Excellent special effects, shame about the originality....

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2004)

This film is well-directed and the leads do a solid job. The action is well done and the multiple robot scenes are excellent, with some of the best CGI around. I have no doubt that if you want a good popcorn film then this will entertain. However don't expect it to stand up to repeat viewings. The director Alex Proyas's previous film Dark City bristled with malevolent menace but here we seem to be stuck in the glossy technophile's future of Minority Report and Demolition Man. It is Asimov condensed, processed and made digestible. You will be left with a nagging sense of deja vu if you have seen Blade Runner, the Terminator Series, the Animatrix or even the soulless A.I. Indeed, the ethical questions concerning consciousness and the soul are so well simplified, it is a wonder we ask what the meaning of life is in the first place. The film addresses these questions but its sanitised delivery evades the darker consequences of progress, seen in other films, and substitutes it for a schmaltzy friends will out message.
Anyhoo, in short, good action but ultimately a disappointingly tame addition to the robot canon.