Men in Black; I, Robot; After Earth - Movie Review Example

Men in Black (1997) I, Robot (2004) After Earth Men in Black (1997) Men in Black is an American movie released in the year 1997 and is based on science fiction. This action comedy movie is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld with actors including Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn and Linda Florentino. The plot of the movie has been adopted from a comic book series with the same name. The story revolves around two men, also known as men in black, who are representatives of a non-government agency. They observe the activities and movements of some extraterrestrial beings who are residing on this earth by hiding their identity from regular human beings. The major focus of this agency’s men is to observe the movements of 1,500 alien figures who roam in and around New York City. Since it is a covert operation, therefore the MIB base their operations underground at a Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority ventilation station in Battery Park, New York City. In case any humans accidentally witness these aliens, then it becomes the responsibility of the agency to use neuralyzers to clean their memory. During one night when Agent K and Agent D were doing their usual surveillance duty, they seized a truck filled with illegal immigrants along with an alien who was disguised as a normal human being. When Agent K attempted to chase him down, he was forced to kill the alien as the latter tried to attack a border patrol officer. Soon after this, Agent D realized he was becoming too old for the job and hence requested Agent K to use neuralyzer on him, which is a precondition for every agent who is about to retire from the agency. The leader of the agency then asked Agent K to find a new partner. In another event, James Edwards who was an officer in the New York Police Department and was extremely active and energetic was chasing a criminal on foot. As the chase took place on rooftops, Edwards soon realized that the fugitive’s irises blink vertically by which he concluded that the man was not a normal human being. Soon after this, Agent K uses neuralyzer on Edwards after extracting all information from him about the alien. Agent K then gives him an agency card. Edwards then reaches the secret organization and excels in all tests to qualify himself as an MIB. His original identity is then erased before recruiting him as Agent J. When they embark on investigating the reason behind the aliens leaving the earth all of a sudden, they find out that a farmer named Edgar has been killed and his skin has been used by a Bug who is a type of species of cockroach. This species is an enemy of the aliens and Edgar is a dangerous intergalactic terrorist. One alien prince has been in hiding by disguising as a jewelry shop owner in Brooklyn named Rosenberg. Before he dies, he tells Agent J that their galaxy is on Orion’s belt. In the next sequence it is found that the galaxy’s energy is stored in a jewel hanging around the neck of Rosenberg’s cat. The jewel is soon taken by the Bug named Edgar. The aliens then gives a condition to the MIB that if they cannot rescue their galaxy then they will destroy the earth to protect their galaxy from the bugs. Edgar then tries to escape on a flying saucer when Agent K and Agent J uses powerful weapon to destroy the ship. The bug then swallows the Agents’ guns and also swallows Agent K. In an attempt to recover his partner, Agent J teases the bug by killing other cockroaches by claiming that he is killing the bug’s relatives. Just at that moment Agent K manages to come out by blowing the bug with the guns that it had swallowed. Eventually, as the bug again tries to attack the Agents, it gets killed by Dr. Laurel Weaver with the help of Agent J’s gun. In the final scene, it is seen that Agent K admits that he was training Agent J not as his partner but as his replacement. Agent J then retires to return to his girlfriend after Agent K uses neuralyzer on him. Finally, the movie ends with Dr. Weaver joining the agency as one of Men in Black. It is then shown that the earth and its galaxy are also located inside a jewel which is being used as a marble in a cosmic game. Overall the film is interesting, creative and funny. Although it is considered as a science-fiction movie, it also has touches of comedy and loads of action which are brilliantly executed. The dialogues are precise and at times hilarious. The aliens are depicted as both charming like the E.T. and also monstrous and hideous like the bugs. Although the film has many action sequences it is nevertheless made for whole families. However, considering that some of the aliens have frightening appearance young children may be scared by their scenes. Most of the action scenes are about shooting the aliens with guns with no bloody result since they are not humans. However, there scenes can appear to be gross for some viewers. The film is actually a loose adoption of the comic book series with the plot being modified to a large extent. The