I don’t think there has been a single movie made based on an Asimov story that has yet to make its impact known. I, Robot doesn’t count, since it just uses the title and the Three Laws of Robotics and little else. This movie, plot-wise, comes close, but derails it completely with a crap love story.

I reveal the story here so don’t read if you don’t want to know.

In the short story by Isaac Asimov, Andrew Martin is a robot that, over the course of two hundred years, becomes human. This is a goal Andrew pursues and at the very end comes to realize that to be human is to die, and so he triggers a cascade in his positronic brain that slowly deteriorates his mental capacity until he ceases to function. Because that is what it means to be human: to value your life because you know it will end.

In this movie, which in the beginning runs pretty damn close to the short story, Andrew Martin seeks the same goal. However, there is a crap montage of him travelling the world seeking other NDR-model robots, even though it has been sufficiently explained that he was a unique flaw in production and that other models were not affected (in the book, he was a prototype and after discovering the flaw for natural inquisitiveness subsequent production models did not possess this quality). Furthermore, he falls in love and now he seeks to die because he cannot bear to live without the woman he loves. This pretty much means that you might as well live forever if you don’t have someone you love. The pursuit to be human is replaced by the despair of not wishing to continue when others die before you. Maybe it’s touching for some, but really, it’s just plain dumb and it defeats the point of the story and therefore, Asimov has yet to have a defining movie for his work. Granted, such a movie would require substantial alterations since his works aren’t exactly zippy on the action, but one that holds true to the Three Laws of Robotics would be nice. Even this movie broke that one quite a bit, like the supposedly clever reveal that the nurse at the end is in fact a robot with a new human likeness and is ordered to essentially let a human die (breaks First Law, which cannot be overruled by Second Law).

Fine enough to watch, and Robin Williams is good as Andrew Martin, but in the end, disappointing.

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Finally my favorite mutant Kitty Pride makes it on the team and Ellen Page, the actress, does a great job of acting in character, something Halle Berry has never nor will ever be able to do cast as Storm.

It’s a decent enough action flick but, and this is odd of me to say since I’m not exactly the biggest fan of X-Men or its movies, it just doesn’t live up to the previous two movies. The plot doesn’t make much sense, characters show up and are under-utilized (seriously, why bother with Hank McCoy other than being a mutie government rep?), et cetera et cetera et cetera.

It’s just not well-thought-out. Rattner brings fun action, but depth? Nada.

Incidentally, if you walked out during the end credits then you missed an interesting 30-second footer.

It’s worth a matinee price, so yeah, go to the theater to see it. Most action flicks need the extras like a big screen and sound system. But I suppose if you’ve got that at home you can wait for the DVD, as this really isn’t a must-see by any means.

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Pretty good. Action sequences were well-designed and the story was all right. Ending was a bit of an anti-climax and at the very end just plain silly. You sorta want action films to just end right after the final kick butt scene, especially if it’s the kinda of movie that doesn’t have much in the way of character development.

Good as a matinee, but I wouldn’t pay the full price.

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Crap movie.

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This is one of the best movies I have seen in awhile, one that’s not only good, but sees me wanting to watch it over and over again. In other words, it’s on my queue to purchase when it comes out on DVD.

Classic noir, only set for today using teenagers and high school instead. It’s still LA. Fine, fine, the SFV is not LA, but it’s close and does a fine job of substituting for 40s LA with its suburbs and open areas between it and the beach cities.

I really liked this film.

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Good movie. A bit odd in that it’s a two-in-one sort of thing, where you first have Dennis Quaid’s high school baseball team make it to the playoffs on the condition that if they do, he tries out for a second time; and you KNOW they make it, because otherwise there’s no story about Quaid making it to the big leagues, but you STILL have to go through an hour of it. The bookends about a pair of nuns was odd as well, with only a wisp of being important on a spiritual level.

Still, good enough for home rental.

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Slow-paced film. Quietly brilliant would be a way of describing it, I suppose. Good rental, but be prepared for it. It can put you to sleep if you don’t immerse yourself within it.

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At a basic level this is a good rental. Beyond that there’s this subtle humor about the idea of superheroes, kinda like Mystery Men, only not so obvious (see how I said subtle?).

Stuff like Kurt Russell’s superstrong hero has a dozen backup telephone handsets stuffed in a drawer since he keeps breaking them trying to dial a phone number when frustrated (which is often). Or that a main plot point requires that the hero ALWAYS keeps a souvenir from a battle and places it in their inner sanctum (Batman, I believe, wins most ridiculous collection for his Rogues Gallery, especially that giant penny).

You can sorta tell that the writers were superhero comic book fans, or at least, understood quite a lot about the subject matter, enough to take it a little further and do the fun how-does-an-average-day-without-crimefighting-go scenario. Reminded me a lot of the Justice League of America comic books in the 80s when all the heroes were second-tier and the league was broke, and the stories simply involved personalities clashing and trying to get by, only they had powers.

Oh, and Bruce Campbell’s little role, along with two Kids in the Hall veterans, were fun. And Lynda Carter is still Wonder Woman gorgeous. No lie.

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Okay movie. Nothing special, except a cute Nicole Kidman.

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Pretty stark. Got a bit repetitive concerning Kinsey’s driven and anxious nature, and his team’s character development, particularly concerning their evolving conflict with his attitudes toward sexuality, weren’t emphasized quite enough to give the later scenes critical punch. Still, a good movie, but not one I’d watch again anytime soon.

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