from Eskimo 18
Page One [Two]
My advice to
viewers about "Robots" is to wait for the DVD, then
watch it with the sound turned off. It's a dazzling
film visually, there's no doubt about that. Two
sequences in particular, the arrival of Rodney and
Fender in Robot City and the falling of the dominoes in
Bigweld's workshop, amount to set pieces that are as
stunning as anything in this genre. The former turns
the city's transportation system into a gigantic Rube
Goldberg device. The latter toys splendidly with the
idea of having to step back in order to see the big
picture.
To state the
problem another way: if this script had been filmed as
a live action movie
with humans instead of robots as
characters, it would have been laughed off the screen
as impossibly corny. The story functions smoothly
enough: a young robot goes off to the big city to seek
his fortune, is oppressed by the powerful and befriends
the weak, and, after suitable adventures, wins love,
fame and fortune and returns home, the conquering hero.
I even felt my emotions tugged this way and that at the
appropriate moments, but these were autonomic
responses, like giggling when you're tickled.
The story functions
but that doesn't change the fact that it's all made
from spare parts. Everything about it - from the themes
to the plot twists to the jokes - have been
cannibalized from a hundred other movies. I saw almost
everything coming from a mile away, and I normally try
to not do this. But when a movie has lost your respect,
when you can't help but see through it, all that's left
to do is calmly observe, from a safe distance, the
machinery of calculation grinding away behind it.
Movies like this leave you bruised and battered when
every plot point, every thematic announcement, every
punch line, every character revelation is pounded and
riveted into your head to make sure you get it.
At least the
audience is not alone in its suffering. It is
distressing to see fine actors such as Ewan MacGregor,
Robin Williams and Mel Brooks ill used with material
like this. If we're ever tempted to feel envious of
such stars, it's good to remember that every now and
then something comes along -- fate, bad judgment,
alimony or a bullying agent - and forces them into
expensive mediocrities like this.
Another standout
section of the movie, from a visual point of view, is
the final credit sequence, which would certainly get a
thumbs up on the TV show devoted entirely to reviews of
movie credits, Where Credit
Is Due, that Eskimo reader
Howard Gugg and I host in some parallel universe. We
scroll down a long blackboard and the chalk-drawn
schematics of the robots morph into life. It is a
variant of the technique used at the end of "Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," but it's
still a good technique, and good punishment for the
cretins who rush out of theaters before the final
credits, thus missing little treats like this.
