Movie Review: I, Robot

There's a story leading me up to seeing this 'version' of I, Robot. It started, I'm not sure how long ago, grade school I think. I tried reading Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy." I say tried because at that time it was a tough read and I didn't stick with it. I tried it again a year or two later, this time sticking with it, and falling in love with the writing of Isaac Asimov. I read a number of his books, including others in the Foundation series, Empire series, stand alone novels, and of course, the Robot series. The writing was phenomenal, intelligent, engrossing, they were hard to put down. The three series were all interconnected in the same universe spanning hundreds, thousands of years, it's own complete and growing universe. I will admit, at this point, that it has been years since I read any of them and my memories of the details are fuzzy.

Fast forward a large number of years, I read that I, Robot is being turned into a film. I start getting happy. I then read that Alex Proyas will be directing. Now I lose it, Asimov and the director of Dark City? Sounds like a perfect marriage. Then reality hits, Will Smith has been signed to star. All of a sudden it went from intelligent science fiction to summer blockbuster in one fell swoop. Now please, don't get me wrong, Smith is an excellent performer and I have enjoyed most of his movies (except that excrement known as Wild Wild West), but I just didn't see him as the right guy for this project. His signing indicated, at least to me, that they were not going with the straight sci-fi, that it would include amped up action, one-liners, and a big summer budget. My hopes rested on the shoulders of Alex Proyas, a promising young director poised to make a huge Hollywood hit, and maybe this would be it. He proved he had talent with The Crow, and a great eye and ability to tell a visually interesting and intellectually stimulating science fiction story with Dark City.
 
Fast forward a bit more, the trailers start to appear. My apprehension starts to set in again. The trailers are of the whiz-bang variety, meaning it is full of big action, one-liners, and not much else. I thought the effects looked good, but I didn't really care for the feel of the movie. It just didn't strike me as Asimov, at all. Now I am always trying to convince people to not compare films and the books upon which they were based, but I draw the line here. I know stuff will get changed, often times drastically, but the only thing that was really Asimovian (is that a word?) was the inclusion of the Three Laws of Robotics, outside of that there is the very basic plot point of a robot accused of murder, and nothing else. I do like to have my adaptations at least have a bit closer resemblance to each other. I think The Shining book and film were more closely resembled each other regardless of Stanley Kubrick's and Stephen King's mutual disdain for the other's take.

Fast forward again, it is the week leading up to the film's release.  I read another story chronicling a bit of how I, Robot came to the screen. It said that it was based on a pre-existing script entitled Hardwired. This made it's way to the studio, then they also acquired the rights to the Isaac Asimov novel. It was then rewritten by Akiva Goldsman (Batman & Robin, Lost in Space, A Beautiful Mind) to include elements from the novel and tack on the new title. I am of the persuasion that this would have been better if they kept what they had, didn't tack on the I, Robot title and Asimovisms, in favor of making a true I, Robot film. I question the marketing strategy, as I am not sure how much pull the Asimov book title has with today's blockbuster flocking teen audience. Granted, it is a much cooler title than Hardwired, but still.

It is now time to see the movie. I purchased my ticket, got my popcorn and soda, found a good seat, sat down, crossed my fingers and hoped the bad reviews I had seen were wrong. It was time to put my trust in Alex Proyas to the test. The screen flickered on, the trailers play, I can't remember all, but Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Collateral, and Alien vs. Predator, there may have been one more, but that's not important, trailers are a discussion for another time. The titles come up, nice title design, the movie starts.

Where to begin with the film, the story would probably be the most logical place. Detective Spooner(Smith), is called to the scene of the apparent suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning(James Cromwell).  It is up to Spooner to find out the truth behind the suicide. Spooner is not a likely candidate for this assignment due to his hatred for all things robot, and Lanning being the top designer for US Robotics. During the investigation, he comes across, the coolly robotic, yet fully human, Susan Calvin(Bridget Moynahan). She alternately impedes and helps the investigation. Also there for the ride is suspect number one Sonny the robot(voiced by Alan Tudyk). I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but action ensues and secrets are revealed as the layers surrounding the motives are stripped away.

