Over the years, Will Smith has managed to be in several summer movies, all released in July, that have made huge amounts of money. Independence Day, Men in Black, and Men in Black II all had huge July openings. Even Wild Wild West and Bad Boys II were the big movies on their opening weekends. Some of those movies were better than others. I just saw Will Smith's big summer movie for 2004. I did enjoy I, Robot, but it had a few problems.
In 2035, robots are everywhere. People have them in their homes to help with different things. Some robots even do jobs that people use to do. The three laws prevent robots from doing anything that would harm humans. People trust the robots. Del Spooner is a homicide detective on the Chicago police force. He didn’t trust robots, and seemed to be just waiting for one to do something so he can prove that he was right all along.
U.S. Robotics was getting ready to launch their new model, the NS-5. Dr. Alfred Lanning had worked for the company for many years. Del was called to the U.S. Robotics building by a hologram of Dr. Lanning. He had committed suicide. Del thought something seemed a little wrong with that and he was looking around the building and asking some questions. He talked to Lawrence Robertson, the man in charge of the company, and was then shown around by Dr. Susan Calvin. She did work to make the robots seem more human. She explained to Del how the security in the building worked and how it was all tied into a computer known as V.I.K.I. that was inside the building. He and Susan discovered a NS-5 robot hiding in the room where Dr. Lanning killed himself.
Del was sure that the robot was involved in Dr. Lanning’s death some way. Lawrence and Susan told him more than once that the robots could not kill a person because that would conflict with the three laws. Lt. John Bergin didn’t believe Del’s theories either. Del kept investigating, and found that there was something strange going on with the NS-5 robots. He then had to try to convince other people that he wasn’t just prejudiced against robots.
CAST
Will Smith - Del Spooner
Bridget Moynahan - Susan Calvin
Alan Tudyk - Sonny
James Cromwell - Dr. Alfred Lanning
Bruce Greenwood - Lawrence Robertson
Adrian Ricard - Granny
Chi McBride - Lt. John Bergin
Fiona Hogan - Voice of V.I.K.I.
I, Robot was directed by Alex Proyas. The movie was just over two hours long and rated PG-13. This really wasn’t a movie for kids, but it would probably be all right for older kids to see, if they were interested in the movie.
I, Robot was a science fiction movie. There were some interesting futuristic looking things in the movies, like the cars, but other things looked about the same. Alarm clocks still had that same loud, annoying beep. The cars didn’t fly like they have in some other movies set in the future. Things didn’t look too different really, but it did seem like it was the future. Robots were everywhere. Robots have been featured in other movies, and even in The Jetsons. The robots in this movie looked different from how they have looked in other movies. They didn’t look like people like the terminator robots from the Terminator movies. Some other robots that didn’t look like people were shown in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, though they didn’t look like the robots in I, Robot either. I have thought it was be nice to have a robot to clean, cook, or do whatever I didn’t feel like doing at the time. Rosie always seemed so nice on The Jetsons. I have seen many movies where robots weren’t as nice though, and I definitely wouldn’t want one of those around. A few movies, like the Terminator series, have shown what could happen if the robots became too advanced and tried to take over. I, Robot wasn’t just like those movies, but there were a few things that happened that were like those other movies. That was what I found to be unoriginal in the movie.
There was a lot of action in I, Robot. Soon after the movie started, Del was in a foot chase. There were a few scenes that showed some high speed driving, as well as a chase that ended with a crash and some explosions. There were some fights and shooting as well. There was a lot going on to keep the movie interesting. The action scenes were good, and there were special effects that were also well done. The movie did have enough of a plot so it didn’t rely just on the action and special effects. I don’t think some things in the movie would have worked without effects being used. The characters weren’t that developed, but that wasn’t surprising to me. There was some violence throughout the movie, but it wasn’t extreme. I didn’t think there was anything too offensive about the violence, but some people might feel differently. In some action movies, the camera has been very jerky, cutting to different angles all the time. That makes it very difficult to tell what is happening at times. That didn’t really happen in this movie thankfully. In a few action scenes, the camera did do something a little strange. The camera seemed to spin around 360 degrees, showing the action upside down briefly. That was a little strange, and in one important scene near the end, it kept doing that, and spinning around in other directions so much that I was feeling a bit dizzy. In a few scenes, especially featuring some of the robots, the extreme slow motion was used like was made famous in The Matrix. It seems like every action movie has to have some shots like that now.
At times, it seemed like the movie was moving toward showing a relationship develop between Del and Susan, but nothing ever came from that. That was fine since the two didn’t have any chemistry anyway. Will Smith was shown without his shirt a few different times. He was in really good shape, though I wonder how Del stayed so fit with his habit of eating whole sweet potato pies. Will Smith was shown naked in one scene near the beginning of the movie. Del was taking a shower, and he had no shower curtain and the bathroom door was standing wide open. He was shown sort of at an angle so only his side and back were visible. He also had his gun hanging right by the shower like he thought someone was going to try to ambush him. I’m not sure why that was in the movie other than to show off his body. I saw a little bit of an interview with Will Smith discussing that scene and he said that his character was paranoid about a robot attack. Del’s distrust of robots was important to the movie. Maybe he was worried a robot would attack him while he was in the shower, which didn’t make a lot of sense since he didn’t have a robot like so many other people did. It seemed unlikely to me that a robot would just randomly enter his apartment and attack him while he was in the shower.
The acting in I, Robot was fine, but it wasn’t great either. Will Smith played Del a lot like some of his other characters. He probably didn’t help matters that he was playing a cop again. He didn’t have a partner this time though, so he didn’t have anyone to play off of like he has had in other movies. It seems like he has played a lot of characters that are a bit cocky and loud. Several of them also bend the rules. I’m not sure if the characters were written that way or if Smith just does the same character over and over. He has done some characters that were a bit different, like his role in Enemy of the State, and been good in those parts. He is entertaining, but he does seem to be in a bit of a rut.
Bridgette Moynahan seemed to be a little stiff at first, but that was probably how her character was written at that point. She loosened up later in the movie. She was fine her in part. Chi McBride had a small part as Lt. John Bergin. He was recently in The Terminal. James Cromwell had very little to do in this movie. He was really only shown as a holographic image. Alan Tudyk, who was Steve the pirate in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, provided the voice for one of the robots. He also did a voice in the movie Ice Age. I’ve seen Bruce Greenwood in a few different movies before. He played Lawrence very well.
CHARACTERS
Del Spooner - He was a homicide detective with a deep distrust of robots. He was a good cop, but he got himself in trouble at times because of how he kept trying to prove that robots couldn’t be trusted. He was determined.
Dr. Susan Calvin - She worked at U.S. Robotics. She did things to make the robots more human. She was very focused on her work and very logical. She lightened up a bit later in the movie.
Dr. Alfred Lanning - He was a scientist that had worked in robotics for years. He wrote the three laws.
Lawrence Robertson - He was the president of U.S. Robotics and very rich. He was convinced that there was nothing wrong with the new line of robots.
Lt. John Bergin - He was Del’s superior. John didn’t believe Del’s theories, though he did give Del a little bit of leeway at times.
I, Robot was an entertaining movie, though it wasn’t that original. It was a decent action movie. Fans of Will Smith may like the movie as well. Anyone who has started to get a little tired of Will Smith should look for a different movie.
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