Decent sci-fi thriller

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2009)

Having read the Azimov collection of short stories of the same name many years ago I was interested to see this. At first I was a bit disappointed that it had little to do with the book however it is a little unfair to try to compare a film to a set of short stories. Ignoring the source of the title this is a decent sci-fi thriller with plenty of action and decent special effects.
Del Spooner is a detective who does not trust robots even though everybody else believes them to be one hundred percent safe and trustworthy. When an old friend apparently commits suicide and leaves a holographic note for him he suspects foul play and the only being in the room at the time it happened was a robot. The robot doesn't help its case when it flees the scene in apparent breech of its core programming. Spooner is helped in his investigation by Susan Calvin who doesn't share his suspicions about robots in general but realises that there is something different about this particular robot. As the investigation continues it becomes clear that there is a greater threat than one rogue robot.
The acting is pretty good and the special effects are decent although obviously CGI. There was some rather obvious product placement which I could have done without although not enough to spoil the film. I was surprised that the film received a 15 certificate here in the UK as there is a minimal amount of swearing and the violence is never bloody or overly scary. If you like sci-fi action I'm sure you'll enjoy this, just don't expect it to be like the book.