It was a fun ride with a few interesting twists.

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2004)

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. I guess I have learned from my spouse that when I relax and accept the dinosaurs, Jurassic Park is a cool movie. Well, likewise, once I accepted the robots, this was a cool movie. Yep, I can argue a lot about the social, environmental and technological conditions of 2035, but the movie has to move along. And in a nutshell, it does. Will Smith gives his expected smooth, tongue-in-cheek quipping performance in a noticeably beefed-up (post-Ali) frame. With a little edge, he plays the well-worn movie schtick of the persistent protagonist who can see the sky falling when no one else has a clue and thereby is ultimately busted in rank only to be reluctantly redeemed by being correct. There were also a few fight/action scenes that defied physics (a pet-peeve) which were balanced by a few well-time-released plot reveals that left you unable to be a dead-on ending predictor. As for the robot, Trekkies have been around that block a few times with Mr. Data, but the special effects are good. Asimov purists may pan it but the pop culture will eat it up.