Reviews

I only saw this today. I probably would have thought it sensationalistic if I'd seen it when it first came out. It's about a couple asked to be the first parents to have a truly in vitro baby. Such a concept would probably have seemed unthinkable when the movie was first shown. Today it seems like a very thoughtful film that considers scientific developments just around the corner. This is really the best kind of sf. It's very thoughtfully done and makes the viewer think about the issues that might be involved. And yet it manages to have quite a bit of suspense. I recommend it highly for viewers who appreciated real sf as opposed to space westerns.

I skimmed the other comments before writing this one in case I'd missed something, but I think my initial lukewarm reaction to the film, which I saw on Turner Classic Movies, is the one I'll stick with.

I tuned into this movie because of Mel Gibson and also because I also happen to like Matthew Modine and Edward Hermann.

One commenter said something about the director liking strong female characters, but I didn't see Mrs. Soffel as being strong. Yes, she was unfortunate to be born at a time when women were basically seen as appendages to men. Her husband was not terribly understanding. As the movie opens, she is ill. Then she seems to undergo a miraculous recovery after being bedridden for months. My interpretation of this is that she had probably been suffering from a depressive episode. Yes, Mrs. Soffel is weak. Instead of doing something positive to stir her out of her situation, she falls prey to a criminal, who, admittedly, may not have been all bad. I suppose she had formed some sort of romantic image of Ed Biddle. And perhaps he also had a romantic streak. Both characters are shown to be not at all realistic in the way they see life.

I also found the film rather slow-moving, especially at the beginning. I almost stopped watching. Overall I found, though there were some touching emotional moments, especially at the end, that the movie lacked much of a plot and the characters lacked depth. With such a weak script, I think it would be difficult for me to see much for the actors to have worked with and cannot praise their performances. I wouldn't consider the movie to have been a complete waste of my time, but I couldn't really recommend it.

As a fan of Jane Austen, I found this movie interesting in an intellectual way. It's very clever in the way it has translated Austen's characters to modern-day Mormon society.

The problem with the movie is that it is not at all emotionally engaging. The characters don't seem like real people. Rather they seem like caricatures. This is a cartoon more than a serious film.

Still it is entertaining as far as it goes. I tend to be a completist as far as Jane Austen goes, so I will go pretty far out of my way to see any treatment inspired by her works.

I think the filmmakers had the right idea. Jane Austen makes fun of her society, and this film makes fun of modern-day Mormon society. However, while Jane Austen succeeded in making her characters sympathetic and real, the filmmakers have failed in that respect.

With these caveats in mind, I recommend the movie to all Jane Austen completists. Even if you don't care for the movie at all, I think you need to see it.

Technically the movie is pretty bad. The acting was also only passable; the dubbing was noticeable. I watched this on DVD, and the film was badly worn and the colours faded. However, I felt the story was pretty realistic for when it was made. Very little was known about Venus at the time of the movie. Theoretically the planet might have been the way it was depicted in the film. Unfortunately I don't think our space programme is as advanced as postulated in the movie, but they were projecting more than fifty years into the future. If only for historical reasons, this film should not be overlooked. It is worthy of a restoration project of the sort done by Disney.

I watched this because Kristi Yamaguchi was in it. I follow figure skating fairly closely and enjoy skating myself when my health permits.

I found the story entertaining and fulfilling, but the movie is full of inaccuracies as far as the world of figure skating goes at least as far as I have seen things myself. Although Tanya Harding's actions brought the world's attention to figure skating, she is an anomaly. Figure skaters do not generally try to hinder their competition, at least not so blatantly. Rather there is quite bit of camaraderie among skaters.

The national competition is a several-day event. Each skater must skate at least two programmes. This is done on different days. I'm not familiar with the schedules for school hockey, so I don't know when their championship would take place. The national skating championship typically takes place in January. They take place at a large public arena, not a small rink like the one used in the movie.

I was also somewhat incredulous that when the skater showed up all covered in paint someone didn't ask "What happened to you?"

Enjoy the movie but don't base your ideas about the world of figure skating on it.

The movie was based on a lot of Asimov's ideas. As a mystery, it is a style that Asimov utilized. Apart from that, it had little to do with his collection of short stories whose title is used for the film or any of his related works. The three laws of robotics are there, as is Susan Calvin, depicted very similarly to the character in the book. The movie had a good mystery plot and human interest. The plot was similar to one that Asimov might have created, except that he never had a robot "overseer" running all the other robots. As a cat lover, I appreciated the brief appearance of a cat. Will Smith's character was human if not exactly likable. The most sympathetic character was the robot named Sonny.

Overall I found the movie interesting, entertaining, and touching. Only the action sequences were disappointing. They were boring, because they were so predictable. The special effects were also excellently done. The ending also bothered me. The existence of all the robots in a ghetto was never explained.