Krisworld Movie Marathon (The Return)

I, Robot

Felt a bit like Michael Bay's The Island due to the copious amounts of product placement. Quite an entertaining film though with Mr. Smith providing all the wisecracks and the action. Not too heavy on the plot, lots of wham-bang action scenes - just like how a summer action flick should be like.

Movie is set in 2035 AD where robots are everywhere, working as assistants (read glorified slaves) for humans. Everyone seems to take their presence for granted, except for Chicago Police Detective Del Spooner, who have this nagging suspicion that they're can't be trusted. Never mind that all robots are hardwired to follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. For those who haven't read the book (or watched the movie), I quote:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

A murder and a series of "accidents" lead Spooner to believe that the new NS-5 robots being rolled out by US Robotics are not as innocent as they seem. Together with psychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, Spooner tries to find the culprit behind the conspiracy plot. Was it Sonny who is not bound by the three laws? Was it CEO Lawrence Robertson who wants Sonny terminated? Was it the murdered Dr. Alfred Lanning who designed the NS-5 robots and created Sonny? Or was it someone else?


Chicken Little

This movie has the potential to be as good as Finding Nemo or Madagascar, but it failed to deliver. Too many characters who are poorly developed and a plot that is so thin they had to feature a baseball game and a fat pig in a karaoke bar singing Spice Girls' If You Wanna Be My Lover (from start to finish). It tries too hard to be cute and funny. Too many winking allusions and self-congratulatory in-jokes. This movie should not have made it to the big screen. It shouldn't even go straight to video. It should probably be done as an animated short, and forgotten.

Most of you have probably already heard of Chicken Little and his claim that the sky is falling, causing massive chaos in the town of Oakey Oaks. To redeem himself, he joins the local baseball team and won a major game, even though he can barely lift the bat and see out of his helmet. The town hails him as a hero, and all is well. Along come a fallen piece of the sky and a lost alien boy. Chicken Little and his friends try their best to keep this knowledge from the town. Next thing you know, the aliens are tearing up the town a la War of the Worlds looking for the lost kid, and it's up to Chicken Little and his dad to save the town. The only good part is the alternate Hollywood-style ending for the movie. Such a riot!

Aeon Flux

Don't bother watching this film. Oh, there's a plot all right. The problem is, it doesn't make any sense. It's the year 2011, and 99% of the Earth's population is wiped out by a deadly virus. For 400 years, the rest of the population lived within a walled nirvana called Bregna, lorded over by the Goodchild dynasty. The rebel Monicans send their best agent Aeon Flux to kill the ruler Trevor Goodchild. Aeon Flux hesitates at the last moment, and they kiss and make love. We are later told that the cure that saved the remaining 1% made them sterile, so they had to clone everyone to come up with the next generation. However, for some reasons, people are starting to become productive again. Nature will find a way. Yeah, right. The Monicans have a big showdown with the Goodchild army. Aeon Flux manages to put bombs on a library balloon circling the city. It crashes into the city wall and creates a gigantic hole to the outer world. Aeon and her boyfriend Trevor then have a cheesy dialogue about now being free and living only once and dying and making way for the new generation, etc. etc.

This movie is really bad. All Charlize Theron does is to strut around in her skintight costumes - a smouldering stare here, a supermodel pose there. The other characters are totally forgettable - and so is the plot.