I love this director.

Anyway, I just wrote an article about this guy, just for practice.

I, Candy
By Joey Fernandez

Alex Proyas.

One of the greatest directors who has ever lived, in my humble opinion, is back after an extremely long hiatus. People remember him, (or don’t remember him), from his hit movie The Crow starring Brandon Lee. After that, he let it all hang, by directing Dark City starring Jennifer Connely and that guy who always plays bad guys and has the eyes of Ray Liotta.

That movie tanked. Cult critics loved it, but he was good as dead in directing another big budget Hollywood movie again. So he scurried back to Australia to lick his wounds, directed an indie movie called Garage Days, and like all other great directors of the moment (Danny Boyle, cough, Danny Boyle), came back.

And now he’s been given another great summer Hollywood blockbuster with a 105,000,000 $ budget in fact.

And so how is it? It’s bad. The story is a bit long-winded, and Will Smith is almost annoying. But that is not what I come here to write about.

I come here to write about the movie, is it worth watching?

Yes, it is. Like all great art, a movie is supposed to bring something new. Something you have NEVER seen before, and I, Robot does just that. 2035 Chicago, a time when most of us will be old men. Proyas brings a new world, kind of like the way Zemeckis brought a new one in Back to Future 2. A little of Blade Runner, a little of Minority Report, heck even a little of Empire Strikes Back, Proyas inserts scenery and another worldy feeling that I have not seen since, Total Recall.

And this director has the guts to put it in broad daylight.

So say what you have to say about the movie, but Proyas is back. And finally, I think he is here to stay.

I liked both "The Crow" and "Dark City", mostly because of the direction. I can understand how others might think that they are over the top, but not me, at least not yet.

My wife wants to see "I, Robot", so I might comment on it soon, but I'd bet it'll probably be the end of the year when it comes out on DVD.

I gave I ROBOT a wide berth, but remember how Roger Ebert was raving about DARK CITY. But, now that I think about it, Ebert raves about everything he sees. He's become an Earl Dittman manque. In any event, I thought DARK CITY was ok. I remember the crow and remember it was stylish, but I also thought it was a bit of a dud. My records show he directed a film called CITY UNPLUGGED, which I caught on original release 10 years ago or so. I remember this one being pretty good, though I can't remember much about it.

There's too little that Mr. Proyas has done as a director to comment on him as a director overall. I wasn't too impressed with I, Robot (2004) though the photography was excellent, the storyline line, the script just didn't do the original novella by Isaac Asimov real justice, the Twilight Zone episodes were better. However, I'm willing to give Mr. Proyas the benefit of the doubt because his earlier work Dark City (1997) which he also wrote was what I consider superior science fiction of the substantive, hardcore type. Unfortunately, I didn't really get into his The Crow (1993) more because of the genre and I wasn't interested in the material so I feel I'm in any position to comment here. I'm willing to see what Mr. Proyas is able to do in the future, particularly with a good script and material that he feels good with.