ALL SCI-FI

[Gord Green]

This is a film I have absolutely loved!

From the beautiful soundtrack to the perfect casting, this film is a work of art! Although it touches on some of the concepts in Spielburg/Kubrick's AI it far surpasses it in tone and substance.



Based on the novel The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg (which is itself based on Asimov's original novella of the same name), the plot explores issues of humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, conformity, sex, love, and mortality. The film, a co-production between Touchstone Pictures and Columbia Pictures, was directed by Chris Columbus. The title comes from the main character existing to the age of two hundred years, and Asimov's novella was published in the year the United States had its bicentennial.



Chris Columbus has another hit on his hands. Robin Williams gives his usual first rate performance, along with Sam Neil and Embeth Davidtz. They highlight a well cast movie that will pull at your heart strings more than once, in a tale written by Isaac Asimov that brings a lot of human emotion to this science fiction piece.



The film under-perfomed at the box office and received mostly negative reviews, but makeup artist Greg Cannom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 72nd Academy Awards.



The NDR series robot "Andrew" (Robin Williams) is introduced in 2005 into the Martin family home to perform housekeeping and maintenance duties. The family's reactions range from acceptance and curiosity, to outright rejection, and deliberate vandalism by their rebellious older daughter, Grace (Lindze Letherman), who continues to still treat him as a robot and continues with her rebellious ways, while growing up. Which also leads to the discovery that Andrew can both identify emotions and reciprocate in kind. When Andrew accidentally breaks a figurine belonging to "Little Miss" Amanda (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), he carves a replacement out of wood, as way to apologize to her. The family is astonished by this creativity and "Sir" Richard Martin (Sam Neill) takes Andrew to his manufacturer, to inquire if all the robots are like him.



The CEO of the company, Dennis Mansky (Stephen Root), sees this development as a problem and wishes to scrap Andrew. Angered, Martin takes Andrew home and allows him to pursue his own development, encouraging Andrew to educate himself in the humanities.



Years later, following an accident in which his thumb is accidentally cut off, Martin again takes Andrew to NorthAm Robotics for repairs, ensuring first that Andrew's personality will not be tampered with. Andrew requests that, while he is being repaired, his face be altered to convey the emotions he feels but cannot fully express.



Andrew eventually asks for his freedom, much to Martin's dismay. He grants the request, but banishes Andrew so he can be 'completely' free. Andrew builds himself a home and lives alone. In 2048, Andrew sees Martin one last time on his deathbed. Martin apologizes for banishing him.



Andrew goes on a quest to locate more NDR series robots to discover if others have also developed sentience. After years of failure he finds Galatea (Kiersten Warren), an NDR robot that has been given feminine attributes and personality. These, however, are simply aspects of her programming and not something which she spontaneously developed. Galatea is owned by Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), son of the original NDR robot designer.



Burns works to create more human-looking robots, but is unable to attract funding. Andrew agrees to finance the research and the two join forces to revolutionize robotics. Andrew designs new prosthetic organs for the robots, which can also be used in humans. He maintains contact with Amanda, who grows up, marries, has a child, divorces and dies. Eventually, Andrew becomes human enough to fall in love with Amanda's granddaughter, Portia (both played by Embeth Davidtz) and, ultimately, she falls in love with him.

Over the course of the next century, Andrew uses his prosthetics in an attempt to turn himself into a human, complete with artificial skin, hair and a nervous system. He petitions the World Congress to recognize him as human, which would allow him and Portia to be legally married, but is rejected; the Speaker of the Congress explains that society can tolerate an everlasting machine, but argues that an immortal human would create too much jealousy and anger. Andrew works with Burns to introduce blood into his system, thereby allowing him to age, and thus he begins to grow old alongside Portia. Andrew again attends the World Congress with Portia, both now appearing old and frail, and again petitions to be declared a human being.



