This film was based - loosely based - on Issac Asimov's story 'The Bicentennial Man', also printed as 'The Positronic Man' It's not unusual for a movie to not be as good as the book it is based on (which was certainly the case here), and my problem with this film isn't that it didn't live up to my expectations from the original story, it was that it completely missed the point of the original story. Before I get into that, let me first say that even if this film had not been based on any book, it was still very weak; Robin Williams has talent, but not enough to make up for such a weak story. This was just a series of cute little silly sequences where Andrew the robot flip flops between putting his foot in it and then turning on the warmth now and then. It's TV movie material, I don't know how else to put it - it does everything you expect, and nothing you don't, then ends tied up with a sweet little bow. There is little imagination expended on the character of Andrew...really, any Star Trek episode featuring Data provides a greater exploration of this movie's subject matter, and that is managed in less than one hour. One of the biggest complaints I had were Andrew's motivations for wanting to be deemed a man in the first place; why throw in the inane love story? Does Hollywood truly believe that moviegoers will short-circuit if they found themselves sitting through a film where the main character did not have a corresponding 'love interest'? Andrew did not take a lover in the book - Andrew's desire to be officially considered a man was all about being human, and all of the freedoms that come with being human. Andrew's journey was a very long one, but he always struggled forward for that reason - not for love, and especially not for the love of one person in particular, which I thought was a ridiculous throwaway and completely changed the point of the whole story. Andrew (kind of like Data in Star Trek) wants to become human because he feels that is a goal worth achieving; for all of its reasons, because he feels that being human is something unique and special. Of course, both Andrew and Data may have changed their minds about us had they been forced to at some point sit through this stinkburger. In the end of the book, Andrew chooses death because gaining mortality is the one last step which at that point separates him from humans. In the end, Andrew finally achieves his goal, and spends his final hours as the man he had struggled his whole life to become. He didn't tell jokes (we know Robin Williams is a comedian, it was forced and pointless to showcase that fact), he didn't fall out of windows and run around like an idiot, he never fell in love with anyone (except perhaps the affection he felt for the original 'Little Miss' who he took care of as a child, but the affection was platonic). If it hadn't been based on the book, this movie would have been simply another forgettable sci-fi failure from that conveyor belt of cookie-cutter, second-rate Hollywood drivel. Since it is based on the book it's a complete travesty; Asimov must have twisted in his grave when this thing hit the theaters. It has probably also ensured that fans of the original will never see it done right.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Too little way too late **spoilers**
25 February 2002
Warning: Spoilers
Since he waited almost 20 years to pick up this series, I'm honestly not sure how I would have wanted Lucas to handle this, but there's a couple problems right off the bat as far as I'm concerned - I was seven when I saw the first Star Wars film and like many others I was obsessed with it as a child, but now I'm not a kid anymore so do I want the series to pick up the way it was when I was a child, or do I want it to appeal to me now as an adult? I think it tried to be both, and ended up being neither. No one could fault the visuals - it looked better than any film I've seen as far as that goes, but unfortunately no matter how eye-poppingly stunning the visuals are, that just ain't very far. The story was not bad - it wasn't the adventure that the first one was, and of course this predates all of the characters we've come to know and love to that element is gone as well...I hate to say it, but the only word that comes to mind to express my dissatisfaction was that it was just so...forgettable. I don't recall the name of Liam Neison's character, and I just didn't care when he was killed by the equally forgettable Darth Maul (next to Darth Vader, what a yawn this guy was)...the kid who played young Anakin was equally dull and forgettable, and I didn't buy for a second the kid was bright or talented enough to fly a pod much less build C3PO (as I think I was supposed to believe)...the Princess was just kind of there, unlike the attention-grabbing Princess Leia of the first three films. I'm actually forced to admit that the most memorable character in the film was Jar Jar, and not because he was such a feat of movie-making technology but because he was the most annoying movie character I've been forced to endure in recent memory - he's memorable for all the wrong reasons. He makes a great doll, though, so I imagine we can expect to see more of him in the next film. I don't know...with the exception of the kid who played Anakin the actors were all top notch, I can't fault them, but something was just missing...perhaps the seven year old within me is just gone, but I felt like this film was one big study in special effects, and applied an overblown seriousness to what was once a fun adventure - a seriousness which I think was meant to appeal to the adult in me. Well, Jar Jar didn't appeal to the kid in me, I wanted to choke him, and the self-important seriousness didn't appeal to the adult in me (just because I'm grown up doesn't mean I need a scientific explaination of how the Force works - the Force surrounds us all and binds all things together, or whatever Yoda said the first go around, don't try to explain it, because all you end up doing is calling attention to the fact that it couldn't really exist). I'd be curious to know what a child thought of it, but if you're like me, someone who loved the V through VII but doesn't still buy Star Wars books, you might find yourself thinking less about the fate of the characters, and more about how cramped your legs feel in the theater.
