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Has anyone seen "I, Robot"? 
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Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:53 am
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Post Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
I enjoyed the Robot books, so when the film came out, I was determined not to see it.
But I'm older now, and I have learned to value the opinions of others.


Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:38 pm
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
The book bears approximately the same relationship to the movie as Jonathan Livingston Seagull does to Angry Birds Rio.


Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:22 am
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The movie was already greenlighted and (IIRC) in preproduction using an existing script when some bright boy got the idea to pick up the rights to the Asimov material and use it as a final coat of paint.

I suspect it came about in legal, when someone was noticing the inevitable influences and overlaps any such story would have with primal works - buy up some cheap rights, quit trying to come up with a clever name for robot brainery besides "positronic," rename the irrelevant female scientist Susan Calvin and there ya go.

One of the best novels ca. 1970 was filmed reasonably well, then they decided it didn't have enough screen sizzle, so they went back and filmed a nonsensical subplot starring Richard Pryor and released the resulting mess as a Pryor comedy instead of a dry black humor piece akin to MASH. It happens.

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Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:50 am
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Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:07 pm
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Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:24 pm
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Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:20 am
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Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:19 am
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
I thought Will Smith was in it.


Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:16 pm
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Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:04 pm
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
I enjoyed I, Robot as a decent sci-fi flick but, as others have commented, it has only a loose relationship to Asimov's work. Still, probably a better transfer of the book to screen than was Starship Troopers. It did include and examine (if superficially) themes that were common to Asimov's robot stories.

A joke at the time of the movie's release was that it would have been better titled iRobot.

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Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:02 am
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
Google it; it was Will Smith.


Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:33 pm
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
Will Smith was in "I, Robot."

Eddie Murphy, not Richard Pryor, was the extra-added-comedic-relief shoehorned into the ruined production of "Best Defense."

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Sat Apr 23, 2011 3:14 pm
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Thu May 05, 2011 1:17 pm
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Thrilled to have passed it along to appreciating eyes. It just makes me laugh myself sick every time I read it.

"Immanuel Kant, your lathe needs oiling."

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Thu May 05, 2011 4:02 pm
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
The thing about books that make you laugh out loud is that when that happens the person lying in bed next to you will then be entitled to an instant recitation of the appropriate passage -

works for us, anyway


Thu May 05, 2011 7:58 pm
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
I don't think I'll bother to see this movie. I love the "I Robot" collection; IMHO it and "The Gods Themselves" are the best things Asimov ever wrote. So seeing the title and characters in a movie with very little relationship to it would be frustrating.

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Fri May 06, 2011 8:21 pm
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
I just finished Easy and Hard Ways Out and I have to say, if I have ever read a funnier novel, its identity eludes me. This is better than Catch-22, which went a little weird in the last quarter for the sake of achieving an ending. This book knows exactly how to craft an ending. It is a comedic mixed martial arts fighter; it simply does not stop. Even when I'm down on the floor in fits of giggles crying Uncle, it keeps up a relentless rain of humorous punches pulled from a vast arsenal. It just does not fight fair.


Last edited by PeterScott on Sat May 07, 2011 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Typo



Sat May 07, 2011 6:06 am
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I am truly thrilled that you thought so - this book has been on my favorites list since I was about 13 or 14 and only barely understood some parts of it. I've often wondered if Scott Adams ever read it. It's such a gem, a real masterpiece of black satire, and is proving more timeless than I would have once thought.

Frozen guppies.

Oddly enough, the character I may identify with most is Rocco...

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"Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders." - Luther
In the end, I found Heinlein is finite. Thus, finite analysis is needed.


Last edited by JamesGifford on Sat May 07, 2011 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.



Sat May 07, 2011 7:49 am
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Post Re: Has anyone seen "I, Robot"?
ok based upon all your recommendations and my own curiosity i've purchased a copy of "easy and hard ways out"- will let you know :D


Sat May 07, 2011 7:54 am
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Sat May 07, 2011 1:15 pm
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