i, Robot

Movie Review
I have read ISAAC ASIMOV books such as Robot Dreams and Robot Visions. So I wanted to see this movie as it was based on ISAAC ASIMOV's book and it contained one of my favorite celebrities, WILL SMITH, as "Spoon". Hollywood's theatrical versions of books never do them justice, but this movie had some really great effects. The artists did a really good job of animating the robots. If you're as curious as I am, then you'll watch the extras on the DVD to see how the movie was created. I am most fascinated with the progress of technology in the area of motion pictures and can really appreciate the use of the blue screen. Some parts of the movie were unrealistic - such as the use of the spherical wheels on Spoon's vehicle and how controlled the vehicle was on such wheels. Especially in the tunnel scene when the army of robots jump onto his vehicle, as it is pinned between the two USRobotics trucks, and he fights to loosen their grips from his vehicle by smashing up against the trucks' wheels and the walls of the tunnels. I just do not see how spherical wheels can ever work on a vehicle. There appears to be no logical form of control for that style of wheel.

But aside from those wheels, the movie's effects were great and WILL SMITH does a great job of throwing out sarcasm [humorous spoken lines with a straight face] to lighten up the audience in the midst of a serious plot with a scientific overtone.

If you have not read the book, you're in for a treat as you will be introduced to a set of laws created by the infamous science-fiction author and to a futuristic setting where robots integrate with the human race.

The lesson I think we -- as mankind placed in charge of the earth -- should pay heed to here is probably this: Don't put some thing else in charge of what we are in charge of. With the advances of technology, we're finding ourselves strengthened with so much efficiency and so little effort. But the downside to all that little effort is that we are introducing newer generations to "more work accomplished with little effort" that they have no idea what "hard work" really is all about. We may soon find ourselves with a generation that does not want any kind of work that involves any form of labor [i.e. bending, stooping, lifting, pulling, pushing]. Already we are finding a generation that has poor penmanship because they have been raised using the keyboard to write reports and letters. The progress of technology has allowed for the design of "helps" and "aids". But when "helps" and "aids" become "slaves" -- meaning, when we begin to use these technologies that were meant to assist us with tasks as the sole worker of the tasks...where they no longer assist us, but actually perform the work of the entire job itself...then we run the risk of handing over our "birthright" per se. We could "sell our birthright" to something else unwittingly and find out too late what damage we brought upon ourselves. And that is what I felt this story sort of touched upon from one facet.

~To him who has been given much, much is required.~