I Robot

Godslayer Jillian · 10-13-2007, 06:06 PM

Of course, the movie's been around for a lot of time already, but I was just watching it, and I wondered, how many other people felt an uncomfortably large number of errors in it?

gothicusmaximus · 10-13-2007, 06:16 PM

That movie had absolutely nothing to do with the book, beyond the title.

MaguMan · 10-14-2007, 12:52 PM

Come on now, guys. What do you really think people want to see? A nice and poetic adaptation of Isaac Asimov's novels and short stories, or Will Smith getting Jiggy Wit' It on the big screen amongst a row of unabashed product placement inserts?

Steppenwolf · 10-14-2007, 01:02 PM

I honestly imagine WSmith out of a commedy . I saw the film on cinema , yes , and as It was over I felt disapointed enough to consider never pay for a hollywood/american movie anymore ...

Godslayer Jillian · 10-14-2007, 09:39 PM

Anal-retentive non-spatial scientists suck!
I'm referring to the girl in the film.
There were exactly a thousand robots in that factory where Sonny was hidden, and they were all perfectly aligned in neat columns.
Sonny hid among them and she wanted to investigate each robot, one by one for any anomaly. Want a better solution? See where the alignment doesn't work. All the robots were standing neatly in a perfect rectangle. Another robot couldn't have hidden itself without breaking the perfect formation.

silverbaal · 10-17-2007, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaguMan

Come on now, guys. What do you really think people want to see? A nice and poetic adaptation of Isaac Asimov's novels and short stories, or Will Smith getting Jiggy Wit' It on the big screen amongst a row of unabashed product placement inserts?

Assimov is a great author. That's exactly why I don't want to see this film. I can just imagine...Will Smith messed it up beyond all recognition. The film looks like crap yet most people probably think it's the best sci fi movie of all time.

I'll probably see it anyways, though. It's not every day you get to see some sort of adaptation of such an obscure author. Even if it is below par.

gothicusmaximus · 10-18-2007, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverbaal

Will Smith messed it up beyond all recognition.

Don't blame Will Smith, blame Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman.
No one ever acknowledges the writers.

raggedyanne · 10-18-2007, 05:33 PM

Personally, I prefer the book. Asimov is a literary genius. It's hard to convey that on film. Will Smith is a talented actor, but the writers could have done a better job converting the book to screenplay.

silverbaal · 10-18-2007, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus

Don't blame Will Smith, blame Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman.
No one ever acknowledges the writers.

Well the fact that he isn't a very good actor to begin with doesn't help, IMO.

Writers can write a script that's bad yet it can still turn out well if the director directs the action well and the actor acts well enough to pull it off. Ok. It can't suck as a screenplay to do this. But it's still possible.

But sure...I guess their all to blame in their own little ways.

gothicusmaximus · 10-18-2007, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverbaal

Well the fact that he isn't a very good actor to begin with doesn't help, IMO.

Writers can write a script that's bad yet it can still turn out well if the director directs the action well and the actor acts well enough to pull it off. Ok. It can't suck as a screenplay to do this. But it's still possible.

But sure...I guess their all to blame in their own little ways.

I think Will Smith's a perfectly competent actor, but to each his own.

Could you provide an example of a shitty script from which skilled actors and directors managed to produce a good film? I can't think of any. Either way, the tremendous discrepancies between the film's storyline and that of Asmiov's novel are indisputably the fault of the people who wrote the movie.

silverbaal · 10-18-2007, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus

I think Will Smith's a perfectly competent actor, but to each his own.

Could you provide an example of a shitty script from which skilled actors and directors managed to produce a good film? I can't think of any. Either way, the tremendous discrepancies between the film's storyline and that of Asmiov's novel are indisputably the fault of the people who wrote the movie.

