What "Paycheck" Wasn't and What "A.I." Wanted To Be

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2004)

`I, Robot' is and should be a summer hit, but that tag is summarily unfair, in that it suggests a brainless action yarn designed to entertain us and while away a few torpid Dog Day hours. This is hardly that; years in the making, `I, Robot' is all that the recent `Paycheck' never was and some of what `A.I' tried to be.
Alex Proyas' 1998 film `Dark City' is such a murky, disturbing and complex sci-fi mystery we expect more of the same in `I, Robot', but instead are treated to a far lighter view of things futuristic. Set in Chicago in 2035, as murkily sinister as `Dark City' is in its entirety so `I, Robot' reflects a far brighter and optimistic view of the future. Though not a feel-good movie, we still might have a view less techno-phobic than we might expect.

Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a police detective still reeling from and dealing with post-divorce stress syndrome. But we also detect immediately that several factors make Spooner tick and Proyas' weaving of these facets throughout the movie is masterfully done. Things inexplicable (dreams, opinions and attitudes, subtle and not-so-subtle actions) eventually tie together, allowing us more character development of Spooner than we at first might think has occurred. This is subtlety meant to raise this from the action flick the trailers suggested to what is in reality a fine work.

Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan are certainly a handsome couple, with she being as cool a customer as he is focused yet affable. They strike an interesting dynamic, one which is not chemical yet also reveals little repellence for each other's company. Sort of an asexual symmetry that neither makes us curious about where they might be in five years or whether they will ever even have a drink together.
The splicing of Dr. Lanning's theoretical discussions into the narrative is very influential in developing an understanding of robotic evolution. These are the cerebral parts of the film, where we most feel Asimov's influence and it almost as if the writers have reached for and found a selection from one of his works.
Much of the look of `I, Robot' hinges on the success of CGI effects and with a few exceptions this is as good as we've seen. What worked: Sonny the Robot, long shots of Chicago, heights and robots moving about in real life. What didn't work as well were action scenes; car chases, mid-air hijinks or anything to do with an explosion. The digital downfall is often apparent; most rapid action sequences still appear to have that shards-of-glass-shimmery-pixel-puzzle-thing going on, annoyingly unlike any view our eye may have of real events. Taking the instance of the exploding house sequence, almost no part of that scene seems plausible.
One appreciates there is, and should be, some hype involved in the promotion of a movie. Nonetheless a talking head read a line the other day in which `I, Robot' was attributed to a book by `cult author' Isaac Asimov. Of all the science fiction writers in the world, Asimov is about as famous as they come. Perhaps the drivel on television might better be entrusted to robots; Sonny said more intelligent things than that.
Rating: Three and a half stars.