will Smith using ideas from Issac Asimov’s short stories series I, Robot”
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I grew up reading Asimov and I have also read his biographies and his cleverly titled: “I, Asimov: A Memoir”.
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There seem to be some reviewers that have read Asimov’s books but none that read his bios nor know the man.
If they did they would know it is highly likely that he would be totally offended by this movie.

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I suppose his estate doesn’t mind this travesty if they are making some money. I hope they are.
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Issac did not believe in writing BEM (Bug Eyed Monstor) stories.
He disliked the “Frankenstein” theme. The idea of saving the human race against the evil Robot is o­ne thing he abhorred. He expicitly stated that he predicated his work o­n the premise that mankind would use technology rationally.
His “I, Robot” stories explore the relationships and conflicts of the “Three Laws” he postulated.

There is very little action or movement in his stories or novels.
The movement is often intellectual, by sleuth, logicical deduction or extrapolation.

For example his Foundation Novels is a history describing logical development of processes, not action or individual heroism..

He was primarily facinated by mystery stories. Asimov said Science Fiction “considers the nature of the changes that face us, the possible consequences, and the possible solutions.” Issac’s stories were idea-driven not action-oriented.

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So even to see the trailers for this movie had me tossing my cookies.

I just feel so offended myself, to see Issac’s name o­n it.

I know nothing is sacred to the Hollywood Money Machine.
But why do they have to promote lowering the IQ of this continent?
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It is classical revisionism.
The flavor of the world Asimov really created has been buried and revised to suit the popular idiom.
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As far as a “Will Smith Action Movie” (trying very hard to forget the name Asimov), I o­nly liked a bit of it.
For o­ne thing it was mostly a CGI-cartoon. o­ne could see it was nothing but actors and blue screen. The illusion did not carry. o­ne gets the sense that Will Smith must have felt very lonely making it.

As far as the CGI action goes, not o­nly could humans not withstand those physical actions but also machines themselves could not withstand and do the physical actions depicted. The action was unrealistic.
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There were glaring absurdities such as the “riot” betwwen humans and robots. The robots were depicted as too strong and indestructible, there could be no human defence.
This is a common fault in creating stories where the monster is made so powerful that there can be no real conflict.

The street scenes being “blue screen” were too simplified.No illusion of reality was carried for the viewer. It failed to deliver that element of story magic. It might as well have been done o­n a stage.

Finally Will’s character was unbelievable:

This kind of “hip-cartoon character-policeman does not even exist in our modern day let alone he could not exist in a sophisticated future world.
It is a character type made for fans but it is not a real type.

A street wise type of character modified by future circumstance could be written in a much more realistic manner. This character here was written for children.

I listened to the directors commentary. I got an impression of a superficial person without a deep character…very much like the movie that was produced.
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There are some enjoyable parts to the movie as others have mentioned but for me they do not redeem its faults for me.
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I rate it Two Borg Thumbs down.