Saw an advance screening of Chappie tonight. A pretty good (if predictable) story, great special effects, filthy language... too many gratuitous gang-style F words in my prudish opinion since a lot of kids will want to see this robot flick. It felt like a retread of District 9, though. Same director, lead character, South African accents and slums. Also some heavy element borrowing from Short Circuit, Robocop, I Robot and Iron Man. Nice to see Hugh Jackman as the bad guy.
I'd say it's certainly matinee-worthy. If I ever get the DVD, I could only play it after the kids go to sleep due to the language!
Now how to stuff all that AI into a 2 kb Boebot routine?
I thought it was interesting that main gang characters Ninja and Yolandi are real people, well-known South African rappers. They just played their everyday selves. They usually perform together. No name changes. No haircuts or wardrobe budget needed. Seriously.
Well somehow, you can watch TARS and CASE and the rest of "Interstellar" on the web for free, even before the DVD comes out March 31. Tons of great movies, Iron Man, Avengers, Frozen. I guess that Russian mob icon near the bottom means something...
I guess that Russian mob icon near the bottom means something...
I'm sure it's just like the HTML5 or WW3 or Verisign or other places that certify a website is properly using things. After all, they are into "protection" of users. It's probably no worse than "Microsoft Certified" stamped on something. (I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put a smilie here or not.....)
Holy smokes! - This looks good and scary all at the same time... It will be interesting to see if it is pro/anti or neutral regarding robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). It will also explore Turing Test questions - it looks like.
Ex Machina is in theaters now - wonder if it will make it here? If not, I guess that means quicker to video and owning a copy.
The official website is at http://exmachina-movie.com/ and is fun to look around. It includes a page called Ava Sessions - a interactive piece of AI software. Do your own Touring Test, would this software fool you?
This film is rated R though and looks like it should be! More because of adult themes - I would think. I can't imagine it is more violent or a has more bad language than Chappie!
Surely this is a generational thing. Older crowd -- yes, I'm in this group -- would likely have picked other films. I'd never have nominated either I, Robot or Bicentennial Man, for example. IMO they're not ground-breaking in any way, and they are remakes of old concepts that have been done to death by the time these movies came out. (I understand both were adaptations of older written works, but it's the original works that should get the credit, not the rehashes. OTOH, Stephen Root is quite good in Bicentennial Man.)
Transformers? OMG!
I do wholeheartedly agree with WALL-E and Iron Giant, and I'd even lump Short Circuit in there, only because the robots were practical props, and not CG. The story and the acting -- oh, the pain!! -- are gut-wrenching horrific.
The "best" films surely have changed attitudes about robots, serving as inspiration for other creative output, or perhaps even a real-life involvement with robotics. So I'd nominate films like Silent Running, because of the brilliant metaphorical use of the robots; Terminator because A) the original film was decent and it spawned a lot of worthwhile discussion; and most certainly Metropolis. How do you rank Transformers above a classic like Metropolis that influenced millions of movie-goers for decades? (I mean, in a good, productive way!)
Also interesting is that "Robot Overlords" is already online at http://ffilms.org/robot-overlords-2014/ even before opening in US theaters on July 3. Looks interesting with Ben Kingsley & Gillian Anderson (and Aussie teen heart throb Callan McAuliffe if you care). Teen whiz kids take on invading robots, decent special effects from the bit I watched.
Did anyone mentioned 2001? Wasn't the robot named HAL? Or, how about that movie with Kirk Douglas I think it was called Saturn 3? That had a really scary robot in it.
A favorite? Not Avengers 2/Ultron. Saw it today: a swing and a miss. Needlessly choppy, jumps all around the world for curious reasons. Not sure what Captain Ahab brought to the party. Too much downtime in Iowa chopping firewood. Spoiler alert ahead, so continue reading at your own risk.
Another self-aware AI "defensive system" gets out of hand, spreads through the internet, and searches for nukes' launch codes. Didn't we pretty much cover all that in War Games, Colossus/the Forbin Project and the Terminator franchise? And that final climax was just contrived and anti-climactic. A relatively small worst case scenario compared to Avengers 1's space portals, aliens, gods & monsters. Dunno, sometimes I like a movie more after I watch it again. Another factor is that most movies hyped this much can never live up to expectations. I'll have to track down where Ex-Machina is playing and see that before it's gone.
Comments
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq3xfq_johnny-cab_shortfilms
I enjoyed this one and am excited to see the other in this thread - http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/158084-Robotic-Themes-in-the-Movies?highlight=Big+Hero
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spare_Parts_(film)
http://sparepartsthemovie.com/
Neill Blomkamp did a good job on District 9, one of my fav pics in the last 5 years. Chappie looks like Johnny 5 on a mission.
I'd say it's certainly matinee-worthy. If I ever get the DVD, I could only play it after the kids go to sleep due to the language!
Now how to stuff all that AI into a 2 kb Boebot routine?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkin_Tudor_Jones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolandi_Visser
http://ffilms.org//?s=interstellar
I'm sure it's just like the HTML5 or WW3 or Verisign or other places that certify a website is properly using things. After all, they are into "protection" of users. It's probably no worse than "Microsoft Certified" stamped on something. (I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put a smilie here or not.....)
And Adam Savage too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UoOhdvQYmo
It's gotta be better than The Invisible Boy!
Ex Machina is in theaters now - wonder if it will make it here? If not, I guess that means quicker to video and owning a copy.
The official website is at http://exmachina-movie.com/ and is fun to look around. It includes a page called Ava Sessions - a interactive piece of AI software. Do your own Touring Test, would this software fool you?
This film is rated R though and looks like it should be! More because of adult themes - I would think. I can't imagine it is more violent or a has more bad language than Chappie!
That's just about what Forbes says about Ex Machina: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenrosenbaum/2015/04/12/beware-sexy-robots/
Big Hero 6 online: http://ffilms.org/big-hero-6-2014/
Big Hero 6 is very good and encourages both hard work and creativity.
Transformers? OMG!
I do wholeheartedly agree with WALL-E and Iron Giant, and I'd even lump Short Circuit in there, only because the robots were practical props, and not CG. The story and the acting -- oh, the pain!! -- are gut-wrenching horrific.
The "best" films surely have changed attitudes about robots, serving as inspiration for other creative output, or perhaps even a real-life involvement with robotics. So I'd nominate films like Silent Running, because of the brilliant metaphorical use of the robots; Terminator because A) the original film was decent and
Also interesting is that "Robot Overlords" is already online at http://ffilms.org/robot-overlords-2014/ even before opening in US theaters on July 3. Looks interesting with Ben Kingsley & Gillian Anderson (and Aussie teen heart throb Callan McAuliffe if you care). Teen whiz kids take on invading robots, decent special effects from the bit I watched.
... Tim
https://screen.yahoo.com/other-space-zalian-r-t-201838738.html
Johnboy's ship was a robot?
... Tim
Another self-aware AI "defensive system" gets out of hand, spreads through the internet, and searches for nukes' launch codes. Didn't we pretty much cover all that in War Games, Colossus/the Forbin Project and the Terminator franchise? And that final climax was just contrived and anti-climactic. A relatively small worst case scenario compared to Avengers 1's space portals, aliens, gods & monsters. Dunno, sometimes I like a movie more after I watch it again. Another factor is that most movies hyped this much can never live up to expectations. I'll have to track down where Ex-Machina is playing and see that before it's gone.
Online already, if you like bad audio! http://ffilms.org/avengers-age-of-ultron-2015/