I, Robot

Reel Critic Grade: B- Running Time: 115 minutes Rated: PG-13

I, Robot could have been titled Robots Gone Wild, but with the direct-to-video hit Girls Gone Wild, folks may have expected drunken robots disrobing at every turn – and who wants to watch that? The concept of robots and machines embracing their dark side is about as fresh as a left-over piece of sushi. Predecessors like The Matrix, Terminator, Runaway, and several others have all spun a tale around this basic premise, which plays on our fear of the ever increasing role of machines in our lives. I, Robot’s twist on this familiar notion is that the robot’s motivations are pure and logical even though their actions seem diabolical.

The year is 2035 and U.S. Robotics (USR), under the leadership of Lance Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), is responsible for creating the advanced robots that assist humans with just about everything. To keep the robots in check, they are hard-wired with three laws to govern their existence:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

On the verge of an unprecedented roll-out of their latest model, the NS-5, which will increase the robot population to one for every five humans, USR’s lead designer, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), is found dead of an apparent suicide jump from his high-rise office inside USR. Enter Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith).

Spooner is a guy who cherishes the past. He wears vintage Converse high-tops, keeps an old-school crotch-rocket motorcycle, and prefers a hand-held remote to voice activation for his home stereo. His weakness is an uncommon and, to date, unfounded distrust of the robots who populate the landscape. His suspicion of the “Canners”, as he calls them, keeps him at odds with his police Lieutenant, John Bergin (Chi McBride). It makes for good tension, but it’s a clichéd relationship we’ve seen countless times before in just about every cop movie. Spooner sets out to unravel the mystery of Lanning’s death and, with a little help from the yummy Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a unique robot named Sonny (Alan Tudyk), and the story of Hansel and Gretel, he stumbles onto the robots’ scheme to seize control from the humans.

Will Smith was his usual smooth self as Detective Spooner. He’s an easily likeable actor with his big smile, chuckling-style laugh, and ready humor. I, Robot, another in a long line of July hits, cements Smith’s title as King of July Box Office. Bridget Moynahan was fun to look at, but her character was so one-dimensional she was almost a place holder. Hard to believe writers of this caliber would miss the boat on the co-star. The robot Sonny was voiced by Alan Tudyk. His character was at least as, if not more, interesting than Smith’s or Moynahan’s. Tudyk did a fantastic job giving Sonny a human dimension as the robot wrestled to understand and get a grip on human emotion. Chi McBride’s role as Spooner’s police lieutenant wasn’t especially unique or compelling, but I think McBride is a stellar actor. He’s a full-size man with an immense presence and has facial expressions that tell you exactly what’s going on.

No doubt writers Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman and director Alex Proyas achieved what they were hired to do; create an entertaining summer block-buster with huge box office receipts. What they failed to do was craft a great movie. I, Robot is engaging, but the film relies too heavily on character profiles and visuals we’ve seen before - many times before. Even the futuristic cars (and I love cars) were nothing to get excited about. For me, the most unique elements in the film were the robots; they were distinctly machine, but had a subtle human quality about them; calmly creepy in a HAL 9000 kind of way.

Sci-fi is a genre with no spending limit on creativity; it takes place in the future, anything is possible, and explanation is voluntary. With that kind of freedom, regurgitating old material (although never a good idea) is a serious let down. I, Robot may be futuristic in its concept, but its content, like Spooner, longs for the past.