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Topic: I, Robot

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Metryq (Matthew W.)



Subject: I, Robot
Date Posted: 8/1/2010 9:47 PM ET
Member Since: 7/3/2010
Posts: 25
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All too often a movie trailer will do exactly the opposite of what it is intended to do -- I see a trailer and grumble, "Okay, avoid that one." Sometimes a trailer does a movie an injustice by making the movie look like a turkey, and I end up enjoying the movie immensely. Something didn't "feel right" about the I, ROBOT trailer, but I saw it anyway. How can a fan of old sci-fi not see something ostensibly based on the work of Isaac Asimov?

As it turned out, the movie was based on Roger MacBride Allen's CALIBAN, a novel set in Asimov's "robots" universe. I haven't seen any official mention of this, but it is evident to anyone who has read the novel. CALIBAN takes place on another planet with a civilization that is addicted to robots -- an unhealthy addiction, as most are. A major roll-out of "New Law" robots is in progress as part of a pitched effort to save the planet whose terraformed ecosphere is collapsing. And there is one top secret "No Law" robot, Caliban, designed as an experiment to see if a robot will evolve its own laws. Caliban was never meant to leave the laboratory. The story begins with a murder. Caliban looks like the culprit, and he is loose in the city.

The movie I, ROBOT follows the same general theme: a massive roll-out of new robots, and one "no law" robot (Sonny) who shows that the original Three Laws make slaves of both robots and humanity. The one nonsense detail in the movie is explained by Dr. Calvin: Sonny has two positronic brains -- one with the Three Laws and one without. So he can "choose" not to follow the Laws. I call this nonsense because it does nothing to further the story. And logically one brain must be dominant over the other, thus determining whether or not Sonny must follow the Laws.

That was almost enough to spoil the whole movie for me, but it was compensated by the music. I find that I tend to like movies that I otherwise wouldn't because of some flaw, like the two brains silliness, if the soundtrack appeals to me. The music and the movie come together in the montage where Sonny is prepped for termination, overlaid by Dr. Lanning giving his "ghosts in the machine" speech.