Robopocalypse - Novel and Movie

[TremblingBluStar]

I am nearly finished with this novel, which I heard about only because Spielberg is filming a movie based on it. I thought I would offer my take on it, and discuss reactions with others who have read it. I'll try to avoid spoilers, or code them.

My score for this novel is, unless the last 100 pages really blow me away, C. I've read many of the Amazon reviews and agree with others about the flaws of the novel - the prose is stilted, the plot is an assemblage of several different novels and movies, from Terminator to The Matrix, and the author makes the decision to avoid any and all tension by revealing in the very first chapter how the story ends!

In fact, there are so many elements taken from The Terminator that I don't see how any movie based on this novel won't be seen as a rip off. Just read this plot synopsis:

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

Of course, The Terminator didn't originate the war with machines genre, but that is probably what 99% of the audience is going to think of.

Spoiler: How the novel goes

Eventually the robots start evolving and improving, sending out what the novel calls Hunter Killers (from The Terminator) and domestic robots that are pretty much Terminator exoskeletons. The Humans quickly form a resistance, acquire advanced technology, and enlist the aid of humans modified by the robots.

After reading about how this novel shows the human spirit will always triumph, yadda, yadda, I was really looking forward to this novel! However, what I have read so far shows the robot AI being defeated through it's own stupidity! For example:

Spoiler: Incredibly stupid plot point

Near the 2/3 mark one a young girl is modified and has her eyes surgically replaced with machine ones that can "see" the robots and their communication signals (a la The Matrix). Despite giving this human a potentially disastrous ability, the robots don't guard her and her mother is able to waltz into the robot stronghold and free the little girl where she quickly ends up with the human resistance.

And

Spoiler: More

A hacker in London is able to give humans access to Earth's satellite network by blowing up a communications installation that is, you guess it, effectively unguarded and exposed. This allows two grunts in Afghanistan to pinpoint the location of the head AI so the human resistance can go blow it up.

On a positive note, the novel doesn't pull any punches in showing people get maimed and killed, as they would if a real war broke out in a major city. I would like to see Spielberg retain that realism. I'm not holding my breath.

Anybody looking forward to this movie? Any different takes on the novel?

 

[Brikar99]

Maybe the movie script will differ from the book in order to avoid the failures you've pointed out. I haven't read it, and I don't know much about the movie, but it seems like the sort of thing that could be very cool... though from your description it does sound incredibly derivative. On the other hand, it does also have the potential to turn out how 'Terminator Salvation' should have been.

 

[Gotham Central]

Ehh...I read the book. I liked it better when it was called World War Z and it was about zombies.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

On the other hand, it does also have the potential to turn out how 'Terminator Salvation' should have been.

Well, I do say I have much more faith in Spielberg than in McG!

Ehh...I read the book. I liked it better when it was called World War Z and it was about zombies.

Yeah. I haven't read that book. I have heard they both use very similar storytelling structures.