I may not be as impressed now as I was in the theatre, but still, not a bad sci-fi action thriller

Rating: 7/10 (25 March 2009)

I went to see this movie, inspired by the book of the same name by renowned prolific author Isaac Asimov, while it was in theatres in the summer of 2004, and thought it was a good blockbuster. At that point, I had never read the book. Now that I have, I realize that this film doesn't really have that much in common with it. The book is a collection of nine short stories, set in different times, whereas this 2004 blockbuster is one long story, all set in one time. So, this isn't really an adaptation of Asimov's book, but being faithful to the source material isn't everything. After watching this film a second time, I don't think I was as impressed as I was when I saw it on the big screen, but merely judging it as a film, I still think it's pretty good.
The year is 2035 A.D., and robots are a major part of society. They are programmed to do many different tasks to serve humans. However, one person who doesn't trust these machines is Chicago Homicide Detective Del Spooner. One day, this detective is informed of the recent death of robot scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning, who fell a great distance at the headquarters of his company, United States Robotics (USR). His death is generally assumed to be a suicide, but Spooner suspects that a robot murdered him, even though the first of the Three Laws of Robotics forbids a robot to harm a human. As he investigates, he is assisted by robot psychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, despite their contradicting views on robots, and the main suspect in the detective's murder theory is Sonny, a Nestor Class-5 robot!
Like so many other action blockbusters, this one may not have the greatest script. During my second viewing, I found some fairly weak dialogue (I think I pay more attention to that now than I did in 2004), though I didn't find that any of it stood out as absolutely ludicrous, fortunately. Some of the acting is pretty wooden as well, at least Bridget Moynahan's acting early in the film (she plays Dr. Susan Calvin), but fortunately, her performance eventually gets better. Despite this film's downsides, there are enough upsides to make it an above average effort. Obviously, many would watch this movie for action and suspense, and it definitely has those. It's also a good story about conflict between humans and machines, eventually getting somewhat emotional. So, while much of the film is about the action, not ALL of it is, unlike some films of this type.
Like Asimov's book, this film has his Three Laws of Robotics, and the characters Susan Calvin, Alfred Lanning, and Lawrence Robertson. I also noticed an element of "Little Lost Robot" included. Basically, those are the only things I noticed in this 2004 blockbuster which it has in common with Asimov's collection of short stories originally published one by one in sci-fi magazines. Things happen in this movie with the robots which never happen in the book (most notably with the robots and the first law), so, for better or worse, this 2004 summer blockbuster doesn't completely follow Asimov's view of robotics. Still, while 2004's "I, Robot" may not be as enjoyable on the small screen as it was on the big screen, I would say it's still a reasonable sci-fi action thriller, if you're into this sort of thing.