Nice little movie about robots going on an insane rampage.

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2004)

My first thought when watching this film was, "Wow, Alex Proyas discovered that there is an entire spectrum of colors outside of red and black!"
Beyond that, I thought it was a fine film. As part of a new generation of intelligent sci-fi (spurred by films like The Matrix and Minority Report), it does well. As an action movie, it succeeds with flying colors (and lots of them). Will Smith is a hit-or-miss sort of an actor, but he (and his Danzig-esque pecs) did well this time. The others did a competent job as well.
In a nutshell, the story is this: Will Smith is a cop in the near future, who's paranoid about robots (and who could blame him? they're scary-ass-scary). They're being mass-produced, and are as common as any home appliance. After a prominent scientist apparently commits suicide, Smith's character suspects something has gone awry with the programming of a new line of robots about to be released on the market. The catch is, the problem must be far more complicated than one machine simply going haywire, since all robots adhere to the three laws of robotics (outlined by Isaac Asimov, and you'll hear them several times throughout the film).
The special effects, particularly the CG characters, were excellently done. The robot characters were seamlessly animated and had a sense of real physical weight, and there was never a sense of fakeness when they interacted with a flesh-and-blood actor (Alex Proyas owes a huge debt in this respect to Peter Jackson and George Lucas). The musical score by Marco Beltrami was workmanlike... adequate, but nothing especially memorable.
One aspect of the film that I did find gripeworthy was that, despite the intelligence of the subject matter, it stuck hard and fast to the 120 minute action film formula. For most of the way through, it was unnoticeable, but maybe 3/4 of the way through the seams began to show. When predictability ensues during a fast-paced thriller, the director is doing something wrong. Thankfully, it's only a minor flaw in this case.
All in all, a fine film. Likely the best the summer season has to offer. 3.5/4 stars.