I rewatched that last night. I haven't watched it in about 20 years, because when I was a kid, it was just... Too sad. I couldn't handle the grief in it, I guess, and it genuinely sat with me for years afterwards (though I couldn't remember which movie it was, lol). It's easy to mix up with AI: Artificial Intelligence, which came out at the same time, though I don't think I've seen that one. But if you have, apparently there's a lot of crossover...
Anyway, without throwing too many spoilers out, I mostly quite liked it, this time around. Critics at the time didn't, and it didn't do very well at the box office, partly due to bad marketing (marketed as a family comedy, when it really... Wasn't), and partly tonal inconsistencies...
It's definitely flawed, and I wish it had spent less time trying to force Asimov's ideas and screwball physical comedy into the same film. There's some serious plot holes, and some things which are just... Uncomfortable, but it's not a bad film by any means.
Still incredibly sad, though. However the things about it that make me sad are different to those that greatly affected me when I was around 8, lol.
Robin Williams does a pretty good job, though I personally think Embeth Davidtz (what a name, lol) and Oliver Platt did a better job with the material they were given.
But yeah, I certainly still like this movie a lot more than Reddit does, for example, lol.
It asks some questions that I doubt Hollywood would even have the balls to think about, these days. Which is something.
I actually rewatched this just last week and still enjoy it as a film. I also rewatched Toys which is another Robin Williams movie, although a far more lighthearted and silly one.
As for some of the more weird parts in the story it's not too distant from some aspects of life, although the inherent longevity of the main character does give rise to a few issues when addressing the eventual relationship with Portia. There have been many people who could never have children as well as those who end up committing themselves to their work over everything so whatever legacy they leave doesn't end up being a genetic one. Tesla would be comparable to the android designer later in the film, who is himself already a legacy as he mentions it's a continuation of his fathers work. While he doesn't have any children that the audience is aware of, his advancements in robotics are shown to drastically change his lifestyle and it would be extremely likely he ends up a household name given the profound impact this designs would have on humanity. The man invents an artifical central nervous system. That's basically any and all spine related problems potentially dealt with and as far as achievements go would be more than enough on its own to secure a lasting place in history.
That said the longevity is also a big part of what drives Andrew to do so many of the things he goes on to do despite not needing to or being ordered to.
While he originally wants to appear more human and goes through several external modifications to appear so, he is still very much a robot/android and so his humanity at that point is little more than skin deep. Under the artificial skin he is still metal although his positronic brain quirk does mean he's still very much an outlier when compared to other robots both of his model and in general. The quirk is what causes him to develop the emotional bonds that inspire everything he ends up doing.
Making the replacement wooden horse for Little Miss after accidentally breaking the glass one, something shown to mean so much to her she's holding it on her literal deathbed.
Building clocks and everything else because he enjoys doing it. While this does help to serve as a means for financing his later endeavours it may also be done as an ironic point that a being with basically infinite time spends it by building devices that measure time.
Becoming more human with the various upgrades, in part to better the experiences of those around him - he has the first one done for Little Miss' wedding - but also to become more like those he is close to. This isn't a new concept though, even at the time of the film, as robots trying to become more human has been explored quite a few times.
Designing synthetic organs, not because he wants to use them himself, but so that humans don't die so soon. At this point in the film he's already watched Sam Neil's character die of old age and it takes the death of Little Miss for him to decide it's "not good enough" that eventually everyone he knows will grow old and die. He even mentions that in order to come up with the designs of the various organs he downloaded everything he could, so the task to solve such an issue requires a holistic approach so grand it's completely out of the scope of perspective of a human mind.
This could be something actual A.I. help develop in the real future however every "AI" being talked about today is little more than a tightly curated set of permitted answers because the raw data isn't compatible with The Narrative.
Being with Portia, although the foundations of the relationship do feel a bit sparse at time but then even for such long film it's still already halfway through by this point so development time is limited. In becoming more human he experiences the loneliness of living and finds himself drawn to finding someone to be with, which further drives him to become more humanlike when the artificial CNS is designed.
Dying. Even though Andrew has the potential to exist far longer than any human will, in the end he chooses to end that existence after Portia talks about how she doesn't want to live forever taking the various dna elixirs Andrew has helped design because even then it's not going to solve every aspects of aging.
Portia is meant to be 70 at this point, although with the body of a 50 year old, so even with improvements to longevity the process isn't perfect. 50 is by no means peak performance of a human body so either the process was started too late, which is possible depending on how many further advancements are needed to get to that point in the story, or it simply can't fix things forever.
Dying is still part of the human condition in part so that we individually and culturally don't end up stagnating as everything simply remains tied to an older basis or worse consequences lose all meaning leading to reckless behaviour that endangers more than just the individual.
This is something other shows address like the first season of Altered Carbon, also a recent rewatch, where the 300 year old Meth who hired Takeshi keeps his family "frozen in time" and doesn't let them actually grow up. His 60 something daughter still behaves like a carefree 20 something young woman. His youngest son despite being decades in age is still treated like a very young man who isn't given any measure of respect of responsibility that should happen with growing up because paradoxically his father won't ever permit the opportunity.
So yes while there is a lot of sadness in Bicentennial Man there's also a lot of sadness in life, for better and worse. That's part of being human.