intelligent sci-fi film

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2005)

Based on the classic novel by Isaac Asimov, "I, Robot" is a tasty sci-fi elixir with a nifty whodunit twist.
Will Smith plays Del Spooner, a Chicago homicide detective who has always harbored deep suspicions about the servile robots who are fast becoming common household items in the year 2035. One day, Spooner is called in to investigate the suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning, the inventor largely responsible for the technology that has gone into the making of these robots. Almost immediately, Spooner begins to suspect that Lanning's death may not have been a suicide at all but rather a homicide perpetrated by the robots who, though programmed to do no harm to humans, may be evolving to the point where they are becoming sentient beings fully capable of overriding their programming and acting at will. As this brand new model of robot hits the streets, Spooner becomes something of a modern day Cassandra (or Chicken Little, if you prefer), attempting to convince his skeptical superiors that this seemingly benign army of anthropomorphic mechanisms may actually be a threat to human civilization as we know it.
Like virtually all quality science fiction, "I, Robot" aims its sights at mankind's propensity for sowing the seeds of its own destruction, in this case by inventing technology that eventually outruns the ability of its creators to control it. And when it comes to artificial intelligence, in particular, how long, the film asks, will it be before the intelligence becomes real and the creator becomes subservient to that which he has created? "I, Robot" is a sleek, thought-provoking action film, filled with suspense, drama and mind-boggling plot twists. On a purely visual level, however, the film is a bit more problematic. Although the backdrops that work to create the image of a futuristic Chicago are eye-popping and dazzling, some of the computer-generated images, particularly in the action sequences, look a trifle too much like video games to be entirely convincing. Still, although the movement of the robots isn't as realistic as, perhaps, we would like it to be, the facial expressions are fantastically effective, creating a sense of personality and life behind a façade of cold, synthetic technology.
I haven't read the story on which the film is based, so I have no way of knowing how faithful to Asimov's original vision the filmmakers have been. Be that as it may, for the non-initiates, "I, Robot" is a solid film that at least does justice to the genre as a whole.