I, Robot | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary

Creepiest Thumbnail of the year so far. As for the book it has no relation to the movie beyond Asimov's three laws of robotics. The book is a compendium of short stories that were originally published in magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction. The stories outlined the three laws and then in different ways explored why those laws could be flawed or even broken. The movie basically writes a completely new story with the three laws of robotics as its starting point.

The allergic to BS joke has lived in my head since I first watched this lol

"You are the DUMBEST smart person I know" has been in my insult rotation ever since this movie came out.

Did anyone notice that in the entire movie there are no trees and there are only plants in the mansion?

"a human would have known that" and the emotional gut punch out of nowhere

11:17 "It's crazy that they're demolishing this house with everything inside it." It's odd enough that they're demolishing it, period, instead of just selling it.

Asimov developed the "Three Laws of Robotics" - only to dismantle them and show their shortcomings and errors. As a science fiction fan, Asimov is kinda must read. There are several good books in and around his robots and universe.

The Bicentennial Man is closer to an Asimov story.

34:00 The appearance of the car was so popular it influenced the design of Audi for the next 20 years, especially the single frame grill design

The movie was directed by Alex Proyas who directed the brilliant "Dark City". That is another movie you must watch

0:22 Favorite Will Smith quote in the movie is when he points at himself and says “I. I the robot.”

i love they remembered to put in the "i've turned evil" red indicator.

"HOLY SHIT she just shot at you with her eyes closed" I love that line. ahh good Ole Shia before he went a bit nutty.

The book "I, Robot" is actually a collection of short stories that are set in the same fictional future, along with several of Isaac Asimov's novels. I read this collection back in 2004 after seeing the movie. Detective Spooner is a character created for the movie, but Dr. Lanning and Dr. Calvin are Asimov's. Calvin is a central character in some of the short stories, as well as novels written by others after Asimov's passing. Going by her description in the stories I read, she seems like more of an unglamorous Lili Taylor-type instead of a woman who could've been a professional model (as Bridget Moynahan was before she became an actor). One story that I remember more clearly than the others involved a robot that was doing something dangerous unwittingly, so Dr. Cavlin put herself in danger, which prompted the robot to stop what it was doing and save her life instead. Clever! When the movie came out, the famous film critic Roger Ebert complained that the story gave credit for the "three laws" to the fictional Dr. Lanning instead of to Asimov. I thought this was a strange complaint--it would be like calling Stephen King one of the founders of the town Castle Rock, or naming J.K. Rowling as the architect of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry. Upon reading a few relevant Wikipedia pages, I discovered that The movie's script is not actually an action movie adaptation of Asimov's work, but started as an original screenplay featuring a "Detective Spooner" that was to become a action movie with Asimov characters and the famous "three laws". Here's the confusing part: Dr. Alfred Lanning is a character who appears in BOTH Asimov's writing AND the original screenplay by Jeff Vintar. (scoffs) Hollywood! Am I right? Since I haven't read Vintar's script, I can only go by what's written on the film's Wiki page, which credits Vintar with the characters of Sonny and VIKI. I didn't know any of this until today, so thanks for reacting to the movie and encouraging me to do some rudimentary research.

So, I’ve read the book multiple times and the book is fascinating. The book is a collection of short stories. Isaac Asimov establishes the 3 Laws of Robotics, and they seem simple and infallible. Each story in the book shows how the laws are not, and how things are much more complex in a real world application. The first story is a simple case of a robot pushing a little girl out of the way of an oncoming car. By pushing her it harms her, but if it had not acted, she would’ve died. So it broke the laws. Each story escalates in scale until the final story is robots taking over control of the world because humans cannot be trusted to rule, they will harm one another and robots cannot allow humans to come to harm through inaction. So in a digitally controlled world, the robots take over easily. This movie was an existing script that they grafted the 3 Laws into. Other than the laws it bares almost no resemblance to the book at all. I don’t hold that against the movie necessarily, because the book as is is unfilmable. But I don’t think it keeps the spirit of the book, or it could’ve been better. I also have always said that the story would be more impactful if Will Smith had been a believer just like everyone else, and come to the conclusion that robots are dangerous and were breaking the 3 Laws. To have him be the skeptic who nobody believes only to be proven right is no character arc for him. It would’ve been much more interesting if, like the characters in the book, he has to begin to consider that the 3 Laws are not perfect. Now that you have seen both The Crow and I, Robot, you guys need to see director Alex Proyas’s masterpiece, Dark City. Just be sure you watch the Directors Cut, because the studio mandated an opening narration in the theatrical cut that spoils everything (studios assuming people are idiots, who would’ve thunk it, right?). And some of Dark City’s sets were re-used by the next movie to be made in that studio and released a year later, something called The Matrix.

"Bicentennial Man" with Robin Williams!

The VICKI graphic feels like it’s a direct homage to SHODAN - just without all the wires.

That Audi concept still looks amazing.

The movie is a totally different story to the book. The book was more a collection of short stories that showed situations where robots appeared to have malfunctioned, but were shown to be still following the 3 Laws.

I was laughing so hard after “nice, nailed it” @33:57I had to rewind twice… You two really are my fav reactors and have been for what, like 3 years now? Idr when I found your page but I wish you had far FAR more subscribers than you do cuz damn your personalities and commentaries are actually enjoyable and contribute to the whole experience. You’re both self-aware, intelligent, genuine, compassionate people and I appreciate your existence.