A far more entertaining film than I had anticipated

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2004)

This movie was a surprise to me, I was expecting the usual Hollywood Summer Blockbuster with good special effects and little else. What got was rather different. Yes the special effects were as per usual excellent, except for a sequence where they put Will Smith into a CGI environment rather than putting a CGI object onto a real set. The acting was better than I had anticipated, Will Smith had depth and was convincing as the male lead. The plot line was for once intelligent, it also was a bit thought provoking, it had a twist, it had mystery! These things are very rare in a movie released in the summer. It is possible to criticise the movie for moving away from the original Isaac Asimov story, but I felt that this didn't detract from the plot. Apart from the odd glitch with the CGI my gripe with the movie was the blatant and shameless product placement, this was just awful. All in all this was an intelligent as well as an entertaining movie.