Well, Rhyme, there's a certain something to be said for leavin' the house and seein' something you can discuss with coworkers on Monday. Which is not to say you don't leave the house, for all I know you're camping in Iceland right now, but a good dumb movie now and then never hurt anyone.

It's when a movie COULD have been something better, that I really get bent out of shape. "I Robot" is just a prime example. If an idiot screenwriter is going to adapt something, couldn't he just adapt an idiot book? This guy DID get his start with Grisham novels, after all.... no offense to Grisham-fans, but we can agree, he ain't Asimov.

I guess they can't all be well-written. But then most of the movie-going audience aren't looking for intelligent scripts; they're looking for explosions, hot men/women, and escapism. Perhaps that's why we get the dumbing down of America and the current deluge of reality TV. Hollywood is simply giving us what we want. It's not what *I* want particularly.

Quick, that's probably why I never see the big summer blockbusters. They're *too* dumb. Most everything I like to watch are independent or foreign films that never made money but that often make me think, and care, and stay at home with DVDs from Netflix.

Popcorn movies are all well and good, but I'd like to mention that the writer of "Spider-Man 2" has two screenwriting Oscars... for movies far better than anything Goldsman ever wrote.

THAT should be summer fare. Right?

I think the only reason I would see the film is for Mr. Tudyk, since I'm a fan. The commercials with Will Smith spouting his one-liners turned me off. I don't have my Entertainment Weekly on me right now, but they gave a very nice mention to Alan in the review for the movie.

But like many summer blockbuster films, I don't think they are ever conceived to be cerebral. The "popcorn movie" moniker is apt...films that have lots of splash and visuals but are light on script. Sometimes I like films like this, and maybe that's because I personally have a higher standard for TV dramas. I want my TV to be intelligent. A little mindless entertainment in the cinema is fairly enjoyable. If only mindlessness didn't cost so much!

I enjoyed the movie. The action was great and I thought Will Smith was fantastic.

That said, I admit the dialogue was prorbably the weakest part. The story was good. The dialogue was empty of all the good one-liners we've come to expect because of Whedon. But in defense of Goldsman, one-liner are really tough to do. We can't hold everybody to Joss standards. The man is insanely gifted.

But I think the story was good. I never read any Asimov, so I didn't come in with any expectations in that regard. I did wonder what the hell happened to the cat. It sort of disappeared. And I didn't come out of the theater babbling about the meaning of it all like I usually do, but I enjoyed it anyway. It was entertaining.

CGI robots fighting CGI robots is very cool.