BICENTENNIAL MAN

BICENTENNIAL MAN

This is a movie I avoided for years. The cover of the videos, Robin Williams, a complete lack of any hint of what this movie is, other than probably some sappy Disney-style, Spielberg-like stupid movie which probably wouldn't be very funny, nor very serious. I avoided it like the plague.

So one day, I finally forced myself to sit down and watch this movie. I wasn't disappointed at all really. Perhaps some movies need to age a bit, like wine, perhaps you have to be older to really enjoy it, perhaps after watching so many shitty movies, one realizes, this

isn't a bad movie really, at all!

Is it sappy? In some places, you might say that, however, the progression and pacing of the movie takes it somewhere that I really wasn't expecting. I thought this was going to be Mrs.Robot-Doubtfire or some bullshit like that...it isn't. Skip Steven Spielberg's "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE" which is what I expected this movie to be before "A.I" even came out. It isn't. This movie is 10 times better than A.I. could ever hope to be, and why? Because in the end, it isn't about feeling sorry for a robot. The story of the robot takes you through various experiences of the 'human condition' and A.I. depends entirely on the audience sympathizing for the robot kid, and while you can sympathize with Robot Williams, you begin to realize you're rooting for a "human being" who you can relate to in some ways. A.I. is just a sappy Disney bullshit movie that tries to pull on your heart strings, and in the end really has nothing to say. Sorry Spielberg, it sucked, and you made it even worse with that god-awful ending. Thankfully, this one doesn't have a god-awful ending, but it tends to be a bit long like A.I., however it has a story that's going somewhere with some great lines at the end. As for "SHORT CIRCUIT" well fuck those moronic films, how you are expected to either relate or sympathize with such an irritating and 'cutey' fucking robot, when nothing really serious takes place, not even the government trying to capture him...well it was a remake of E.T. after all...this movie isn't. BICENTENNIAL MAN goes further than that shit, and for that...I applaud it, because that is exactly what I thought it was going to be. There are hints of serious early on which I liked, when he's sitting in the basement listening to records by himself, I'm thinking, wow, that's a great little moment there, Spielberg never would have thought of that shit, this could have some potential, and it developed, not how E.T. or Short Circuit does, but the way a real movie does. Its not a popcorn-pleaser...how cool!

Sam Niell is great, and you aren't forced to sit through the whole movie with the two bratty kids at the beginning. Take heed viewers, the entire movie isn't about the two little kids, it expands and evolves. Robin Williams does a good job, and while there are a few Robin Williams moments, there aren't many. I really got caught up in the story, and just when I was getting a little bit tired of how sappy it would get, it would change course and enter new territory. This is a good thing. It certainly does have some silly shit in it, but all in all, it was a pretty good story, and a bizarre one at that in the end. I don't think kids and teenagers would really like this movie at all, and it simply isn't for that kind of audience. As a film about a robot with artificial intelligence, I also liked where it finally took him, how he becomes obsessed with altering himself, and even trying to deal with impossible situations. "That simply won't do." There are a lot of good moments in this movie, and that makes up for 'audience pleasing bullshit' which comes up now and again. This movie could be edited, made stronger and more profound, by eliminating some of these non-essentials, and I think more people would really like it. I think this movie will have a new audience again, once they discover it. I can't say its one of the best movies, but there are a few things in it that I won't soon forget, while A.I., I am still trying to forget. (Remake anyone?)

There are some trashy movies out there with some sparkle, there are some crappy movies out there worth watching for

entertainment value, there are some movies out there that get trashed because they weren't what people wanted them to be. Perhaps since I thought I would hate this entire film I was pleasantly surprised, you never know, but I also like Terminator Salvation...because I wasn't expecting much from it at all, I didn't think it would be as good as it was in the end. Also, I don't hate Christian Bale. I hate Robin Williams, and I liked him in this movie. I'll probably be watching this movie again because I can see there are things in it to revisit, which is another reason I like it.

