Top movie!

Rating: 9/10 (25 July 2004)

In a year that has generally been disappointing in terms of the big budget films. It finally seems that the 2nd half of the year could be getting better. Spidey's second outing was excellent, while Bourne Supremacy and indeed this have been good. Far eclipsing earlier big budget limp, flops, Troy, Chronicles Of Riddick, Passion Of Christ, King Arthur and Van Helsing. The bad films still though outweighing good films like Spidey, and Harry Potter three. Still overall this year, like last year has had a good amount of good films, largely made up from the smaller films like Shaun Of The Dead, Lost In Translation and School Of Rock. There is a promising list of upcoming films coming out from directors like Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and also Terry Gilliam, so overall I can't really be too disappointed at this year's standard. Indeed it's almost up at last year's level, but last year had Return Of The King to really up it. I suppose the lack of any new middle earth adventures was always going to make it a difficult year to be able top 2003.
Anyway as a fan of Alex Proyas, whose earlier works The Crow, and Dark City are personal favourites, I was looking forward immensely to this film. Now I truth be told, after the first proper trailer, I was nervous. The first footage trailer, not the spoof NS5 advert, did kind of make it look as if the film would suck, and be a brainless blockbuster, but then again that was a similar problem with the Dark City promotion. The trailers after that improved immensely thankfully while still leaning towards the blockbuster angle. The film has blockbuster elements but has more too it, hence the above average ratings compared to your usual action extravaganza. I Robot is a very good film. It's good fun, it's exciting and despite feelings that it has picked bits from superior similarly science fiction films like the Terminator and Minority Report, it's good stuff. Now this is nowhere near as good as Proyas's early works but still it has some depth and raise questions without really having the philosophical rich textual side that his films The Crow, Dark City and indeed classics like Blade Runner, Minority Report and The Matrix had. They were films that can be vastly repeated for the literary, biblical and philosophical references and the great touches. While I-Robot raises interesting questions and has some biblical and sociological connotations, they are questions raised in many other films. It does not seem original, but then again many of the films raising points which appear in this film were inspired by the short stories of Isaac Asimov who wrote the original story this film was based off. All his stories revolved around technology and robots in particular and were based around the three laws of robotics. 1 a Robot will not harm a human being. 2. A Robot must obey a human at all time except when it conflicts with the first law and 3, A Robot can defend itself unless it conflicts with the first two laws. These laws that Asimov created are essential in this film and they are key to how the plot of I-Robot transpires.
The plot revolves around Del Spooner. He's a cop who has a deep dislike for Robots and despairs that at this time (2035) humans have become very dependant on them. When the creator of the NS-5 robots and all robots, apparently commits suicide, Spooner is called in to investigate. He is suspicious of the death and believes it could be a murder but since the room that doctor Lanning was in when he jumped was locked and no-one else was in it, bar some Robot's, Spooner believes it must have been a Robot. His prejudice drives him throughout his investigation; he suffers from tunnel vision in his pursuit of bringing down this Robot and in effect the whole lot of them. It is only later as the plot unfolds he looks at the whole picture and realises his actions have been wrong. The main suspect is a seemingly malfunctioning Robot, who calls himself Sonny and seems to have developed human emotions. Sonny is found at the crime scene, hiding when Spooner investigates and fleas from the scene. Later Spooner has him in for questioning and is very suspicious at how Sonny is behaving. As the plot transpires, he begins to suspect Lawrence Robertson, Lanning's partner, of involvement in Lanning's death considering it was on the eve of a massive launch of a new NS-5 that will be in nearly every home in America. As the film progresses Spooner begins to uncover the reasoning behind Sonny's emotions and uncovers a frightening truth. The plot is clever and develops well as it seems a glitch in the 3 laws means trouble for the human race as the Robot's AI's develop.
The cast are good. I like Will Smith but I was weary of his casting here. Would it be too Will Smith, as the trailers suggested? Well this is some typical Will talk but Smith does well with a character given some depth. It's a good role that makes up for his two previous disappointing sequels to Bad Boys and Men In Black. It's his best performance since his Oscar nod for Ali. Bridget Moynahan is also good as Robot psychologist Susan Calvin who works for NSR and ends up supporting Spooners investigations after initially believing he was paranoid. Also there is good support from Bruce Greenwood and Chi McBride. However, Alan Tudyk steals the show as Sonny, or should I say Tudyks vocal performance. The robots were a worry in this film because they could have been overdone and they have such cool robots like The Terminator to contend with. The robots are portrayed well in this and especially the most worrying one, Sonny. His character is very good though, and intriguing. His creator has spent time making Sonny unique from his brothers and he develops emotions, has dreams. It raises questions about whether a robot which has essentially it's own soul now and acts and re-acts like a human should have the rights to a proper existence. Sonny has malfunctioned and is to be dismantled but essentially his human characteristics and three thinking could argue that he has a right of existence. After all if a human was in a vegetative state and showed little signs of a soul they would still have a right of existence. Anyone who worried about the portrayal of this robot would be pleasantly surprised. This is largely because Tudyk nails the character so well and makes him very likeable and sympathetic.
Alex Proyas is on fine form, and while it isn't him at his wild, dark and goth best he still shows he is definitely a director to look out for. I just hope he doesn't become a director for hire to do blockbusters every 1 or 2 years. I want his next to be meaningful and personal like Dark City and Crow, which were more moderate budget and probably with more creative freedom. A hit like I Robot can only help his choices for his next movie. Visually Proyas has shown he is one of the best in the business. Visually this is good. Not as wild and expressionistic as his other two films but still good. The cinematography is good and crisp with good use of colour and shadow. The production design is based around a future where everything barring the robots is similar to today. It's essentially the present with a little polish a few sliding doors and NS-4's walking your dog. The production design doesn't seem entirely original; it has similarity to Minority Report, including the cars and the general design in architecture. The Robots are nicely designed. It's an interesting design, very similar to Bjork's music video All Is Full Of Love, extremely similar, to the point you feel that the robots are ripped off, but still it's their debut in the world of movies so I'm not to bothered, the problems are surely between the designers of that music video and this movie. The special effects are outstanding, top of the range. The way the robots integrate into crowds of people are impressive and also Proyas uses the visual effects superbly as he did in Dark City. The action here is also great stuff. What you want form a summer movie is spectacular action, style and thrills and you get that. To be honest the film loses a little when it goes into action overdrive in the last half hour. I generally thought that the first hour and a half as the plot develops was the best. Generally Sci-Fi films are stronger in the opening and have most of their action near the end, look at The Matrix, Minority Report. I always love the exposition in these movies. Also kudos to Marco Beltrami who does a good job composing here. The score could have just ripped off many other sci-fi films but it does something that has a unique style and has if anything similarities at times to the score of Dark City. Proyas must have had input in to the score.
Overall this is a decent sci-fi movie. Rarely are sci-fi movies very good but this is certainly one of the better in recent years. While it doesn't stand up to the best ones like Terminator, Alien, Blade Runner and Minority Report it is good in its own right and that is first and foremost all you can ask for from a summer blockbuster. ****