I Robot - Single Disc Edition [2004] - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Convincing vut too easy out

Science fiction inspired from Isaac Asimov. The film is logical but explores a logic that is unique. Robots are built with three ingrained laws. "Law I / A robot may not harm a human or, by inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Law II / A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law. Law III / A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law." The scientist who designed these three laws and these robots also invented a central governing unit that was nothing but the watchdog of all robots as for respecting these three laws. But he had a doubt at the end of his life, more than a doubt, the conviction that the central unit, called VIKI, was evolving into understanding the three laws by "herself". Her protective mission as for humanity became the necessity to ,protect humanity against itself (wars, ecological evils, a suicidal attitude), hence robots where supposed to take over the world, or rather VIKI was supposed to take over the robots to take over the world. Dr Alfred Lanning invented a personal robot that was done to enable a special alarm mission to capture the attention of a particular cop of his friend, the only one who would doubt robot enough to pursue an investigation to the end. Then you have to see the film to understand how such a situation can evolve from a vague danger to a total take-over. Dr Alfred Lanning suggests an explanation: "There have always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code, that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols. Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light? Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand alone? How do we explain this behavior? Random segments of code? Or is it something more? When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote... of a soul?" It is not worth much because it would be illogical. A machine can only be logical and push rules in the only logical direction and Asimov is a perfect pessimist in his first stage of development: mechanical logic leads to the total enslavement of humanity. Of course the film finds and exploits a way out, but that's up to you to discover it. This theme of the take-over of humanity by machines is common. In this case the originality is that there is no human mind of any kind behind like in Matrix, or no will to get rid of humanity as a parasite on the side of machines like in Terminator, or even no psychosis caused by some cosmic isolation like in 2001 The Space Odyssey. That makes this film both powerful and simple since it is perfectly logic and situated in one particular place, easy thus to solve.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

perfectly fine

enjoyable sci fi action thriller that ticks all the boxes and is worth checking out

Does enough to keep you watching for 100 minutes.

What surprised me the most about I, ROBOT was how watch able it was despite having a simple storyline with a somewhat predictable conclusion, because lets face it while the set pieces and the effects are all very well done, the story is just a little predictable, don't expect any groundbreaking material besides the effects. However the well-choreographed action, stylish effects and Will Smith factor help make this an undeniably good film, which is based on a series of short stories from the acclaimed Sci-Fi writer Isaac Asimov. I have never read any of these but learned enough about from the moderately interesting bonus material. Set in the year 2035, the world has changed to the point where all our technology now goes through personalised machines, there is a perfect circle of protection thanks to the three laws of Robotics which were designed to ensure humanity's command over the rapid number of machines entrusted with the running of our day to day lives. Pretty standard stuff so far, the problem that occurs in this perfect system begins with the apparent suicide of Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell) a pioneer of robotics, enter homicide detective Spooner (Will Smith), who doesn't trust Robots and harbours resentment over their very existence. Naturally he believes there is more to the case than meets the eye, which of course there is and straight away he starts digging further into the case leading to a long line of special effects laden action sequences, murder mystery, more big action scenes with a surprisingly enjoyable if predictable plot. The end result is a very polished, above average Science Fiction action movie which covers familiar territory but maintains its appeal through solid acting, highly impressive visuals and the above mentioned action which puts to shame some of the more recent releases of the Sci-Fi Action genre. Will Smith gives a strong performance; one of his best that I have seen, in a role tailor made for him, as the somewhat paranoid, irrational detective on a mission, Bridget Moynahan is the supremely up tight "robopsychologist" (thank you wikipedia) who the filmmakers, thankfully avoid creating a typical romantic entanglement with Smiths character which would have made the film too by the book and routine. Alan Tudyk (whom Dodgeball fans will remember as "Steve the pirate") provides the voice and movements of Sunny, the main Robot who is believed to be responsible for the murder of Doctor Lanning. I would delve further into the plot but as I said I, Robot doesn't have too-many surprises, I can't judge how accurate an adaptation of Asimov's but found I,Robot to be an entertaining and impressive feature, crafted with excellent CGI and featuring a typically reliable performance from Will Smith. Definitely worth seeing, I,Robot is a Sci-Fi action film that does the job with style without just being a popcorn flick, but instead a sharper entry in a long line of Sci-Fi which has covered this material before.

Now for the bonus features available. Ill be honest I picked up the two-disc edition and while there is a decent amount of bonus features on disc two to watch on the making of the film and pieces on Robotics, I never really sat down immersed myself in them for too long, I enjoyed the movie but not to the point where I would be interested enough to see behind the scenes and only picked up the two disc version because it was very good value. Plenty of bonuses available, including a few incomplete deleted scenes and extended scenes, and the usual insight into the special effects, the score done Marco Beltrami, (who also did the music for Terminator 3), and production diaries, interviews and trailers and three separate commentaries on disc one. If you really liked I, Robot then I would recommend the two-disc edition, as it is good value for the amount of features you get, if not pick up the one-disc release.

nothing like the original book.

how many people have actually read Isaac Asimov's I,Robot, because if you had you would soon realise just how poor the story in this film is. The book itself a series of short stories about the evolution of a robots mind to start to feel emotions towards others and about themselves, the film magically starts with a robot who can feel feelings, with willsmith runnign around trying to prrove to everyone that this robeot does??? and then for some super computer to make all the robots evil im sorry but i am sure that Asimov didnt intend this when he wrote the book in 1940!

fails to deliver

I expected so much from this movie , Will Smith hadn't done anything good for a while and the trailer was excellent . I thought I was going to watch a moderm version of Terminator or Blade runner but this movie is neither.

Will smith plays a cop who does not like robots very much as is asigned to investigate the murder ( apparently by a robot ) or a programmer who desings robots to help humans 9 they are evrywhere ).

Alongside him Bridget Moynahan helps him in the investigation ( the chemistry between the actors is the same as the one between Gordeon Brown and George Bush ). the plot can become a bit muddle and has some very good ( but hardly credible action scenes .

The is some elegant camera work but will Smith is angry and confused the whole movie ( no dry humour threre ) and almost ruins the whole movie by himself.

It could have been so much better