Hopeless

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2004)

As an Asimov fan, I wasn't expecting much, but boy, I got even less! Will Smith is the movie- by-numbers divorced maverick cop with a past that haunts his every moment. Why do these characters always have to have some stupid, tragic back story? Why couldn't he just be a cop who is GOOD at his job? He comes off as Axel Foley without the laughs. So they crammed in about 5 horrible clichés right away. Next up, the CGI is impressively unconvincing. It's a real shame to see all the post-Matrix rubbish in there when we've already had both AI and Minority Report show how it SHOULD be done - the final battle sequence is so predictable you'll be looking at your watch and checking your text messages before it runs its tedious course. All of the car-based crap is just a huge product placement for Audi, and it really hurts credibility (as do the lingering closeups of Smith's stereo. Frankly, it's ALL annoying:- the robots are pretty but ludicrous, the humans are mostly straight off the set of "Escape from LA", the Sci-Fi makes no sense and the product placements rob its last shred of dignity.
This film is crap. Don't make these imbeciles any richer than they already are.