I, Sequel
I thought I wouldn’t get another chance to munge the name “I, Robot” again. Hollywood is nothing if not a source of the unexpected…
Over at Collider, Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) says in an interview that he is working on a script to a sequel to the 2004 Will Smith film I, Robot.
I can already hear the collective groan of the sci-fi community, but I liked I, Robot. No, it wasn’t a true adaptation of any of Asimov’s stories, but it was still a decent movie. I still haven’t read Harlan Ellison’s I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, and I still suspect it would have made a better film adaptation of the book, but we have what we have. I hope Moore will be more faithful to the source material.
[via FirstShowing.net]
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Filed under: Movies
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Of course you realze the sequel should be called “II, Robot”
Heh-heh. I wish I had thought of that!
I liked I, Robot too. Taken more or less seperately from the books, I thought it was a great movie.
I thought I would hate the Will Smith version, but I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. True, it wasn’t like the book. However, it was well done and oddly enough, it did get some of the book’s moral points across.
Gal
@Robert
LOL
I recently read Ellison’s screenplay. It is not an “adaptation” of the book, but an original, fantastic work of science fiction that is far more humane and thought-provoking than the film that was made. It’s unfortunate when Ellison’s work is compared to the film by those who have not experienced both since it just fuels the means to continue the travesty that has now apparently become another recombinant growth endemic of Hollywood these days.
Please read.
Regards,
Mark Simmonds
I haven’t seen the movie yet, although I intend to rent the DVD at some point.
Your comments make me think of Starship Troopers, the book of which I loved as a kid. I also loved the movie, though there’s little to connect it with the original.
I’ve got mixed feelings about the STarship Troopers movie. I went back and forth on whether or not I actually enjoyed it. Mostly, it falls in the category of “if I see it on TV, I won’t actively turn it off.”
I like Will Smith. For one thing, I thought Pursuit of Happyness was a great movie. And I thought I, Robot did things with Sonny that Asimov never really touched in (particularly toward the end of the movie)
I’ll agree that I, Robot was an enjoyable movie. However it only contains a few hints of the source material, a couple of character names and a few mentions of the three laws of robotics.
The Harlan Ellison screen play stayed much closer to the book and would have made, and still could make, an even better movie. In fact Isaac Asimov did read and approved of the Ellison screen play before he passed away.
However little I thought of I, Robot, I’m grateful that it was much better than AI. (:
The I, Robot movie was a perfect adaptation of Magnus, Robot Fighter.
http://www.toonopedia.com/magnus.htm
It should also be noted that the Dolph Lungren Masters of the Universe movie was as close to Kirby’s The New Gods as we’ll ever see on screen.
Pass. I’ll wait for the “My Little Pony” adaptation. Much better chance of being true to the source material.
:-$
I really enjoyed Proyas’s version of Asimov’s “I, Robot”. A lot of critics panned it, but I don’t think they got it. Proyas’s movie was a sensitive portrayal of the themes explored in Asimov’s original book: the challenges of a growing self-aware AI to interpret the 3-laws, which present somewhat of a paradox, if not a “loop hole” for interpretation; and what, invariably it means to be human. I liked how Proyas ended his motion picture: not with the main human character, Spooner, but with Sonny, the enigmatic robot just embarking upon his uncertain journey; and we are left with an ambiguous ending of hope and mystery–not unlike the final short story in Asimov’s book. I invite you to read my detailed review of the book and movie (“Unexpected Protocol: A Critique of the I, Robot Book and Motion Picture”) in Strange Horizons (14 Feb., 2005; archived).