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Despite some excellent costume design and makeup work, this
movie is mostly a complete waste of time and adds very little
to the age old debate about what it means to be human.
Robin Williams stars as an android who is bought by Sam Neill
to be a servant for his family. The android is named Andrew
(because family's youngest daughter cannot pronounce android).
The rest of the movie takes place over 200 years as Andrew develops
a unique personality and begins the question his place in the
world and eventually longs to be human.
The main reason why this movie is boring is that this theme
has been tackled so many times before that you really have to
come up with something special to get anybody's attention. For
examples of where these themes have been explored slightly more
originally see any version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or
even Star Trek: The Next Generation. The curse of immortality
has also been explored by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the
Rings (and he no doubt was inspired by some source from earlier
still).
This lack of originality would be forgiven if this Chris Columbus
movie was at all believable or enjoyable. Unfortunately, itis
neither. All of the acting is weak, with the possible exception
of Oliver Platt who is in his element as the slobby scientist
who replaces Andrew's metallic face with that of Robin Williams.
Even more implausible is the developing romance between Andrew
and Portia (Embeth Davidtz). Love between a human and a roboty
is difficult enough to fathom let alone one that has been given
Robin Williams' face. The film is full od such implausibilities,
most notably the house that Andrew builds just above the high
tide mark on the beach that somehow stays standing for a over
a century despite its most shaky of foundations.
Only of the only redeeming features of this film is the excellent
costume work and set design that aims to create futuristic fashions
and sceneries that change over the movie's 200 year time setting.
The effects and make up that gradually make Andrew more human
are also pretty cool.
This movie is pretty weak and even the kids will probably not
enjoy it. Only see it if you are a true blue die hard Robin
Williams fan, or you are doing an essay on Robots in Movies.
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