I, Robot

A movie review for I, Robot.

The year is 2035 and Will Smith is Detective Spooner with a distrust of robots. You see, robots are everywhere doing just about everything and society in general is quite happy about this. Robot cooks, maids, garbage men, just about manual labor job you can think of a robot is able to do. What the humans do to make money now isn't brought up, but you really have to wonder. Or not, it is just a movie after all.

Robots are perfect helpers. The three laws hardwired into their brains make them utterly incapable of harming a human. No robot has ever broken a single law, let alone hurt anyone. Still, Spooner doesn’t trust them. In fact he hates them, with the kind of fervent prejudice usually displayed only by more devout members of the Klan. Since he’s a cop, his hatred leads him into all sorts of bad situations. On his way to work he sees a robot running down the street with a purse and gives chase, automatically assuming the robot is a thief though no robot has ever committed a robbery. He tackles the automaton, only to discover the robot is racing to bring its owner her inhaler, a mistake which lands him in trouble with his cliché police chief (Chi McBride).

The ideas aren’t strictly fresh, some of the plot devices are a little too convenient, and yes, Will Smith is for the most part still doing the same old stuff you’d expect from Will Smith. But none of that really hurts. If there had been someone with the courage to avoid plopping in those extra “Big Willie” quips, Will could easily have made his character something special. As is, he shows enough flashes of intensity and grit to keep things on track while Proyas fills in the gaps with a robust mix of serious and fun. This isn’t the dark, heady Asimov movie we might have hoped for and this certainly isn’t Proyas at his best. But I, Robot is solid and exciting entertainment, well worth a lingering look.