Tired old 80's plot line with shinny new FX

Rating: 5/10 (5 October 2004)

So, man's best friend, the Robot, starts to attack mankind. Hardly the most original plot line in the world, Animatrix and Terminator to name just a recent couple, have very similar themes.
The 2 big problems with this film are: one, Will Smith and two, the Plot. Will Smith, plays Will Smith, the same character that appeared in Bad Boys, MiB and Independence Day. I cringed every time I had to hear yet another throwaway cliché remark. Isn't this man meant to be a professional detective, yet he swans around like some cocky adolescent.
The plot: First big mistake, the future, the year 2035, we suddenly have redesigned the entire city of San Francisco, in just 30 years. You would not rebuild an entire city and it's transport system such a short space of time. The second was the awful tired old cliché of the cop with a nightmare. It's not that he had this issue, it's that you knew it was in the story just so this moral dilemma would pop-up later in the film and he could then right the wrong that had troubled him so much.
The other awful parts were, the motorbike jump and shoot nonsense and the end fight scene. These robots are much stronger and agile than a human, yet about 50 of them can't stop 2 people from destroying their queen bee.
It's not all negatives, the robot special FX are truly excellent and there is some semblance of a good sci-fi conundrum somewhere beneath the surface. Overall it's a tired old film that might have original about 25 years ago, but the days of cocky cops fighting insurmountable odds are long gone, Arnie and Stallone are testament to that.