collection of the same title by the late Isaac Asimov. Unfortunately, about the only thing it shares with Asimov's book is the title and the fact that it's about robots. All similarity ends there. Proyas's film is about a Chicago cop named Del Spooner (Will Smith) who has a thing against robots. As the time period is 2035, and robots are quite literally everywhere, doing the laundry, walking the dog, emptying the garbage, this is something of a problem for Spooner. That Proyas chose a black man to portray a man who is prejudiced against a bunch of thinking machines is a statement about bigotry that you don't really need me to point out -it's so big, you'll trip over it on your way to get more popcorn!
As the story opens, Spooner is called to the scene of an apparent suicide. The man responsible for inventing robots for U.S. Robotics, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), has just thrown himself out of a thirtieth-floor window. The case seems cut and dry, but Spooner has his doubts. While investigating the Lanning's office with his assistant, Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), Spooner finds Sonny (voiced by Alan Tudyk), one of U. S. Robotics' newest model of robots. Sonny
flees Spooner, but is soon recaptured, and Spooner accuses him of murdering Lanning. This is, of course impossible, since all robots must follow the three laws of robotics, which prevent a robot from harming a human in anyway or from allowing a human to be harmed. In other words, robots must sacrifice themselves, if necessary, to prevent a human from being harmed in any way - or from harming themselves. And this is where the new model of robots turn ominous. As soon as they are delivered, the new robots begin to taking over society, because they have been programmed to prevent humans from harming themselves. So the robots decide that they need to take care of us, like a parent taking care of a little child, preventing them from doing anything that might cause them injury. You can probably see how this could present problems for humanity. Spooner, with the help of Sonny and Dr. Calvin, must not only figure out who really killed Dr. Lanning but also how to stop the new robots from taking over the world.
And as I said before, I, Robot is really not a bad movie. In fact, it's really quite entertaining. It's fast paced, there's a lot of action, and the CGI sequences look pretty good. Smith - who is fast
becoming the go-to guy for scifi films, a position once held by Charlton Heston - does a very good job with his character, as he always does. The robots look good and are pretty believable. If I had a rating system, I'd give the movie four out of five stars. It's just NOT Asimov's story, and I really think that Proyas should have given it a different title. If you want to know what Asimov's story could have - maybe should have - been like, then I suggest you pick up a copy of I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay. There you will get a glimpse of what the greatest science fiction movie never made might have looked like. But if you don't care about any of that, and you just want to see a good, fast-paced action film, then by all means rent Alex Proyas' I, Robot. You won't be disappointed.
I, Robot is rated PG-13.
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