A passable summer movie

Rating: Null/10 (14 December 2004)

Summer blockbusters often are incredible stupid and shallow. I've reconciled this and realized that summer is a time where you have fun, not necessarily voiding quality, but it's not the time when you look for startling drama. When i want that I watch NETWORK for the millionth time. However, it is nice to see a summer movie that tries to be well- written while entertaining instead of, say, VAN HELSING, which had a story seemingly made up on the spot. I,ROBOT manages to be very well plotted while touching upon some interesting ideas--this is not Shakesperean complexity here folks, but it does at least mention some notions of free will and humanity, so it at least acknowledges that some of us have brains. For that, it is what i think the average summer movie--in a perfect world--should be, fast, well-written, well-made, and has some element to get the audience to believe in the world and the hero, instead of the tripe we are usually given. That's I,ROBOT in a nutshell, a well-made, entertaining movie that doesn't insult your intelligence too much. The action is somewhat video game like, but is part of the plot, and the effects are heavy but are beautifully executed and are integral to the story (no Burly Brawl nonsense here). It isn't SPIDERMAN 2 (at least speaking within the summer season) but thankfully, it also isn't THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. If every summer blockbuster could at least be this decent, than those rare summertime
exceptions of excellence might be future classics, instead of what we are usually given.