The robots in I, Robot are metal figures in black, white and gray with thin limbs and translucent faces and chests. And because the sets are often shot in low light levels, the movie at times resembles a black-and-white 1950s sci-fi thriller.
Which is fitting, for the film works best as a kind of mindless, action-packed B-movie. But on the A-level at which recent science fiction/fantasy films operate -- meaning the Spider-Man, Harry Potter and Terminator series -- this movie falls woefully short. A story about a future revolt of intelligent machines is too old to bear much scrutiny without a new twist. Throw in highly predictable character and story arcs and the film screams, Been there, done that.
Will Smith's drawing power and a snappy marriage of live action with digital elements assure a sizable opening. Domestic boxoffice certainly could exceed $100 million, with much of that coming from young males. Nevertheless, the film will disappoint science fiction fans accustomed to much more from Hollywood's merchants of fantasy.
It's been 36 years since Stanley Kubrick's benchmark 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yet director Alex Proyas and writers Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman, drawing inspiration from Isaac Asimov's seminal sci-fi collection, plunge into a tale of robots and an intelligent, HAL-like computer as if this were unexplored territory. Only one man on Earth seems to realize the dangers robots pose for mankind. Everyone else thinks he is a paranoid nut. Would not cops, scientists and politicians have at least seen all the previous movies? Wouldn't they at least know that when a monopolistic corporation that manufactures robots houses itself in a large, soulless skyscraper only evil can lurk within? Or that when robots talk in soothing, patronizing tones these disguise a malevolent intent?
Apparently not. For Chicago 2035 is a city filled with robots supposedly trained to be docile servants and programd to never harm a human. Then one robot, a new NS-5 model that goes by the name of Sonny, emerges as chief suspect in the death of the scientist who created him, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell). Yet brash police detective Del Spooner (Smith) cannot persuade anyone -- not his boss (Chi McBride), the head of U.S. Robotics (Bruce Greenwood) or robot psychiatrist Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan) -- to stop the rollout of the NS-5s. They won't even consider Sonny a suspect.
"What suspect?" his lieutenant demands. "It's a can opener!"
A can of worms is what gets opened. Soon hundreds of vicious NS-5 robots chase and attack Smith when he drives through a tunnel, leaping off large trucks, destroying his car and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. But -- get this -- no one in the middle of the city sees a thing! Everyone writes off the incident to Spooner's mental instability.
Spooner, it turns out, is himself part man and part machine, having been pieced back together by Dr. Lanning following a tragic auto accident. So thanks to his superhuman strength and Dr. Calvin's newfound ability to point a gun, close her eyes and still hit her target -- this after Dr. Calvin becomes convinced of Spooner's theory -- humanity is able to battle back against the NS-5s.
Visual effects supervisor John Nelson and special effects house Digital Domain tackle a movie with more than 1,000 effects shots. Sonny himself is a three-dimensional CG character that channels the voice and movements of actor Alan Tudyk. Yet the robot and human worlds never truly merge. Fights between men and machine look fake, and other than Sonny, no robot develops any personality other than that of relentless menace.
Smith carries the movie on his broad and often bare shoulders, which is a heavy load since nearly everyone including the human cast acts like automatons. Even Smith is not very good company as the script requires him to act pissed-off before given a reason to behave so. Moynahan brings a stiff beauty to the role of the techno-scientist, but her timid filmmakers won't allow romantic sparks to fly between their black male and white female leads. That's not futuristic; that's retro.
I, ROBOT
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox in association with Mediastream IV present a Davis Entertainment Co./Laurence Mark/Overbrook Films production
Credits:
Director: Alex Proyas
Screenwriters: Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsmith
Screen story by: Jeff Vintar
Suggested by stories by: Isaac Asimov
Producers: Laurence Mark, John Davis, Topher Dow, Wyck Godfrey
Executive producers: Will Smith, James Lassiter, Michael Shane, Anthony Romano
Director of photography: Simon Duggan
Production designer: Patrick Tatopoulos
Music: Marco Beltrami
Visual effects supervisor: John Nelson
Co-producer: Steven R. McGlothen
Costume designer: Elizabeth Keogh Palmer
Editors: Richard Learoyd, Armen Minasian, William Hoy. Cast:
Del Spooner: Will Smith
Dr. Susan Calvin: Bridget Moynahan
Sonny: Alan Tudyk
Dr. Alfred Lanning: James Bromwell
Lawrence Robertson: Bruce Greenwood
Granny: Adrian L. Ricard
Lt. John Bergin: Chi McBride
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 114 minutes...
