Let's Call it Azimov-Lite.

Rating: 5/10 (20 April 2005)

And here we go again with bad movies chock-full of dazzling special effects, multi-sequenced action scenes, and a story-line that while action packed, delivers little more than the routine. A crusty hero with a dark past and some inner torment in the form of Will Smith, check. A scientist found dead under mysterious circumstances and Smith is called to investigate, uncovering "a whole lotta mystery" underneath, check. A robot with a conspicuous British accent who's the prime suspect, check. A female scientist with an initial glacial demeanor who later on becomes the detective's sidekick, check. This is purportedly an adaptation of Isaac Azimov's stories, but in reality, it's little more than a very loose interpretation of them threaded together to form a script which tosses in elements from Schwarzenegger and Stallone movies for good measure, down to the one-liners and over the top ending. The only element which truly stands out here is Sonny the Robot, voiced by Alan Tudyk, a non-Britisher with an uncanny British accent, who manages to give a heartfelt personality to an otherwise stiff computer generated image -- otherwise, this is one flat soda, faux Sci-Fi.