Good, despite the fact that a lot of people say it's good (SPOILER)

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2004)

Finally, a movie that shows the potential of robotic adversaries with all the power (and weaknesses) they have. Despite the fact that Sponer unrealistically kicks their metal buts in the end and moves way too fast, the robots (or at least Sonny) can use their superior strength and control to be quite lethal in combat. There were too many movies in which robots make mistakes while wielding a gun. With instant tracking system and a reaction time of nearly zero, they would normally hit any time they wield a gun - especially one that is highly reliable like a laser. The robots in "I, Robot" actually give this impression ... which is nice. If these guys had accecces to military technology (weapons and armor) they could easily wipe out an entire city and clear the junk until sundown.
The idea how the computer decided to put mankind in slavery to keep mankind alive was quite brilliant, although I didn't get it until I read it in the discussion thread. If all of mankind *will* die in the possible wars, it is a better ratio for the first rule to enslave them to keep them alive. A good example that abstract rules - like these three or some other ten - just don't cut it in the real world. Although a higher evolved A.I. would probably seen the course of this robot servant development - like in an Star Trek TOS episode, mankind would - in the long run - become even more dependent of the robots and in the end there wouldn't have been a revolution, just a quite transaction (let the robots decide politics too, after all it's work some other people can do...). On the other hand, an A.I. might have concluded that a major war might break out any second and that there is no time to waste.
The visual effect were - of course - stunning and there were way better solutions (e.g. to park cars) than a lot of effects in 'Minority Report'. Here they didn't look silly, they were actually quite clever. Unfortunately, they did use massive product placement. I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that the price of my ticket, the merchandise and the DVD/Video and TV sales cover the price of the movie. Why did they have to advertise certain products? Especially the Audi advertisement was just ... distracting, which is unforgiveable for a movie (I always feel kinda filthy after being targeted from such a 'spot'). Hmmm, perhaps it does shed a bad light on Audi, that they need such films to make people buy their cars (obviously, it's other qualities aren't enough, so we need a Will Smith to promote that brand).
All in all it's one of the better movies this year, inferior to "Spiderman 2" and nearly equal to "Shrek 2" (but on the other side of the serious - funny dimension). 9/10