I, Robot (Full Screen Edition) dvd movie.|
I, Robot (Full Screen Edition) dvd videos, dvd movies reviews |
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List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $12.99 You Save: $1.99 Features • AC-3 • Closed-captioned • Color • Dolby • DTS Surround Sound • Dubbed • DVD-Video • Subtitled • NTSC In Theaters : 16 July, 2004 DVD Release : 14 December, 2004 |
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I, Robot (Full Screen Edition) description As paranoid cop Del Spooner, Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) displays both his trademark quips and some impressive pectoral muscles in I, Robot. Only Spooner suspects that the robots that provide the near future with menial labor are going to turn on mankind--he's just not sure how. When a leading roboticist dies suspic ... review details |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | I ROBOT-Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics |
| I ROBOT, starring Will Smith, was a fine four star movie having an interesting plot, good acting, fine direction and lots of action. I think the film was almost too ambitious from the point of view of special effects. Will Smith stated that I ROBOT had more special effects than any film he has made to date, including INDEPENDANCE DAY. Although I really appreciate good effects, I would have preferred some more of Will Smith's entertaining acting, something he was permitted to deliver in I AM LEGEND. He was too much of a stunt man in this film. I also found the full scale mechanical effects to be much more credibly done than the abundant computer graphics which though beautiful, looked a bit too stylish giving certain portions of the film the appearance of anime.
In the literary sense, the original laws of robotics were invented by Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific science fiction writers of the 20th century and certainly the most influential on the many recent films concerning robots. Many Hollywood science fiction films have been based on Asimov's three laws and find it helpful to quote them. Other films refer to another of Asimov's inventions, the positronic brain. Bicentennial Man directly quoted the Three Laws of Robotics and Star Trek's android robot, DATA, was often said to have a positronic brain. The Three Laws of Robotics hold up very well with time and appear to be an inescapably logical way to define the important features of behavior in civilian robots. The laws, which are quoted numerous times in the film, are: 1) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. 2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, so long as this does not conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not interfere with the First or Second Law. This is not the first film to predict that the outcome of the three laws will be a computer or robot revolution intended to dominate man. This is based on the idea that man needs to be protected from his own warlike nature. COLLOSUS, The Forbin Project made a very similar prediction, and the concept of a robot police state was also visited in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, though not attributed to the three laws. 2001 and 2010 made a similar projection but for entirely different reasons. Since the days of Frankenstein and probably before that a constant theme of sci-fi and horror is the artificially created turning on their creator. I believe that Asimov would defend his laws of robotics as being effective in assuring safety, while granting this film the artistic license to use this speculation. I also think that the idea of a robot being able to rebel in violation of the specific wording of the first law is more far fetched than a sentient robot itself. It is sad that we have not witnessed more humanoid robotic developments in the United States, the country of Asimov's fictional US ROBOTS AND MECHANICAL MEN. It is HONDA's ASIMO which appears to be the most highly developed commercial robot. Because of the fear and suspicion that people might harbor against robots, HONDA chose to build their latest version of humanoid robot child sized. The big lumbering HONDA robots preceding it were a bit too intimidating and "Gort" like. HONDA is to be congratulated for their pioneering work and will probably see some return on their investment when variations of ASIMO are actually used in science fiction films, as museum guides, and as a general purpose domestic robot initially used to assist disabled or elderly people and ultimately perform all forms of household work. Although not yet fulley autonomous, ASIMO can currently walk and run on two legs, climb up and down stairs, play a decent game of soccer, recognize people and objects, speak, hear, recognize voices and react to speech appropriately. I would speculate that full autonomy will come within the next 5 to 15 years at most, only being limited by the number of calculations per second performed by the supporting computer hardware and software. For more info about ASIMO search the web using GOOGLE. I sometimes wonder how much public interest there would be in sending another robot to Mars if the next lander were based on an ASIMO type design? People might relate to seeing a bipedal humanoid robot walking on the surface of Mars, testing mineral samples for signs of water while occasionally looking into the camera and waving. Needless to say, NASA public relations would benefit immensely. The three laws of robotics could not be employed without modification in any military robot which might be under development in some secret government lab which would need to destroy human life in the course of assigned duties. Of course, I wouldn't care to imagine what we may have developed for the military, and just how fantastic such robot technology might be once permitted to trickle down to the circles of commerce. At that time it would be necessary to represent something with the effect of Asimov's three laws in these advanced machines. In the mid 70's (circa 1975) Isaac Asimov made an appearance at New York University, where my wife was attending graduate school. We went to witness his presentation in a packed college audience and he was every bit as impressive as his writings. Based on the questions and answers, the audience included at least a few people who were familiar with and who had been influenced by Asimov's writings. |
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