Me, Amused - Me Teenager Happy

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2004)

"I, Robot" isn't a film I would have seen but for my teenage son's interest in the story. Since Isaac Asimov, America's most prolific twentieth century polymath, wrote the original story long, long ago (and I enjoyed it as a kid, long, long ago) I figured I could handle the movie version (which is marginally but not deeply faithful to the book).
So it was fun. Will Smith is Chicago homicide detective Del Spooner in a very futuristic Chicago of 2035. Spooner's a retro guy, however. He doesn't trust the ubiquitous robots who have taken over daily chores from dog-walking to garbage collection (no hint in the flick how Chicago's powerful municipal workers union took to their sanitation crews being replaced by robots).
Spooner lives in an apartment out of the 1990s with a regular TV, an ordinary stereo, a fan and other less than high tech devices. He's called to the scene of an apparent suicide. A famous researcher, indeed the putative father of these incredibly versatile robots, has committed suicide. Or has he? Through a strange device that allows interactive projection with the now very dead Dr. Lanning (James Cameron), Spooner suspects crime is afoot. Cameron turns in his usual excellent performance.
Spooner is teamed up with a beautiful scientist, Dr. Susan Calvin, played by the genuinely winsome one-time model, Bridget Moynahan. Her angry rejection of Spooner's nagging investigation turns to, first, doubt and then support. This is a surprise?
Central to the unfolding story is the detective's flushing out of a suspect, a robot who may be somewhat altered from his fellows (fellows?). The company with the apparent monopoly on rolling out new and improved robots can't have a lowly homicide cop screwing up their plans so we have the tough, politically well-connected CEO getting Spooner yanked off the case. That's Bruce Greenwood as Bill Ga..., I mean Lawrence Robertson. Does this plot sound like it's been around before with or without robots?
What makes the film work for most viewers in the almost nonstop action with really impressive but hardly scary special effects. Spooner survives one automated attempt on his life after the other. Surprisingly, no romance is kindled with the pretty doctor but they do become allies in trying to save humanity from an artificial intelligence that seems to have digested, albeit imperfectly, the political and social theories of the world's greatest philosophers.
Asimov's story reflected his welcoming of robots while recognizing the potential for danger. Director Alex Droyas's film skips the subtleties of the novel for a "slam bang, thank you computerized manikin" adventure. Some inconsistencies and plain silliness abound but Smith is very effective as a cynical, technology-questioning, sensibly stuck in older values cop.
8/10