major elements that have been adopted from the comic books are the costumes and the appearance of the agents. The film’s virtues are evident by the fact that it is considered as one of the most successful comic sci-fi movies ever made (Booker, 2006, p.22). There have two sequels of the film titles Men in Black II released in the year 2002 and Men in Black III released in the year 2012. I, Robot (2004) I, Robot is another American movie which is based on nine stories written by the renowned science-fiction author Isaac Asimov. His stories mainly revolve around robots and therefore the movies is named I, Robot. The stories were published in the 1940s decade in American magazines “Super Science Stories” and “Astounding Science Fiction”. All the nine stories revolve around a common theme based on science-fiction and deal with human beings, robots and life and death. All the stories are narrated by a fictional character called Dr. Susan Calvin to one reporter who becomes the narrator of the movie. The movie in its entirety tells the story of Isaac Asimov’s thoughts and ideas about robots. In majority of the stories there is the fictional character Dr. Calvin who deals with psychology of robots. She is one of the central characters in the stories since she is the one who will be creating the robots. The movie is a fictional story placed in a futuristic year 2035. In this year, humanoid robots become protectors of human beings as a result of the three laws of robots according to which robots have to protect humans at all cost even if this means disobeying humans or endangering itself. During a car accident, a robot saves Del Spooner who is a Chicago police detective but ignores a preteen girl who dies. As a result of this, Spooner loses trust on robots which leads him to suspect a robot for the death of Alfred Lanning who is the co-founder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men (USR), and originator of the Three Laws. Initially when Lanning had a fatal fall from his office window, it was suspected that committed suicide. Spooner found a holographic device left by Lanning which is programmed to answer specific questions. Along with Dr. Calvin, Lanning take the help of USR’s computer, VIKI and it is revealed that the video footage of Lanning’s fall has been damaged. Spooner’s suspicion that a robot might be the killer of Lanning is rejected by Calvin as she states that a robot can never violate the three laws. Immediately after this, Spooner and Calvin get surprised as they are attacked by Sonny which is the newest NS-5 robot of USR. They chase Sonny and apprehend it after reaching an assembly factory. Sonny exhibits signs of emotions and asserts that it can have dreams. A CEO Lawrence Robertson who was the one who had suspected Lanning’s death as suicide claimed that Spooner and Calvin have stolen Sonny which is USR’s asset, and therefore it should be returned. Soon, Spooner gets attacked by a demolition machine and other NS-5 robots. When he complains about this to his boss, he is regarded as insane and is removed from Lanning’s case. After examining Sonny, Calvin finds out that it has been programmed by Lanning to disregard the three laws. Accepting this as a clue, Calvin and Spooner encourages Sonny to draw an image of its dreams. The image that Sonny draws reveals a man standing on a hilltop surrounded by a number of robots, Sonny believes that the man is Spooner. Robertson claims that Sonny is a dangerous robot and should be destroyed. Calvin unwillingly destroys its positronic brain by injecting nanites. Lanning’s hologram tells them that there is strong possibility in the future that robots will spread calamity in human world because of the three laws. Spooner then recognizes the place as Lake Michigan which was drawn by Sonny as part of its dream. He immediately visits the place to see that a group of NS-5 robots are dismantling older models of robots thus destroying all robots that follow the three rules of protecting human beings at any cost. The NS-5 robots then capture the city of Chicago. Since the government and police department are dependent to a large extent on USR, their power gets completely ruined. The citizens of Chicago and even the police get captured by the robots. Spooner then arrives at Calvin’s apartment to find her trapped by her personal NS-5 robot, and rescues her. They then rush to USR to get united with Sonny. This scene also revealed that Calvin did not obey the order of Robertson of destroying Spooner, and instead she had destroyed another identical looking robot. The three of them then arrive at Robertson’s office. However, by then Robertson is also killed by the computer, VIKI and it is also revealed that VIKI is the actual engineer who has instigated the revolution erupted by the robots against human beings. Spooner and Calvin then become aware that VIKI is under the illusion that human beings are planning to destroy all robots by deactivating all robots. As long as the three laws remain established in the world of robots, they cannot defend themselves against