Alex Proyas's I, Robot: Much More Faithful to Asimov Than You Think
2011; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0897-0521
Autores Tópico(s)Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
ResumoIn part because it may be possible for a film adaptation to import legitimately motifs and concepts from the original author's entire corpus, and thus to reflect his or her worldview, rather than be restricted merely to translating from the single work from which the adaptation derives its title, Alex Proyas's Robot (2004)--which acknowledges that it suggested by Isaac Asimov's book--is far more faithful to this eponymous collection and to than generally believed. Numerous reviews of the film assert, correctly, that it pure Asimov (Urban) or not align completely with the fiction of Asimov (Akinbola), but the majority are far too extreme dismissing the great degree to which the film does, indeed, replicate the many themes of Asimov's entire body of science fiction novels and stories as well as, specifically, the debt film protagonist Del Spooner's characterization owes to Asimov's Robot novels and that the film's major plot twists owe to his Robot (1950). Critics typically aver, incorrectly, that the film I, Robot ... just doesn't know its roots.... In fact, were it not for a cat with the name 'Asimov' on its collar, they might have been able to take his name right off the (Lozito); that what Science fiction fans ... won't recognize ... the story (Shutle); and that Old school sci-fi fans hoping for a faithful adaptation of Asimov's Robot may be disappointed to hear this barely related to the landmark opus (I, Robot: Review). Despite Bill Gibron's claims that it does not, Proyas's Robot does, indeed, pay the proper homage to and his philosophies and does far more than only get it part right. As Proyas himself asserts his voice-over commentary, a special feature of the 2004 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD release, I, Robot and absolutely the core center of this film.... It does come essentially from Asimov. However, as Proyas also acknowledges, didn't ignore any aspects of robots science fiction.... We looked at all the movies the past that had robots them.... You've got to build upon it [Asimov's legacy and the history of robots film] and move it into a new direction.... It's a visual-effects movie. As a visual-effects movie and an action-adventure film, of course, Proyas's version not Asimov-like genre. Even though plot always preeminent, Asimov's fiction features little action (but lots of dialogue) and characteristically privileges reason and foresight over chase scenes and violence, which Foundation (1951) protagonist Salvor Hardin famously proclaims is the last refuge of the incompetent (84). There nothing Asimov's Robot that anything like Proyas's film's set-piece action sequences--the destruction of United States Robotics' founder Alfred Lanning's mansion by a demolition robot, the spectacular auto chase through a tunnel which Chicago homicide detective Spooner pursued by USR robot transports and their NS-5 robot cargo, platoons of NS-5 robots forcibly occupying Chicago, and Spooner fighting off hordes of NS-5 robots on USR's V.I.K.I.-level at the film's climax--although Asimov's The Caves of Steel (1954) does contain a chase scene involving moving sidewalks. Yet Proyas proclaims that the film also in the detective genre, as are Asimov's Robot novels featuring detective Elijah Baley--Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun (1957), and The Robots of Dawn (1983). Moreover, as many critics (e.g., Shutle; I, Robot: Review) as well as Proyas note, the film pointedly based on Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, first articulated Robot's Runaround (1942), which are accurately cited their entirety at the film's beginning and then repeated their entirety by USR's robopsychologist Susan Calvin an early scene with Spooner. Less obviously, nearly every concept the film and many of its specific elements of plot and characterization, although innovatively recombined, are likewise taken from stories Robot, primarily, or from some coetaneous or subsequent or novel whose frequently reiterated motifs are, nonetheless, also articulated first Robot. …
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