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I, Robot (2004)

DVD Cover (Twentieth Century Fox)
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Overall Rating 63%
Overall Rating
Ranked #253
...out of 20,203 movies
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In 2035, techno-phobic homicide detective Del Spooner of the Chicago PD heads the investigation of the apparent suicide of leading robotics scientist, Dr. Alfred Lanning. Unconvinced of the motive, Spooner's investigation into Lanning's death reveals a trail of secrets and agendas within the USR (United States Robotics) corporation and suspicions of murder. Little does he know that his investigation would lead to uncovering a larger threat to humanity. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: August 10, 2004
Del Spooner is a homicide detective that lives in the year 2035, where nearly everyone has their own robot to take care of things for them. Del is the exception, and hates the idea of so many robots running about and is uneasy with living around them. It's pretty ironic then, that his next assignment is to investigate the suicide of Dr. Alfred Lansing, the creator of the artificially-intelligent robot. As he's looking into things with the aid of Dr. Susan Calvin, he finds a robot named Sonny in Lansing's office which attacks him. Since the first law of robots is to not attack humans, everyone finds this a bit strange, but Lawrence Robertson, the owner of the company, brushes it off as the robot being a defective model. Del is a bit more suspicious, however, and digs deeper into the cause of Lansing's death and what it all means.

I'm not going to get into how well this film compares to the works of Isaac Asimov, as this really wasn't based on that at all. It shared the same title and had some similarities, but basically this was a completely different story. So with that in mind, this review will focus only on the movie itself, and not how it matched up to the Asimov original.

The storyline found here is pretty interesting for the most part, though very predictable. There's one or two actual shockers thrown in around the end, but for the most part you'll see each twist and surprise coming a few scenes in advance. I also didn't find it too thrilling that the robots, during the fighting scenes, suffered from the Kung-Fu syndrome; that being that there's hundreds of robots trying to kill someone, but they only attack one at a time so as not to be unfair to the person that they're attacking. Sure, it wouldn't have made for much of a movie had the main characters been killed off in first half hour, but things could have been slightly more intelligent in that respect. Otherwise, the story flows along nicely, mixing in the right amount of story-to-action sequences and keeping things interesting along the way. With the exception of the final scene, which had some great camera-work and ideas thrown into it, most of the action sequences here were pretty routine and uninspired. There's not a whole lot of creativity for the most part, and the whole Matrix-inspired slow-motion thing is really getting old by now. Wake up, Hollywood; it was neat back in '99, and I fully expected to see it ripped off in a couple of movies released afterwards... but it's been five years now, I do believe it's about time to come up with something new.

The cast chosen for this movie did have some faults, but weren't completely intolerable. Will Smith plays Del, and if you've seen any of Smith's other action films, then you know what to expect from him. He plays the same invincible, wise-cracking character that he has in all the others, and while it's nothing new from him, he still plays the role nicely. Bridget Moynahan plays Susan, the lab-assistant that tags along while Del is investigating everything. While she's not awful as an actress, she just seemed a bit boring and uninterested in most of her scenes, which did tend to drag down some parts of the film. Ironically enough (there's that word again), the best performance in the film comes from Alan Tudyk, who provided the voice and model of Sonny the robot.

Overall, the movie does have a number of flaws, but it wasn't completely awful. Wait for a DVD rental if you're a fan of this type of film. 6/10.
Downfall #1: Downfall - added August 19, 2004 at 1:18pm
I personally thought this was a pretty good movie. It has a strong dialogue, and good acting from Smith; but it was a bit... cliché, I guess is the right word. Also, Sonny really annoyed me just because he seemed entirely gay, which is a connection I make with Gollum from Lord Of The Rings. I can appreciate Alan Tudyk acted fantastically for this film, but he was far too annoying to appeal to the entertaining side of my movie-going brain.
Big D #2: Big D - added August 24, 2004 at 2:58pm
Great movie; a detective from the future kicks robot ass. :)
Stary_Night_sky #3: Stary_Night_sky - added September 25, 2004 at 10:31pm
Actually better than I thought it was gonna be. Smith was the only saving grace of the movie because of his acting skills. The twist was expected..it was average. Nothing too special
wikkidpiggykilla #4: wikkidpiggykilla - added December 10, 2004 at 8:52am
I saw this movie at the drive-ins along woth ancorman *sp. and I just didnt buy into at all some cool effects but not great over all I was stoned when I watched it and usually when I see a movie for the first time and Im high I think its great but there is always an exception if your a Will Smith fan you will Probably like it but I wouldnt watch it again
ScarsRstarS #5: ScarsRstarS - added January 10, 2006 at 8:14am
I thought this was a brilliant come back for Will Smitch. I think he lost his music career a long time ago but he acting one is pretty much alive.
Griffinheart #6: Griffinheart - added September 30, 2007 at 11:51pm
Not a great movie but decent. A 6.5/10 seems about right.
Tristan #7: Tristan - added October 1, 2007 at 12:24am
Love Will Smith, but not his choices in movies. I give this 3/10 for his performance. And c'mon. Del Spooner? Running out of the "cool sounding, but still weird" names already?
Lucid Dreams #8: Lucid Dreams - added July 11, 2010 at 2:33am
The Fresh Prince needs to retire already. 5/10
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