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7.5

Author: Michel Negroponte Excerpt: In a lab somewhere 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 that, being able to withstand temperatures of 300 degrees and anvigate through the snaking, hundred-mile long world of buried steam pipes beneath Manhattan, will repair the rapidly decaying century-old system.

While there is a huge amount of media cover about robots it normally takes the form of rather primitive, radio-controlled robots beating each other to death, acclaimed filmmaker Michel Negroponte decided to make a film about the trials and tribulations of making a real robot. WISOR is a large, heavy-duty robot designed to fix faults in the large, century-old steam network underneath the Manhattan.

The film goes into some interesting history about both the robot's design period and the steam network itself. Old footage and some interesting narration combines to provide a thought-provoking initial section to the film. There are two very notable things that strike the viewer from the outset. The first is the incredibly interesting team politics within Honeybee Robotics. The politics become increasingly intriguing as the documentary progresses and the team discusses God, Americanisms, baseball, and other varied topics. The other noticeable thing is the rather annoying voice that WISOR acquires. The film gives WISOR a certain personality that initially has the robot saying sporadic words (such as "weld", "steel") but soon progresses to entire narrative sections - it even tells jokes! While I don't mind the film giving WISOR a voice, they chose a rigid, Dalek-esque one that seems rather ridiculous and quickly becomes tedious.

The robot itself is an incredible piece of machinery, capable of withstanding 300 degree fahrenheit steam at very high pressure moving at about 100mph. While withstanding all of this, the semi-autonomous machine can mill and weld pipes, as well as relay video information back to its human operator via a huge umbilical cord.

This is definitely not a documentary in the normal "Discovery Channel" sort of way. It is beautifully filmed (mostly in black and white) with some very interesting audio and visual work which really brings out the brute strength and steel of WISOR. The DVD also comes with some additional features, including an interview with Marvin Minsky. A brilliant interview, it shows Minsky's views on a lot of things in life, from AI to politicians. It would have been interesting to hear Minsky's take on WISOR though. Nevertheless, the Minsky interview is another high point of the DVD.

Despite the awkward voice used for WISOR, "W.I.S.O.R" is an incredible piece of film-making. Both beautiful and informative, Negroponte has captured both the power of WISOR's components and the delicate procedure of milling and welding they must achieve. The DVD has the definite added bonus of the Marvin Minsky interview and robot pictures. Too savvy to be a documentary and too informative to be a film, "W.I.S.O.R: The Robo-Welder" is a brilliant depiction of a stunning robot.