Salt Lake Tribune Review
Summer blockbuster hopeful "I, Robot" is caught in a trap.
The film digs deep into the annals of science fiction for its plot - but by now the concept has been splintered, pillaged and bastardized by so many filmmakers over the years that "I, Robot" feels almost trite in 2004.
Viewers have seen some variation of artificial intelligence gone awry in everything from the "Terminator" series to "Star Trek," and from "A.I." to "The Matrix." But the shame of it is that science-fiction pioneer
Isaac Asimov first published the I, Robot collection in 1950. The movie's credit line to Asimov's works even read "suggested by" - presumably giving more artistic license than the typical "based on" tag line.
Directed by
Alex Proyas (Dark City), this I, Robot stars Mr. Summer Movie,
Will Smith, as robot-leery Detective Del Spooner. Spooner follows a trail of clues left by friend and robotics scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning (
James Cromwell). Lanning apparently committed suicide just before United States Robotics (USR) was set to roll out a huge wave of modern robots for the public.
Against orders, Spooner - with the help of another USR scientist, Dr. Susan Calvin (
Bridget Moynahan) - sets off to prove this new batch of rogue robots is breaking "The Three Laws of Robotics," which essentially hard-wire robots from harming humans.
The film still has its requisite share of action scenes, while avoiding the trap of making up for a lack of story line with nonstop gunplay, explosions and car wrecks.
The computer-generated effects have a realistic feel, especially when it comes to the robot stars like Sonny (
Alan Tudyk, from A Knight's Tale, was the animation model and voice). The robots, thankfully, were created without the video-game look of many CG effects.
The human characters, though, lack much depth aside from the bitter Spooner and the cerebral Calvin - though Smith still plays his typical tough-guy/funny-guy routine and Calvin quietly plods through her role as skeptic scientist turned believer.
The film's salvation and detriment are one in the same: the story. "I, Robot" is a decent science-fiction/action film. It's too bad Asimov's story was never filmed before all its best qualities were plundered.
The rundown: A detective (
Will Smith) uncovers a plot for a robot revolution in the year 2035. The film, loosely based on
Isaac Asimov's books, has lots of exciting action -- but its science-fiction ideas have been picked over before.
Synopsis: The year is 2035. Detective Del Spooner is investigating the death of brilliant, eccentric scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning. Spooner is aided by psychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, and the death is initially labeled a suicide. Spooner, though, suspects that a robot may have perpetrated the crime. That seems unthinkable since robots are governed by The Three Laws of Robotics, which state that a robot may never harm or allow harm to come to a human being. As Spooner and Calvin investigate the death, they come to believe that a robot did, in fact, commit the crime. They are aided in their investigation by Dr. Lanning himself, who appears as a hologram, and reveals that he was working on a top secret project at the time of his death.
