Nice looking but expected more from a summer thriller

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2005)

Just rented this piece of eye candy. I'm sure it would have been more enjoyable in the theatre's big screen; but the ridiculously poor dialogue ruined what could have been a decent summer action flick.
Don't get me wrong. I wasn't expecting an Oscar winner here, nor was I expecting any sort of treatment of Asimov's story. I was hoping for an enjoyable action flick with decent, smart storytelling. Instead we got: - EXTREMELY CORNY one liners from Will Smith. These were beyond bad; they were totally forced. There was one particularly bad one that I saw coming a mile away from the street kid, after Dr. Calvin shoots a NS-5 in the head.

TOTALLY RIDICULOUS gratuitously unnecessary action sequences; I mean I know the point is to show off some cool action shots and such, but they were so random and unbelievable, such as when Will Smith's character launches off his bike towards the mob being attacked by NS-5's, doing a flip in mid air, and HAPPENS to be hurtling toward the street kid he knows and in recognition, pulls out his gun and nails the robot attacking the kid in the head, while his sliding bike takes out 10 other robots on the ground who are just standing there with no humans around.

Good parts: I am always up for a good robot movie and these NS-5's were pretty neat to look at; The car chase scene was pretty exciting and there were some nice montages of future Chicago to look at.
Though the product placement was pretty obvious...Audi of course, and the 2004 "Vintage" Converse All-Stars (available at a Foot Locker near you!)