Which is fitting, for the film works best as a kind of mindless, action-packed B-movie. But on the A-level at which recent science fiction/fantasy films operate -- meaning the Spider-Man, Harry Potter and Terminator series -- this movie falls woefully short. A story about a future revolt of intelligent machines is too old to bear much scrutiny without a new twist. Throw in highly predictable character and story arcs and the film screams, Been there, done that.
Will Smith's drawing power and a snappy marriage of live action with digital elements assure a sizable opening. Domestic boxoffice certainly could exceed $100 million, with much of that coming from young males. Nevertheless, the film will disappoint science fiction fans accustomed to much more from Hollywood's merchants of fantasy.
It's been 36 years since Stanley Kubrick's benchmark 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yet director Alex Proyas and writers Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman, drawing inspiration from Isaac Asimov's seminal sci-fi collection, plunge into a tale of robots and an intelligent, HAL-like computer as if this were unexplored territory. Only one man on Earth seems to realize the dangers robots pose for mankind. Everyone else thinks he is a paranoid nut. Would not cops, scientists and politicians have at least seen all the previous movies? Wouldn't they at least know that when a monopolistic corporation that manufactures robots houses itself in a large, soulless skyscraper only evil can lurk within? Or that when robots talk in soothing, patronizing tones these disguise a malevolent intent?
Apparently not. For Chicago 2035 is a city filled with robots supposedly trained to be docile servants and programd to never harm a human. Then one robot, a new NS-5 model that goes by the name of Sonny, emerges as chief suspect in the death of the scientist who created him, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell). Yet brash police detective Del Spooner (Smith) cannot persuade anyone -- not his boss (Chi McBride), the head of U.S. Robotics (Bruce Greenwood) or robot psychiatrist Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan) -- to stop the rollout of the NS-5s. They won't even consider Sonny a suspect.
"What suspect?" his lieutenant demands. "It's a can opener!"
A can of worms is what gets opened. Soon hundreds of vicious NS-5 robots chase and attack Smith when he drives through a tunnel, leaping off large trucks, destroying his car and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. But -- get this -- no one in the middle of the city sees a thing! Everyone writes off the incident to Spooner's mental instability.
Spooner, it turns out, is himself part man and part machine, having been pieced back together by Dr. Lanning following a tragic auto accident. So thanks to his superhuman strength and Dr. Calvin's newfound ability to point a gun, close her eyes and still hit her target -- this after Dr. Calvin becomes convinced of Spooner's theory -- humanity is able to battle back against the NS-5s.
Visual effects supervisor John Nelson and special effects house Digital Domain tackle a movie with more than 1,000 effects shots. Sonny himself is a three-dimensional CG character that channels the voice and movements of actor Alan Tudyk. Yet the robot and human worlds never truly merge. Fights between men and machine look fake, and other than Sonny, no robot develops any personality other than that of relentless menace.
Smith carries the movie on his broad and often bare shoulders, which is a heavy load since nearly everyone including the human cast acts like automatons. Even Smith is not very good company as the script requires him to act pissed-off before given a reason to behave so. Moynahan brings a stiff beauty to the role of the techno-scientist, but her timid filmmakers won't allow romantic sparks to fly between their black male and white female leads. That's not futuristic; that's retro.
I, ROBOT
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox in association with Mediastream IV present a Davis Entertainment Co./Laurence Mark/Overbrook Films production
Credits:
Director: Alex Proyas
Screenwriters: Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsmith
Screen story by: Jeff Vintar
Suggested by stories by: Isaac Asimov
Producers: Laurence Mark, John Davis, Topher Dow, Wyck Godfrey
Executive producers: Will Smith, James Lassiter, Michael Shane, Anthony Romano
Director of photography: Simon Duggan
Production designer: Patrick Tatopoulos
Music: Marco Beltrami
Visual effects supervisor: John Nelson
Co-producer: Steven R. McGlothen
Costume designer: Elizabeth Keogh Palmer
Editors: Richard Learoyd, Armen Minasian, William Hoy. Cast:
Del Spooner: Will Smith
Dr. Susan Calvin: Bridget Moynahan
Sonny: Alan Tudyk
Dr. Alfred Lanning: James Bromwell
Lawrence Robertson: Bruce Greenwood
Granny: Adrian L. Ricard
Lt. John Bergin: Chi McBride
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 114 minutes...
- 7/30/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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