No, YOU Robot!

Rating: 1/10 (6 July 2013)

The end of civilization is at hand, if this computer-generated special effects extravaganza is any indication.
The plot is impossibly loopy, but it all boils down to an evil central robotic mind taking over control of the multitude of harmless robots in 2035 and turning them into authoritarians programmed to save human beings from themselves, kind of like Klaatu and Gort in "The Day The Earth Stood Still." The sinewy, metallic robots that were originally mindless machines, have become sentient and questions about "soul" are raised. Now there's a novel idea. A robot that starts to think for itself. I enjoyed it in "Colossus: The Forbin Project." I liked it even more in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The latter seems to have given HAL's voice to Sonny, the main robot in this movie.
If the plot is practically impossible to follow, it doesn't really matter because the chief notion behind the production is to have robots that look something like the denuded Schwarzenegger in "Terminator" fight it out with vulnerable humans. It's one action set piece after another. These machines are all over the place, plotting, glowing with inner embers, their mask-like faces usually as mean as street thugs from an ordinary human action flick. There is dialog. And there are double crosses and mysteries and all that, but their function is identical to the dialog scenes in pornography. They just fill in the gaps between the parts everyone is waiting for.
I could add that Will Smith is likable but his ears are outlandish. Some of the robots out-act the pretty but marmorial Bridget Moynihan. But why go on? The movie doesn't deserve more attention.