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June 14, 2004

I, Not Amused

I have to admit it's been 20+ years since I've read Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, but when I recently viewed the trailer for the new film version (you can watch it here, if you so desire) I found myself a bit perplexed. I saw nothing of Asimov's collection of robot stories within the standard Will Smith sci-fi actioner except the inclusion of the classic 3 Laws of Robotics, which every SF fan knows by heart. And even then, the 3 laws are thrown out the window when the robots start killing people.

Apparently, the title of the movie is I, Robot not because it was an adaptation of Asimov's book, but because the director, Alex Proyas, probably thought it was a kick-ass title for a summer blockbuster. Jayme Lynn Blaschke of RevolutionSF has a fairly comprehensive wrap-up of what seems to be another classic case of Hollywood bending over backwards to do anything but the right thing.

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