Nobody is going to mistake this future noir for Spielberg's Minority Report, but for a light-headed adrenaline rush, it works pretty well.
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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today--but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concept around which it revolves, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all." --Isaac Asimov
American author and biochemist Isaac Asimov did not invent robots or stories about robots, but he did help to popularize them and to codify their fictional behavior. His 1950 collection of short stories, "I, Robot," has been the template for robotic conduct for over half a century and has influenced practically every novel, short story, and movie about robots ever since.
Asimov invented what he called the now-famous "Three Laws of Robotics":
"One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."
So, what does any of this have to do with the 2004 summer blockbuster, "I, Robot," starring summer blockbuster favorite Will Smith? Well, there's Asimov's title. And the three laws. And there are robots. And robots. And more robots.
However, despite the increased silliness of the plot as the story goes along, in its first half the movie develops as a nifty mystery thriller, and in its second half the special effects replace logic and common sense to produce a fairly entertaining piece of weightless fluff. Nobody is going to mistake this future noir for Spielberg's "Minority Report," but for a light-headed adrenaline rush, it works pretty well.
The setting for the story is Chicago in the year 2035. It's near enough in the future that the filmmakers don't have to go too wild with their imaginations inventing things. On the other hand, a lot of the visible landscape and props appear remarkably like our own. Matte paintings and CGI magic transform today's Chicago into a city several decades in the future, but a few inconsistencies remain. Alarm clocks, television sets, and electric fans look pretty much as they do now, something I would seriously doubt. The main character wears vintage 2004 Converse All-Star tennis shoes, which he prizes, although there is no indication how or why he got them brand-new. Electronic equipment abounds in everybody's office, but hard metal and plastic furniture seems too uncomfortable to sit in. And the silver Audi automobile of the future the main character drives is suspiciously like my own silver 350Z. Oh, well, I quibble. Their cars float on air. Say, now that I think of it, doesn't mine?
Will Smith plays homicide detective Del Spooner, a typical movie cop who mopes around his apartment like Steve McQueen in "Bullitt," has an attitude like Richard Roundtree in "Shaft," and dresses like Denzel Washington in "Training Day." His commanding officer barks at him constantly, and, of course, he eventually has his badge taken away from him for disobeying orders. As though these clichés weren't enough, Smith's performance is more laid back than usual and his witticisms are less frequent than they were in, say, "ID4" or "Men in Black." He seems caught between trying to play his character straight or for mild laughs. Since the movie is mostly straight drama, he goes for the former, but the script is so far out he has little room for much seriousness. So he straddles a tightrope and only occasionally falls off into melodrama or unintentional humor.
The world of 2035 is served by robots, manufactured by the U.S. Robotics Corporation, whose head is Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), the richest man in the world. Shades of Bill Gates. The robots are programmed to follow the three laws cited above, so they cannot, under any circumstance, hurt a human. And everything is controlled by a central computer called V.I.K.I., for Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence, which cannot allow any mischief among the robots anywhere. Yet, when the father of robotics, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), is found dead from a high fall in the central foyer of the USR headquarters building, Spooner is not so certain it's the suicide it appears to be. Spooner is suspicious of robots in general, having a long-standing prejudice against them verging on paranoia. He believes that robots may have had something to do with Lanning's death.
No one else is buying it, though. Not Robertson, not Spooner's superior, Lt. Bergin (Chi McBride), and not the beautiful psychiatrist for USR, Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), whose job it is to program the robots to make them seem more human. Why are all female doctors and scientists in the movies beautiful? And why does Bridget Moynahan remind me of Sandra Bullock?
Here's the thing: The U.S. Robotics Corp. is trying to replace all their outmoded NS-4 model robots with new NS-5 models, the newer creations being smarter and more human appearing. The company believes that before the end of the year, there will be one new NS-5 "for every five humans." Every five humans in Chicago? In the United States? In the world? I dunno.
In any case, Spooner starts to investigate, and before long he's engaged in a full-fledged mystery adventure. This part of the story develops with some good suspense, as Spooner finds the clues adding up to something more than suicide. He even finds that an NS-5 robot (Alan Tudyk) who calls himself "Sonny" may be involved in the case, a robot with surprisingly humanlike emotions. (Among other things, the robot claims to dream.) Unfortunately, there is in the first half of the movie more than a little of the old "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" element, too, in that the more Spooner uncovers about the involvement of robots in a gigantic conspiracy, the more nobody will believe him. It's cute and clever at first, but it begins to grate after a while. And the idea of Lanning having fallen from the window of a locked room seems a plot device that's a bit threadbare.
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[release]13092[/release]