July, 18, 2004 archives

i, robot is the blockbuster of the week, and it isn’t any more than just an average summer action movie, really. i’m not a huge asimov fan, and i don’t believe that i’ve read any of the books in his robot series, so any good things derived from his stories (or bad things done to his stories) weren’t really a big factor in how i thought about the film. of course, the story was not really originally inspired by the book of the same name, but rather it was a script that was adapted to the book as it was developed.

i think roger ebert really nailed it in his review, although i would be a little more harsh about the predictability of the plot. there’s really nothing new in this film.

earth abides by george r. stewart was written in 1949, but only really has a few anachronisms that show its age. it’s a really strong post-apocalyptic story, with the human population pared down even further than any other similar book i’ve read. i think the biggest liberty that the author takes is to have the primary character live so long considering the complete lack of medical knowledge, but it is an easily forgiven stretch because it allows for the story to reach much further into the real establishment of an actual community and culture after the plague that wipes out most of the human race.

(i picked up the book based on the mention on boing boing, in reference to the straight dope question and answer about how long power would stay on in the event of a mass zombification.)

another month, another charity. in this case, the same charity i donated to this month last year: childrens hospital los angeles.

another charity worth checking out (i’ll get to it in september): accion international.