Flasshe vs. The Wasps & Will vs. The Robots
Posted on | July 20, 2004 at 10:33 pm | Comments Off
Right now it is somewhat painful to type, as half of my right hand is swollen up like a reality show contestant engorged on his 15 minutes of pseudo-fame. For the first time since I was a young child (still living in Illinois, I believe), I’ve actually been stung by an insect. Not once, but twice this past week, wasps have gotten mad at me for hand watering a brown spot on my lawn near where they have their underground nest. I’m pretty sure I’ve found the nest and destroyed it with wasp spray, so hopefully that will be the last of it. Last Wednesday I was stung in the leg and yesterday I was stung in the pinky of my right hand. I’m guessing I’m a little bit allergic, because the rash and swelling last a long time – the leg took like 5 days to stop itching and for the swelling to go down. I’ve had no trouble breathing, which they say is the big Bee Sting Allergy Emergency Sign. So I’m taking stupor-inducing antihistamines, applying ice, and waiting for normalcy to return. Meanwhile, my hand appears rather clown-like.
Saw I, Robot this weekend…
Though very familiar with the 3 Laws Of Robotics, I’ve never actually read the Asimov book. (I have read some sequels, like Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire.) I knew going in that the movie was not going to be faithful to the source material I’ve never read, and that indeed the original screenplay had nothing to do with the Asimov book, which was shoved into the plot later. So, I didn’t have a lot of reverential baggage attached to the project.
It has some exciting set pieces and some interesting plot points/ideas, but the movie couldn’t really decide if it wanted to be Will Smith Vs. The Robots or something deeper. I got the sense that it was a bit too “smart for the room” and they ended up toning down or outright cutting out some of the exposition that would’ve made it make more sense and be more interesting. Alex Proyas is a really good director, and not just visually, so I expected more thoughts to be provoked. Alas, I left the theater feeling that there were some really interesting points being made about free will and other weighty topics, but they got lost in the rush to get to the next action scene. I will say there was a nice plot twist involving Will’s character that I should’ve seen coming from all the foreshadowing but missed the specifics of anyway (see my past entry on movie foreshadowing). But ultimately I felt they didn’t take full advantage of the conflicting effect that twist gave his character. It just ended up seeming too pat, and just another excuse/reason for more action.
And if I ever have to watch another movie where the cop’s gruff but seemingly supportive captain doesn’t listen to the cop and eventually removes him from the case and takes his badge, I’m going to… I dunno.
So, anyway, it’s worth watching, but it doesn’t really stimulate after-movie discussion in the way it should.
Later.