On their death bed with life support, Andrew and Portia watch as the Speaker of the World Congress announces on television the court's decision: that Andrew is officially recognized as human, and (aside from "Methuselah and other Biblical characters") is the oldest human being in history at the age of two-hundred years old. The Speaker also validates the marriage between Portia and Andrew. Andrew dies while listening to the broadcast despite his life support, and Portia orders their nurse Galatea, a now recognizably-human android, to unplug her life support. The movie ends as Portia dies hand-in-hand with Andrew after she whispers "See you soon" to him.

All and all, this is simply a beautiful movie! Wonderful concepts are introduced and told beautifully!

The casting is superb. Sam Neil and Robin Williams are perfect in their parts. The soundtrack and overall mood of the picture are wonders to behold! I can't say how much this picture moved me!

(Included are some comments from Wikapedia.}

[Bud Brewster]

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This is an interesting and well-made movie. I saw it years ago, and I'd like to see it again.
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_________________ Bicentennial Man - Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

The saga of a robot, built in the year 2005 (about a decade before I posted this, apparently), and his odyssey over the next 200 years to become more and more human.

And there's the rub. In my opinion, he was just fine as he was in the beginning, before eventually transmuting into a well-known comedian (Robin Williams) of the 20th century.

The other problem is that, as mentioned, the film covers 2 centuries of time; even at 2+ hours, that doesn't leave much leeway for the story to stay very long in each decade. So, you have the inevitable hop-hop pace as the film skitters to the climax.

You see a few minutes, for example, of the way things are 30 years from now; then, a couple of minutes around the year 2060, and so on. And on. It does go on, and in not a very thrilling manner for what should be exciting stuff.

The director, Chris Columbus, relies on patented schmaltzy observations of shallow depth, with no sense of the complexities of life (there's no time). It also places huge importance on Bi-Man being recognized as a true human being, at the same time designating divine standing on being a human and that this divinity depends on what other people think — a confusing position.

We end up with the moral that we are all meant to die, and die quick, but what kind of life is there before that? The movie gives no clue. It just waves bye-bye to us somberly.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10

_________________ Bicentennial Man - Trailer


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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As I mention in my earlier post, I enjoyed this movie when I saw it years ago, but I seem to remember feeling the same way BoG did about the fragmented narrative, spread out over a 200 period.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I found this to be a wonderful film that was both intelligent and poignant.

The cast was terrific & the story compelling.

The robotic suit design was fantastic looking.

[Gord Green]

There were also many underlying concepts brought up in the film.

Like for example "Is there justifying the ownership of a sentient being? Even if you bought and paid for him?" And what does the freeing of him mean (To the freeing individual and the former property) ?

Love and affection...What does that mean when it includes a different race, state of being, or artificial Human?

The way the film handled the passage of time (It was 200 YEARS by gum!) was certainly adequate in the storytelling, because the concentration was on a few key periods of important occurrences. The intervening years were showcased mainly to emphasize the scope of the journey.

Robin Williams felt this was one of his worst movies, but I think it was one of his best. I still feel this is a gol-durned beautiful, emotional movie that , if viewed by an open mind, asks a lot of important questions !!!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ When Andrew regales the family with jokes, the jokes themselves were unscripted. Robin Williams ad-libbed all of the jokes. The other actors' reactions to the jokes and their laughter are real.

Note from me: Robin Williams did not need scripted jokes. They flowed from his comic soul . . .

~ "Disney" asked that the budget be cut by approximately $20 million, and when the film was released on Christmas Day, it flopped at the box office. Robin Williams blamed "Disney's" marketing, and the loss of content the film suffered because of the budget cuts. As a result, he fell out with "Disney" again.

Note from me: I was vastly impress by this movie. I suspect that the movie's failure was caused by stupid film goers who just didn't get the story.

That's a common cause of good movies being rejected by witless audiences. Recently we've actually seen stupid presidents being elected by the same kind of unintelligent people.

Thank God we now have a smart man who can undo the damage that was inflicted on our nation!

God help the poor folks who thought Trump was the right man to lead our county!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)