Sci-fi intellectuality vs. the Hollywood action movie machine

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2009)

It's a good thing robots haven't taken over the world, but it's a shame Hollywood is run by them. When a director with a gift for science-fiction like Alex Proyas ("Dark City") is asked to helm a big-name big-budget action flick starring an A-lister in Will Smith, a battle has already begun: the human artist or the Hollywood machine? "I, Robot" is a slick and exciting futuristic action movie, but it gives the highly evident man vs. machine themes too light of a treatment considering the age of special effects in cinema has delivered movies with similar insights before.
Smith gets a little closer to freeing himself from the Hollywood bondage that has stuck him with mediocre sequels to the "Men in Black" and "Bad Boys" films. The only alarming factor is that this marks the first time Smith has invested in himself as executive producer and leading man. Considering the way the script pimps Smith out to his fans with dumb, smart- ass one-liners, one hopes Smith backed the film on its thematic potential and the chance for him to play a character with a slightly more sophisticated background.
Smith stars as Det. Del Spooner, a homicide cop in Chicago in the year 2035, where robots are as commonplace as the cell phones of today, robots programmed to obey three laws that essentially state saving human life is paramount to all other instructions. When the father of this technology (James Cromwell) dies by apparent suicide, Spooner -- who for personal reasons doesn't trust robots -- investigates what looks to be more than meets the eye (pardon me, Transformers).
Inspired by the book by famed science-fiction author Isaac Asimov and written by Jeff Vintar ("Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within") and "American Beauty" Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman, "I, Robot" wastes no time questioning if intelligent artificial life forms guided by logic and reason can replace the need for human emotions to guide free will. It's a bit blunt at times, but something to chew on that's more than popcorn at a summer blockbuster is certainly welcome.
Proyas brings the future to life by means comparable to Steven Spielberg's vision in "Minority Report," a futuristic murder story two years this film's senior. Other than some really annoying product placement (a FedEx delivery robot, Audi and Smith wears Converse All- Stars) bogging it down, this is a vision of the future that not only appeals to the eye, but definitely appears to have been given a great deal of thought. It's not gratuitous technology for coolness' sake, it all serves a practical purpose other than the bells and whistles of the robots.
But the script would prefer to keep Smith talking smack and providing too much of our background information than giving him some serious depth. Spooner is not a carbon copy of any previous Smith character, but it's still pretty clear in the writing and the Converse All- Stars that Smith is there to score style points above all else. And with the rest of the cast being throwaways or too small of roles to count, this is once again his show. Better, but still his show.
"I, Robot" sits on the cusp of a great science-fiction film; after all, its director has made one before. But it prefers to operate on the surface level as if it were worried going deeper would ruin its commercial appeal. In the end, its another example of a movie that could have been made better but got manufactured by the Hollywood machine, duping us with eye candy into believing we want a safe, formulaic sci-fi movie.