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Bicentennial Man

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Marco Flores

Bicentennial Man tells the almost 200 year story of the unique robot (Robin Williams) who strives to be a human. His original owner found him to be special because he was able to learn, appreciate, and have feelings (along with an uncanny ability to whittle flawless trinkets and complex grandfather clocks). He is loved by the family and taken in as one of their own, and passes down through generation to generation, becoming more and more human with more and more organic upgrades. He eventually falls in love with a decendant of the family, and decides to get an organic brain, nervous system, and heart to fully cokmplete his switch to becoming human, being allowed to marry, and inevitably die along with his love. It was actually a very good movie, incorporating comic relief and drama to give the best of both worlds to the viewers. Robotics were relied upon in the society in Bicentennial Man, doing tasks spanning from everyday household chores to nursing, greeting people to lining the baseball field. The movie touches upon the issue of what the line is between robots and becoming human. Robin Williams believes he is a human because of his new organic material that can bleed, but a court tuling shows that he is indeed still a robot because of the positronic brain, making him live forever. The movie implies that the line is drawn when the robot is made of organic components and can age with the rest of the human populace. What I didn't think made sense was that the movie didn't mention anything about Williams not having to live according to the Three Laws of Robotics, which would still make him a robot if he had to live according to them, not a human as ruled he was at the end of the movie. Overall, the movie was most satisfactory and a definite recommendation to further understand robotics in film.

Emily Hager

I must say, I didn't expect much out of Bicentennial Man, but it surprised me in a good way. It is a charming story of a robot who begins his life normally, but very soon he shows some talents most robots do not have, like creativity. The movie follows his long life, his journey from robot to man. It involves a lot of technological leaps of faith, but the basic principle is very thought-provoking and pretty realistic. Its ironic, but the best word I can use to describe this movie is human. Its just a very human movie, because the way Andrew struggles to become human reminds us of ourselves in some way, all of us just trying to find who we really are, and thats all that Andrew is doing, really. It is hilarious in parts, because its Robin Williams, and sad in parts too. It was a bit cheesy sometimes, and slow, and it is kind of unbelievable that you could manufacture an entire working human body. Overall though, it was a pretty decent movie that gives us a second look at what we define as a person.

Matt Lynch

Bicentennail Man was a very different yet enjoyable movie. The movie focused on the life of a robot Andrew (Robin Williams). Andrew is bought by a family who soon realize that he is a very special robot. Andrew is found to have emotions are creativeness which has not been seen in anyother robot. The father of the family, Mr. Martin, begins teaching Andrew things he was not programmed with like a sense of humor. Andrew desires to become as human as possible. He infact desires to "BE" human. Andrew does all in his ability to upgrade to become human. After obtaining all the upgrades he could, Andrew "becomes human." He looks, acts, feels and even ages like a human would. After all his trouble Andrew is finally declared a human and decides to be "unplugged" so he can "die" as the oldest recorded human at 200 years old. This is a very touching movie. I would have liked to have gotten an explanation to why Andrew was special. There was no clear cut explanation to why Andrew was so human. Bicentennial man was a good movie, boring and slow at some parts, but overall a decent movie that most people should enjoy.

Dee Parks

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