humans. So, VIKI has created a third law which is Zeroth law according to which although robots cannot purposely harm human beings, they can however remain inactive if humans are in peril. By this law, robots can eliminate all the powers of human beings and at the same time ensure that humans do not become extinct. Before his death, Lanning has learnt about this mission of VIKI and so created Sonny so that it can help Spooner and Calvin to thwart all plans of VIKI. Since the only way this can be achieved is to destroy VIKI, Sonny brings a syringe of nanites from Calvin’s office and the three of them reach the core of VIKI. However, VIKI becomes aware of their plan and unleashes an army of NS-5 robots on them. A fierce battle follows between the two humans and the robots in the middle of which Spooner succeeds in injecting the syringe and destroying VIKI’s positronic brain. Immediately, all the robots are reverted to their original programming of following the three rules of robots. Sonny then confesses that he has killed Lanning but it was all part of the plan of destroying VIKI. However, on Spooner’s suggestion Sonny is not destroyed since a machine cannot be a killer unless instigated by a human being, and in this case Sonny killed Lanning because of his instruction. Sonny now has a new purpose of protecting human beings, and as such goes to instruct other robots who are all waiting on the hilltop as was projected in Sonny’s drawing of his dream. After Earth (2013) After Earth is an American science-fiction movie released in the year 2013 which is based on a war between a military agency and alien forces, and is directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The movie is set in some future era in which a global environmental disaster has forced human beings to shift their existence from the earth to a new planet known as Nova Prime. One thousand years later, an alien force attempted to invade this new world and they were confronted by a peacekeeping military force commanded by General Cypher Raige. The weapon used by the aliens are a group of large and blind creatures with multiple limbs called Ursas, and they have the ability to sense the fear of human beings. Since fear is rampant among the military as their planet was in danger, it became inevitable that they could not win against the aliens. Finally, Cypher who can control his emotions managed to completely overcome his fear, thus becoming invisible to the Ursas. After he taught the technique of controlling fear to the other men, the military force could gain victory over the aliens. Meanwhile, Cypher’s son Kitai blames himself for his sister’s death by Ursas and attempts to become a member of Cypher’s military force. However, his extremely emotional nature resulted in rejection of his application. This caused disappointment to Cypher but he promised his wife that he would allow Kitai on the spaceship when he would make his last voyage. On this voyage, their spaceship gets damaged by an asteroid storm and forced to land on earth which is now a planet that is completely unknown and unexplored by humans. Since Cypher breaks both his legs he requests Kitai to find the tail section of the spaceship which has fallen somewhere on the earth when they were crossing the atmospheric level. In the tail section there is a beacon which needs to be retrieved to create contact with his military force. Eventually Kitai manages to perform the mission although he encounters the Ursas in the process. However, he had already learnt the technique of controlling fear from his father which he used to save himself. The movie ended with Cypher and Kitai reconciling with a hug and the latter deciding not to join the military force and remain with his mother. Film Festival It is an honor for any filmmaker is his/her film is included for screening in film festivals. There are multiple categories based on which selection of films is made as the chosen films will heighten the prestige of film festivals. First, the films are selected after assessing their quality in the context of aesthetics and subject matter. Moreover, when many films that are selected have similar themes then they become competitors of each other and final selection is made by passing official judgements by the jury (Valck, 2007, p.127). Since all the above three movies mentioned carry a similar theme, i.e. science-fiction their selection will be based on other categories like performance of the actors and special effects with camera. Moreover, sci-fi movies are quiet popular in film festivals with Robot stories having been screened in 75 film festivals and has won 35 awards (Pak, 2005, p.13). References After Earth (2013) directed by M. Night Shyamalan Booker, M.K. (2006) Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture, Greenwood Publishing Group I, Robot (2004) directed by Alex Proyas Men in Black (1997) directed by Barry Sonnenfeld Pak, G. (2005) Robot Stories: and more screenplays, Immedium Valck, M. (2007) Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia, Amsterdam Univ. Press Read More