The Prestige. Not the dialogue, but the concept underlying the dialogue/script. Which is still a part of the script. Some very smart things were said in this movie. But, in the end, it about things we've all seen before. Namely- Magicians having countless twins, confounding the viewer to the very end (Prestige). The concept wasn't original at all. But it was acted well and the cinematography was, in my opinion, flawless.

silverbaal · 10-18-2007, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus

Either way, the tremendous discrepancies between the film's storyline and that of Asmiov's novel are indisputably the fault of the people who wrote the movie.

Agreed.(I haven't seen it yet but it's pretty much common sense what you said.)

Maybe it came out that way, but I didn't insist, or mean to insist, that Will Smith had anything to do with the discrepancies between the film and the book. Although he does have a certain acting style, in most movies anyways, that macho touch guy style, that perhaps wouldn't have best suited a role for an Assimov adaptation, IF the writers and the director wanted to be true to the original. But, meh, maybe I just haven't seen enough of his movies. I mean, Assimov is action, of course, it's sci fi. But his characters also need to be able to deliver strong performances in certain parts as well.

gothicusmaximus · 10-18-2007, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverbaal

The Prestige. Not the dialogue, but the concept underlying the dialogue/script. Which is still a part of the script. Some very smart things were said in this movie. But, in the end, it about things we've all seen before. Namely- Magicians having countless twins, confounding the viewer to the very end (Prestige). The concept wasn't original at all. But it was acted well and the cinematography was, in my opinion, flawless.

Well, I wasn't talking about the movie's basic concept, I was talking about its actual script- its storyline, its dialogue, its pacing, et cetera. A few slightly cliche elements do not a bad film make, especially not within the context of the sequel-obsessed, woefully unadventurous American film industry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverbaal

[I mean, Assimov is action, of course, it's sci fi.]

I'd say the closest Asimov comes to action is more in the vein of a 'thriller' such as, say, Gattaca, than that of something like Demolition Man.
Action and Sci-Fi are not necessarily equatable, especially when you're dealing with this guy, who, if I recall correctly, often condemned the special-effects laden, eye-candy oriented Sci-Fi films which Hollywood churns out.

silverbaal · 10-19-2007, 03:11 PM

Ok ok. I agree. Now that I see that little blunder I made about sci fi and action. I type at the speed of assumption.

Although I don't see a difference between storyline and concept.

gothicusmaximus · 10-20-2007, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverbaal

Ok ok. I agree. Now that I see that little blunder I made about sci fi and action. I type at the speed of assumption.

Although I don't see a difference between storyline and concept.

Storyline, or plot, is the actual progression of events which forms the film's narrative. For example, the basic concept behind both "War of the Worlds" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is "Alien invasion of the earth", but the movies' respective plots are totally different.

silverbaal · 10-20-2007, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus

Storyline, or plot, is the actual progression of events which forms the film's narrative. For example, the basic concept behind both "War of the Worlds" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is "Alien invasion of the earth", but the movies' respective plots are totally different.

Ahh. I get it now.

CandyKorns · 10-23-2007, 01:20 PM

I thought that movie sucked. Shia Labeouf was funny in it though.

Depravity · 10-23-2007, 03:57 PM

I've read the book and I've seen the movie. I like both quite well. My viewpoint is this.

The book was a rather poetic and definitely introspective look at human morality, religion and probably half a dozen other things as well, from the standpoint of robots discovering such concepts and human observation of this. Asimov truly was a genius as well as a literary genius and I'm definitely going to be checking out more of his work.

That being said, someone above mentioned the movie had nothing to do with the book except for the name. I disagree here but only slightly.

The movie actually took the general overall basis of the world which Asimov created in his books, with robots and the three laws etc, and then they took that framework and made a sci-fi action movie. There is literally nothing that happens in the book which happens in the movie. I get the feeling they chose the name I, Robot because it is one of Asimov's most popular and widely known books, so that with only the two words in the title, even someone only passingly familiar with Asimov's writings would have a general idea what the movie was going to be about.

But that's just me.