Super SciFi

Rating: 9/10 (16 July 2004)

The book, I, Robot wasn't really a single story, but rather a collection of robot stories (previous published) held together by a loose storyline. The original group of stories examined various problems and pitfalls inherent in the 3 Laws of Robotics. Thus, the movie worked as yet another 'story' in that collection. VIKI's extension of the First Law to humanity as a whole later became Asimov's Zeroth Law.
I found the movie quite enjoyable. That the human characters were relatively shallow and showed little development bothered me not a whit. The character being developed was that of Sonny (and the other robots), which was a far more interesting concept, and quite in keeping with Asimov's book. Will Smith did a credible job of keeping his character light and amusing without detracting from the main focus of the movie, the robots. The CGI effects were awesome, far better than I was expecting. The pacing worked and the plot seemed to hold on to more surprises than I have come to expect from summer blockbusters.
The goals of sci-fi are usually different from those of traditional movies. As sci-fi/action, I thought this was first-rate. Bladerunner it was not, but still full of merit. I gave it 9/10.