Screamers
(1995)
Not bad at all
22 February 2002
This movie aptly showed that you don't need a huge budget to make a good picture, even when that picture is a sci fi. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but for crying out loud it was a heck of a lot smarter than Independence Day and that movie cost a mint. I had read Phillip K Dick's 'Second Variety', the short story upon which this movie is based, before I ever saw Screamers, and I didn't realize Screamers was even based on the story until I watched it. Being a big fan of the original story I was glad to see it brought to the screen, and more or less faithfully - I thought Peter Weller did a great job in this movie, the atmosphere was actually somewhat as I had imagined it reading the story (they updated it somewhat by placing it in a totally different location, since the original story's wasteland was a result of nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia; something which I'm sure seemed plausible at the time it was written but is a little dated now), and although I don't think they pulled off the sort of paranoia we saw in The Thing, there was some nice tension as the story unfolded, although it fell apart a bit at the end.
Bottom line - if you're a sci fi fan sniffing around for some sci fi you haven't seen but don't want to sit through a total dog, it's not a bad renter.
Bottom line - if you're a sci fi fan sniffing around for some sci fi you haven't seen but don't want to sit through a total dog, it's not a bad renter.
Alien 3
(1992)
missed opportunity
22 February 2002
The movie wasn't terrible in and of itself...I think if it hadn't followed the fantastic Alien and then Aliens it wouldn't be judged quite so harshly. I saw it as a kind of return to the first movie, with the largely defenseless alien-fodder floundering about in fear, getting picked off one by one by a frightening alien creature which is obviously superior in both strength and speed. The movie looked very good I thought, the acting was good, the story was not bad either, yet I was disappointed in a way I wouldn't have been if I hadn't first seen the other two because after watching the first two installations unfold, I was looking for the third (traditionally the last installation in a series unless you're looking to make 'Alien 4 - This Time It's Personal'...which unfortunately they actually did, thus tipping the series into foolishness) to build on the other two and send it out of the park - I thought for sure the third installation would be the horrible thing we've been threatened with in the first two movies - that the 'Company' finally got its wish and brought the Aliens back to Earth for bioweapons research, where they escaped into the populace and...ah well. It wasn't bad as it is...but if you're looking for a movie to bring the franchise home and raise the bar yet again, you'd be sorely disappointed - this is a serviceable sci-fi horror that reads a lot like the first, minus the originality.
Predator 2
(1990)
Flawed
22 February 2002
Predator 2 delivered some of what I think most fans of the original wanted to see; more action, and more insight into the Predator and its technology...we were given a nice glimpse of what it was and the kinds of technology and weapons it had at its disposal in the first movie, and the second gave us a nice big helping of more weapons, vision modes, tools, and even its spacecraft (including a nice trophy room sequence). On that level I think it definately delivered, but unfortunately its premise is flawed, I think. I could see it making sense when it was being pitched '...like the first one, except this time - it's in L.A. instead of the jungle!' yeah...sounds good...and it does sound good but frankly I just don't think it played out all that well. First of all, a lot of the cat and mouse of the jungle was lost - the Predator certainly had no shortage of targets in a city the size of L.A...it would be like going hunting for deer in a preserve where you were completely surrounded by deer as far as the eye could see in every direction. The Predator's hunt seemed to have some sport in the first movie - they were soldiers, heavily armed, and they were in a tight little group, all on the defensive. Here, sheesh - even if it only stuck to armed humans the thing could catch its limit in half a day! Perhaps it's a small point, but it's supposedly the whole reason the Predators visit Earth in the first place. This, for me, caused the whole film to seem sort of forced...I'm not sure where I would have set it I'll grant you, but this seemed like more of an excuse to make a sequel, when it could have maybe made a little more sense.
Tell Your Friends