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I, Robot
USA 2004
produced by Michael Lee Baron, John Davis, Topher Dow, Wyck Godfrey, Laurence Mark, James Lassiter (executive), Anthony Romano (executive), Michel Shane (executive), Will Smith (executive) for Davis Entertainment, Laurence Mark Productions, Overbrook Entertainment, Canlaws Productions, Mediastream/20th Century Fox
directed by Alex Proyas
starring Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell, Bruce Greenwood, Adrian Ricard, Chi McBride, Jerry Wasserman, Fiona Hogan, Peter Shinkoda, Terry Chen, David Haysom, Scott Heindl, Sharon Wilkins, Craig March, Kyanna Cox, Darren Moore, Aaron Douglas, Shayla Dyson, Bobby Stewart, Nicola Crosbie, Emily Tennant, Shia LaBeouf, Michael St. John Smith, Travis Webster, Roger Haskett, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, Angela Moore, Ryan Zwick, Essra Vischon, Kenyan Lewis, Aaron Joseph, Simon Baker, Marrett Green
story by Jeff Vintar, screenplay by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman, loosely based on the novel by Isaac Asimov, music by Marco Beltrami, special effects by Grand Unified Theories, visual effects by Digital Domain, Weta Digital, Rainmaker Digital Pictures, Pixel Magic, Forum Visual Effects, Film Roman Productions, Sonny robot by Patrick Tatopoulos, miniatures by Dave Asling
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In the near future, when pretty much everybody has a service bot,
homicide detective Spooner (Will Smith), a robo-phobe (for a really
pathetic reason, by the way) - who has no service bot of course - is
called to the "apparent suicide" of his sort-of mentor Dr.
Lanning (James Cromwell), top robot developer at US Robotics. Now
everybody, especially US Rotobics head Lawrence Robertson (Bruce
Greenwood), wants to see this swept under the rug as quickly as possible,
but Spooner suspects the suicide to be no suicide at all, and ultimately
finds a robot, Sonny (Alan Tudyk) in Lanning's lab that shows violent
tendencies and apparently doesn't follow the three laws of robotics. After
an extensive chase, Sonny can be apprehended, but soon enough US Robotics
have him released and give Spooner a gag order, since they can't afford
any bad publicity considering they're about to roll out their new series
of robots. But the whole incident has one person thinking, Susan Calvin
(Bridget Moynahan), top developer at US Robotics, who soon becomes
Spooner's ally in the inside. And Spooner, while investigating, realises
he's following a crumb trail laid out by Dr. Lanning, a crumb trail
Lanning's not quite suicide might only be part of it - and it all leads to
... the robot revolution, with Sonny not the enemy but humankinds only
ally in the robot world. But with robots being everywhere, what chance
does humankind stand - or rather Spooner and Susan, as they seem to be the
only two fighting ... I freely admit, to my regret I've yet to
read Isaac Asimov's ground-breaking I, Robot - with which it's said
though this movie has little in common apart from the laws of robotics and
a few character names and Easter eggs. What we got here then rather than
an adaptation of a classic of sci fi literature is a rather generic
blockbuster that goes out of its way to be as formulaic as possible, up to
the point where it features a particularly far-fetched scene of
"saving the cat", where spectacle is favoured over content (one
has to admit though, well-executed spectacle that holds its own even 15
years later), and that's littered with some really embarrassing product
placement. Now the acting's rather decent in the film, even if Will Smith
at times seems to be torn between doing it seriously or going for the
joke, but the script just lacks any good characters, and especially
Spooner's reason for hating robots - he has been saved by one from
drowning that should have (in his mind) rather saved a drowning girl - is
really ... elusive, to put is mildly. All this is really a shame, as the
film looks good, features some fine setpieces, is decently paced - just
let down by a story that feels more like lowest common denominator than
Isaac Asimov.
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