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W.I.S.O.R.-Welding & Inspection Steam Operations Robot
WISOR-Welding Inspection Steam Operations Robot
Actors: George Bartenieff, Babi Floyd, Gilbert Giles, Steve Gorevan, Tom Myrick
Director: Michel Negroponte
Genres: Documentary
UR     2001     1hr 15min

In a lab on the Lower East Side, a team of scientists and engineers are designing a robot named W.I.S.O.R.; a futuristic, subterranean robo welder, able to withstand temperatures of 300 degrees and navigate through the sna...  more »

     
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Movie Details

Actors: George Bartenieff, Babi Floyd, Gilbert Giles, Steve Gorevan, Tom Myrick
Director: Michel Negroponte
Creators: Michel Negroponte, Tom Cross, Jane Weiner, Gabriel Morgan, George Morgan
Genres: Documentary
Sub-Genres: Biography, Science & Technology
Studio: Docurama
Format: DVD - Color,Full Screen
DVD Release Date: 09/25/2001
Theatrical Release Date: 01/01/2001
Release Year: 2001
Run Time: 1hr 15min
Screens: Color,Full Screen
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 0
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Languages: English

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Movie Reviews

Watching this was like being mugged
J. Marsano | Urban Gristle Mill | 02/02/2008
(1 out of 5 stars)

"In documentary filmmaking, there's choosing a subject and telling the story of that subject, and then there's choosing a subject and telling the story you wish the subject had been telling. It's a common mistake for a politician to answer the question that she wished she'd been asked; in a filmmaker, it's just not forgivable.

Negroponte hijacks an otherwise charming premise (who doesn't like the idea of a little robots inch-worming the conduits of our city, cleaning, spraying, and welding?) and turns it into a soapbox for philosophical claptrap disguised as technological and social commentary.

This really quite terrible documentary digs itself a deep hole from the get go. Visually overproduced with jump cuts and low-fi black and white, it also brims with bizarre and unnecessary sound and voice effects. Worse yet, Negroponte plays a pretentious note by deciding to project his own fantastical dreams of semi-autonomous and "intelligent agent" robots by speaking in the voice of the technology itself! Throughout the film WISOR "comes to life" through an entirely fictive voice over that sounds like a vo-coder trapped in a rattling dustbin.

What's most embarrassing about this film is to see that Negroponte clearly never got out of his sophomore year in university. Watch this film and you'll see how far a little talent can take you."