I, Robot?

So this afternoon I decided that against my better judgment I would go see I, Robot in the theaters. I had reservations about going even before I went based on the robots vs. humans theme that had been prevalent in the commercials.

On my way down I came across a protest going on near Westlake Center. A large number of people in wheelchairs are blocking off several city blocks and trying to get their message out. The Bush administration is currently trying to pass legislature that will take disabled people who are unable to live unassisted and institutionalize them. They Bush administration wants to take these people out of their homes, cut their Medicare funding, and put them in nursing homes against their will. It was an amazing and heartbreaking thing to see hundreds of wheelchair bound citizens from across the nation begging for their right to live in dignity.

Back to the movie - now I’m not sure how many of my readers are Isaac Asimov readers, or even how many people have read the book I, Robot, but anyone who has will be very disappointed. The movie is loosely based on some themes from the Robot series written by Isaac Asimov, but really has nothing to do with them. The only thing I could really see that gave them any connection with the series is that the whole movie revolves around the 3 laws of robotics.

The movie by it self was an interesting concept, and had great special effects. The robots look genuine, and the designers did a great job of giving a “plastic” face emotion. Had it been called something else and merely borrowed the 3 laws of robotics I probably would have enjoyed it more. The plot had a few holes in it, and wore very thin at a couple of major points. I don’t think I’ll be seeing this one again for a while, but at some point I suppose that I will have to NetFlix it and give it another viewing.

My advice – if you have read the Isaac Asimov books and are looking for a heady intellectual flick, then don’t watch this movie – you will be very disappointed. On the other hand if you have not read the books, and are in the mood for an action packed movie with little substance and lots of pretty things to look at then by all means go ahead.

P.S. The concept car design by Audi is very cool. I like the idea of a free spinning sphere for a wheel and hope it actually makes it to market at some point!