Most Disappointing Ending

[AndyC]

Screamers, the one with Peter Weller, really disappointed me in the end. I don't know how closely it stuck to the Philip K. Dick story, but I thought it was pretty lame. We kept hearing about how the robots were reproducing and improving themselves in an automated underground factory. I expected the climax to take place there. Instead, we have the human survivors reaching a spacecraft and leaving. Oh, and there was some of that worn out clichee of the robots taking their first step toward becoming human by learning to kill their own kind.

[Fearless Freep]

The other problem with Screamers was that it seemed to be reaching a point of wrapping up...and the *another*  surprise comes along and we're off again. This happened several times and it got annoying. Like the had several ideas for how to end it...so they used them all in sequence.

I liked the movie as a whole, but it had me saying "Allright already, just end it!"

[Pokethulhu]

The whole robot that feels love comes across a little strange.

David is supposed to be the first robot that's really feeling emotions and not just fakes them. The others are supposed to be unfeeling machines, who just simulate bodily reactions and behavior.

Asa far as I know, emotions are mostly a bio-chemical thing. How can a machine NOT only fake it. But it's SF and I can live with that. What I don't understand is that the other mecha a radically different to that female mecha the professor shows to his folks.

Joe runs from the police. Why? He seems to be afraid. Would it be massively impractical to programm a mecha to do this?
Why does he follow David around? He's supposed to be the unfeeling sort and also believes the Fairy can be found. Does that mean he's also following a dream? How that?

What about the macha at the Flesh Fair. They seems to be afraid. Why? Some are supposed to be archaic models.


Damn my head hurts.

[Evan3]

I must concur, A lot of that movie didnt make sense. Spielburg is a great director and most people consider Kubrick great(I just dont like him). However their styles just dont mix or match Spielburg likes to add a good feeling to his movies, while Kubrick loves to thrust violence at you, which was the main problem.

Also, is it just me, or did you all think that that that mother was really mean and b***hy. I thought she was a bad person, so I was upset that David's whole oddessey was just to find the woman who abandoned him in the first place. Yuk.

[John]

>Joe runs from the police. Why? He seems to be afraid.

Also, for the most part, he acts like a machine, not really caring if he's caught or destroyed, but then there's that one line where he tells David "They made us too smart, too quick..." where he seems to be truly sentient, then he goes back to acting like a machine. As for the robots seeming afraid, maybe they were just programmed for self-preservation. After all, if you have something that probably cost a year's salary, you wouldn't want it just standing there while some punk decides to use it for target practice.

[AndyC]

Since we're on the subject of AI, I'd also have to say that the police chopper escape did not seem well thought out. The thing was sophisticated enough to take voice commands and fly itself, but it had very little in the way of security measures, and no way for the police to take control of it remotely. They were just able to track it after it was stolen.

[Pokethulhu]

I wouldn't say Joe acts like a machine all the time.

Self Preservation is an idea I had, too.
But then, why did Joe tear out his ID?
Is he programmed "IF wrongfully accused of murder, THEN evade the police?

Self Preservation is an explanation for the other mechas' behavior. Still, they all know, even the really old ones, that they had been trashed.
Why would anyone program a mecha for self preservation after he is thrown away? You'd just get lots of mecha struggling with the disposal people. And this isn't a desing flaw, it runs from the really old one to the new ones.


And of course, this still doesn't change it, that the whole Flesh Fair scene was just there to milk emotionality for the mechas.

[AndyC]

And how to you frame a robot for murder when his memory is pretty much an accurate recording of events, including evidence against you?