Nice film, shame about the star

Rating: 5/10 (24 October 2005)

I could only give this movie 5/10. I desperately wanted to like it. It's directed by Alex Proyas and based on stories by Isaac Asimov. In fact, it remained reasonably true to Asimov's stories, given that some distortion is inevitable for the transition to film. But the problem I had was Will Smith. Despite some attempts to add depth and emotion, he plays the same character he has played ever since he started out. A wise-crackin', butt-kickin', idealised version of himself. It's irritating, because if he could just turn it down a little and start acting for the script rather than having scripts written for him, he could have made this excellent.
Oh, and the product placement is deeply annoying. The worst example has to be Smith's Converse shoes (which, we are reminded, are "vintage 2004"- you can get them right now, kids!), which the camera never misses an opportunity to dwell upon. All right, Smith's character is a Luddite, but I don't see why that means everything in his home has to be conveniently available in 2004.
Wait, yes I do, because that's good publicity.