This film was based - loosely based - on Issac Asimov's story 'The Bicentennial Man', also printed as 'The Positronic Man' It's not unusual for a movie to not be as good as the book it is based on (which was certainly the case here), and my problem with this film isn't that it didn't live up to my expectations from the original story, it was that it completely missed the point of the original story. Before I get into that, let me first say that even if this film had not been based on any book, it was still very weak; Robin Williams has talent, but not enough to make up for such a weak story. This was just a series of cute little silly sequences where Andrew the robot flip flops between putting his foot in it and then turning on the warmth now and then. It's TV movie material, I don't know how else to put it - it does everything you expect, and nothing you don't, then ends tied up with a sweet little bow. There is little imagination expended on the character of Andrew...really, any Star Trek episode featuring Data provides a greater exploration of this movie's subject matter, and that is managed in less than one hour. One of the biggest complaints I had were Andrew's motivations for wanting to be deemed a man in the first place; why throw in the inane love story? Does Hollywood truly believe that moviegoers will short-circuit if they found themselves sitting through a film where the main character did not have a corresponding 'love interest'? Andrew did not take a lover in the book - Andrew's desire to be officially considered a man was all about being human, and all of the freedoms that come with being human. Andrew's journey was a very long one, but he always struggled forward for that reason - not for love, and especially not for the love of one person in particular, which I thought was a ridiculous throwaway and completely changed the point of the whole story. Andrew (kind of like Data in Star Trek) wants to become human because he feels that is a goal worth achieving; for all of its reasons, because he feels that being human is something unique and special. Of course, both Andrew and Data may have changed their minds about us had they been forced to at some point sit through this stinkburger. In the end of the book, Andrew chooses death because gaining mortality is the one last step which at that point separates him from humans. In the end, Andrew finally achieves his goal, and spends his final hours as the man he had struggled his whole life to become. He didn't tell jokes (we know Robin Williams is a comedian, it was forced and pointless to showcase that fact), he didn't fall out of windows and run around like an idiot, he never fell in love with anyone (except perhaps the affection he felt for the original 'Little Miss' who he took care of as a child, but the affection was platonic). If it hadn't been based on the book, this movie would have been simply another forgettable sci-fi failure from that conveyor belt of cookie-cutter, second-rate Hollywood drivel. Since it is based on the book it's a complete travesty; Asimov must have twisted in his grave when this thing hit the theaters. It has probably also ensured that fans of the original will never see it done right.
Review of Bicentennial Man