The best thing about this movie is that it answers questions that it brings up in the film, which a lot of 'artificial intelligence' sci-fi films never do. They raise a lot of questions, but never take it all the way, or they cop out in one way or another. What I liked was how Robin Williams tries to be human so hard that he practically renounces everything

he invents to 'save humanity' because of his humanity. Come on, now this is a fascinating idea which deserves to be explored again. A lot of sci-fi movies don't dare to go too far into the dramatic, and deeply into humanity vs. technology in a personal perspective. I liked that this movie didn't cop out, and just have old Robin Williams live happily ever after with the family that bought him, after they find him amusing and lovable, and they have a few adventures, which is really what I was expecting. There's a serious note to this movie, and he is kind of a cyber-Forest Gump type of character, but takes it further into the realm of 'just how good will cybernetics be for us?' Yes, this movie could have gone further, and perhaps another film will, but for all of what I expected from this, it went light years further than many recent films will ever dare to go, I am actually amazed this movie even got made, for all of what is and what isn't in the movie. I think a lot of people hated this movie back when it came out because it wasn't 'funny' and 'simple' and a short little ridiculous 'funny robot finds feelings' and has a couple adventures. It is probably a little pretentious, but seriously, ALL sci-fi is pretentious, it has nowhere else to go but pretentious and you have to accept that with virtually any sci-fi movie you ever sit down to watch. So saying that it is pretentious is ridiculous. When I watched A.I., the main problem is Spielberg. I honestly believe that he thinks that when he 'implies' something he thinks he's really hitting people over the head with it. I believe he thinks he's being really clever when he barely scratches the surface of things, so he can quickly condescend to the audience and return to stupidity and really dumb humor, as an 'audience pleaser.' A.I.'s fucking Teddy Bear is one of those things. There really was no fucking reason to have that shit in the movie, and all I think of when I watch A.I. now, about the little robot kid and his teddy bear is the "AUTONOMOUS MOBILE SWORD" from SCREAMERS. A little robot killer-kid and his teddy bear. Fuck A.I. and all of its implied bullshit, its vagueness, and its smarmy little moments of trying to pull at your heart strings. His problem is that he's being too obvious about some things, and too cowardly to delve deep into some things, and too fucking stupid to take it anywhere hardcore and serious because he has to have his idiotic crowd pleasing endings.

Here's how A.I. should have ended: The little kid fucking sits there staring at the statue underwater for all eternity wondering about the Blue Fairy...FOREVER until his batteries die. THE END.

I won't spoil everything in BICENTENNIAL MAN, but we'll say that Robin Williams Robot character does some weird stuff at the end to finally experience something that only human beings and 'living things' experience...and as far as 'robot rights' go in this movie, it really isn't about 'robot rights' at all when you think about it, it merely shows us that official 'rights' granted by governments are fucking stupid anyway, and it isn't about that, for him its what 'human beings do' and he does it, interestingly enough, finding out that part of being human is being really stupid and having a really stupid government.

If there's anything truly fake and 'unreal' about this movie, it is 'the future' of this particular humanity in the timeline of this movie, of course, everything's fine, there's no harsh dystopian world, no depression,etc, and everybody seems happy, but this whole fantasy is mainly about contrasting and comparing and using the 'robot' schtick as a journey of what it means to be human, rather than try to see just how a real robot could become 'human.' This is 'true science fiction' in what you might call, its true element, or nature. You see, Star Wars isn't science fiction, because it isn't really doing anything with all that technology or those situations, in the end, its just a big space battle with a typical bad guy trying to redeem himself, and you could have done that in any setting. Its 'just a setting' and that's all it is. The setting here, seems to be required to say, "well here's this robot that can walk and talk and record and learn information" because it seems the environment which would have to exist in order for this to take place, 'the future' a 'science fiction future,' where nothing that happens in Star Wars is required for Luke Skywalker to find his father, nor for his father to see what he's done and turn away from the 'dark side.' The rest is flash and background.

Bicentennial Man may not deserve as much as I've written about it, but it does deserve to be watched if you are a science fiction fan who's into 'Cybertronic' movies to be sure. Is it a classic? Maybe it really is, because while the story has 'been done' such as in Star Trek with DATA, and it is a kind of 'Robot finds his feelings' story, its a pretty good one, and a bit unique and I think its worth it.