my name is mwd

I must admit that until I read I, Robot a fwe weeks ago I’d not actually read any of Asimov’s stuff. Nothing against it, just hadn’t got around to it. Anyway, having read teh book and seen the film, I thought I’d inflict my review on you…

The book first. The book is actually a collection of short stories written by Asimov between 1940 and some point in the 1950’s, and these are then wrapped in a loose thread by a journalist interviewing one of the main people behind the robots in the story, Dr Susan Calvin. The stories themselves revolve around different robots and how they interact with Asimov’s famous three laws of robotics (1. Don’t harm a human, 2. Do what a human says unless if conflicts with 1, and 3. Keep yourself alive unless it conflicts with 1 and 2). They’re very good, and I must admit I love the simplicity of early Sci Fi like this - I’m a big fan of Philip K. Dick’s short story collections (of which there’s at least five). You get the point without the need to cram it with details of technology that just leave your head spinning, as a lot of sci-fi tends to. Anyway, they’re very well done, and I’ll certainly look out more, though it’ll be interesting to see where the other stories go, as I think after 9 stories, there probably needs to be more than just how each new robot conflits with the laws.

The film, which seems to be panned quite a bit, isn’t based on any particular story in the book. Rather it’s a new story, involving the concepts of the robots from Asimov’s stories, most prominently the three laws of robotics. It also borrows several scenes from the books, and a few ideas (including the central one uncovered at the end of the film). The film itself isn’t very deep - this isn’t going to challenge Blade Runner, and probably not even Minority Report for that matter, but it’s a lot better than Total Recall (for those not aware, all three films were based on short stories by Philip K. Dick). Will Smith is excellent as he usually is, the special effects very well done, and the plot is adequate - it’ll not set you thinking deeply (unless you’re Eric), but I suspect it’ll keep you entirely entertained for the duration. Smith plays a cop who’s about the only person on the planet who doesn’t trust the robots, and is investigating a murder which he suspects was done by a robot. He’s of course, as these films always have, got a Deep Issue In His Past, and this is probably the only bit that let the film down badly - the heavy handed and cliched way his reason for not trusting robots is revealed. But that’s a small thing. Lots of people I note complained about the product placement, but I only really noticed a couple, and they didn’t really bother me (no worse than Monority Report). Anyway, it’s a good, though not excellent, action thriller, and I recommend going along if you’re after some fun brain candy.