Mechanical film about mechanical people, for mechanical people

Rating: 3/10 (29 May 2007)

A film with a lot of interesting ideas almost completely buried in over-the-top action sequences, mind-numbingly boring dialogue and surprisingly shoddy-looking special effects, this EXTREMELY loose "suggestion" of the stories of Isaac Asimov would have the master rolling in his grave, if he were trite and clichéd enough to engage in it. Mostly a mishmash of BLADE RUNNER, AI and every antihero cop movie ever made, the film follows Detective Del Spooner on a quest to find the killer of Dr. Alfred Lanning, the genius behind the workforce-dominating humanoid robots that fill up nearly every scene in this clunky CGI/live amalgamation. The film supposedly takes place in Chicago, but there is not one slight reminder of that city until a shot of the river near the very end that's vaguely recognizable. Spooner hates robots and suspects them for some reason from the beginning, but we never get to know him well enough to care; the film spends much more time erotically fascinated by Will Smith's big pecs than it does in creating a cohesive person for him to play.
Of course, robots aren't people; robots can't kill, or so we are told. There are many quick, fleeting references to interesting themes throughout the film such as: * what does it mean to be human * is hating a harmless machine similar to being racist (both Spooner and his long-suffering boss are black, in a world that seems to have nearly, but not quite, forgotten that fact) * at one point does a human with replacement parts start to become more machine than man * does it emasculate, or ameliorate humanity to have its menial tasks performed by something man-created? * can you actually program a machine to think for itself
etc etc...but they are all subordinated to endless chases and explosions and gun battles. There are no characters of consequence here, and even the seeming possibility of a love story between Spooner and scientist Susan Calvin (based on one of Asimov's most famous characters but unrecognizable apart from the name) goes nowhere. There just isn't time with all the action they have to put in! Not to mention dozens of product placements, and, did I forget to mention, Will Smith's perfect-as-a-robot sculpted body. In fact, given the way the principle actors seem to sleepwalk through this film, the most interesting idea I was left with was a question as to who and what was most robotic in the film; was there, in fact, any human touch to the movie at all?