zakal

I've been a huge Asimov fan for many years, and I've thus far been very disappointed by all of the 'adaptations' of his stories for Hollywood. I expected even worse from this one. But the fact is, I couldn't help but enjoy it.

Obviously, Hollywood took great liberties with Dr. Asimov's style. They turned Susan Calvin into the eye candy of the film, and cast Will Smith as the hero. But the fact is, making this into an action movie and staying as true as they did was an impressive feat.

The screenwriters here were obviously well versed in the good doctor's works, with numerous references embedded throughout. The most important thing is, in the end, they did just what Asimov always did, tie everything together to show that what happened was not only allowable, but inevitable under the Three Laws.

Aside from all that... it was just really cool. The special effects were top-notch. The scenery, stylings, cinematography, all done very well. The action sequences were great. Sure, there were your dumb, action hero one-liners, and some fairly sappy attempts to be philosophical, but it wasn't nearly as puerile a movie as you might expect. At the end of the day, anyone who can make an Asimov story into a battle royale of killer robots and with any degree of success is a good writer in my book.

Ex-special forces bodyguard is hired to protect family, little girl gets kidnapped from under bodyguard's nose, bodyguard lays out some major firepower and goes after the bad guys. The setup is pretty predictable, and goes about according to formula, but somehow, the movie still moves me. The various twists and surprises along the way aren't what do it, instead, it's how much emotional depth the movie manages to achieve. Creasy (Denzel) is a veteran of some pretty shady operations in service of God and country. Like his old combat buddy (Walken) he's haunted by a past that he seems incapable of escaping. He's had his fill of death, but fighting is about the only thing he knows how to do. So he takes the jobs, and buries his pain in Jack Daniels. He winds up in Mexico, guarding a little girl who takes an instant liking to him. At first, it merely annoys him, but she slowly wins him over, and starts to bring him out of the black hole he's been trapped in for so long. He acts gruff and unapproachable, but he desperately needs someone to care about him. The love of a child gives him back some of the hope he'd lost. The development of the relationship between them is excellently done, much better than I'd expect from a shoot-em-up. Of course, everything goes horribly awry when the abductors show up. When they drag the girl away, screaming for Creasy, we're angry not just because we supposed to be, we want these guys dead just as much as Creasy does. When he first showed up, this was just a job. Now he's willing to put his life on the line for her, and we can't help but sympathize. The action is well-done and the cinematography powerful, but they bring it all together by actually getting us emotionally invested in the situation.

The opening scene of this movie was killer. A bunch of high school students are bored out of their minds learning about historical battles, when suddenly paratroopers land on their football field and commence a takeover of their town. It's a poignant, moving, and pretty realistic look at what happens when America becomes a war zone. Like any resistance, this is just a group of kids who never planned to be soldiers. They were just going about their lives when everything they knew collapsed around them.

Whether this kind of invasion was ever plausible or not is debatable, and ultimately beside the point. The point is that it's not something we usually imagine happening here. What if it did?