Sadly, the film did not live up to the expectations I had upon first hearing about the project. On the other hand, it did survive the expectations I had for a Will Smith action vehicle, although on the lower end of that scale. Before I get into what I didn't like, and thus releasing your ire upon me, from some anyway, there actually were some things that I really liked about the movie, some technical, and some content based. So let's break it down shall we?

The special effects and design were excellent. They were convincing throughout, the way the robots moved and interacted with the environment perfect. The overall look of the film is very similar to that of Minority Report, so much so, that they could probably exist in the same universe.  They successfully created a future city that was more or less believable. Also, The hallway robot fight was well executed, exciting, brutal, and in tone with the film. This was a good CGI fight, as opposed to that really, really bad one at the end of Van Helsing earlier this year. From the next logical step to speak of is Sonny the robot, CG effects to CG characters, you still with me?

Sonny, while not perfect, is one of the better realized CG creations. He's (it's?) not in the same league as Gollum, but worlds ahead of the likes of Jar Jar Binks and Scooby Doo. Much of this must be credited to actor Alan Tudyk who provided the voice, he is probably better known as Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball, or as Wash from Firefly (to be reprised in Serenity coming next year). His voice performance is pitch perfect, giving an emotional depth to a machine not seen since Arnold Schwarzenegger donned the shades in the Terminator films. Sonny is someone I wish we had more of in the film, the quieter dialogue laden scenes between him and Spooner or Calvin portray the robot as someone with the weight of the world on his shoulders, a victim because of his very existence, resigned to his fate. Yet at the same time, appears to brighten when paid even the slightest compliment. He actually seems more human at times than the human cast.

There are some great ideas at work here, sadly not a lot of them are fully realized. Things like Spooner's reason for hating the robots, great idea, but the execution seemed to be tacked on. It was kind of like "Well, we need to explain the hatred. I got it! Here's a flashback, get it out of the way and move on quickly, there's already too much talking." Good idea, sadly it was there and gone in a flash. Also the idea of the evolution of the robots. This reminded me a lot of something you may or may not already be familiar with, Hugh the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was a cyborg who was disconnected from the hive mind of the Borg, and became an individual who led other, similarly freed, Borg out into space to create a new civilization. The concept of robots evolving naturally beyond the grip of the Three Laws was very reminiscent of that. What would happen if robots began to think for themselves? The reasoning was also great, but it was more of a footnote to the film rather than a developed theme.

The humor in the film worked to a degree, but it was another case similar to what happened to  Independence Day (coincidentally, also a Will Smith movie). That film's premise was dark, and the early trailers gave warning of dark and sinister things to come, then the movie came, that mood seemed to carry through, then Smith appeared and it turned into an action comedy. Here it works a bit better, as it doesn't turn quite so corny as that film did. The humor is much more organic here, albeit, a bit much. It's hard to talk about this as a positive without turning to the negative side of it. The humor worked, but would have worked better if there was about half the total amount. The jokes don't always land on their feet and this shouldn't be a case of through throw it at the wall and see what sticks.

I like the paranoia they attempt to build with Smith early on in the film. All of these robot related attacks and such keep happening to him, but of course no one believes him since he is "obviously" blinded by is irrational hatred of robots. I loved all of these instances, it was an attempt at building a menacing mood, a sense of real danger. Sadly, the script falls back to humor to alleviate that tension, which hurts Smith's credibility as a Detective.  Anyway, that build of menace could have been great, I am thankful for what was still there.

There are a few performances on the cusp of being good. Chi McBride is always entertaining on screen, but here he is saddled with a cliched role. You know the one, the boss doesn't believe the star detective and yanks his badge, only to be proved wrong later. Although he does have that great trailer shot blowing away the robot with the shotgun through the plate glass, great moment. Bridget Moynahan, I don't quite get the performance here, initially she is cold and calculating, much like the machines she surrounds herself with, then part way through she changes, but the motivations weren't terribly clear. It was as if something clicked and she new she had to do the right thing, problem is that clicking took place off camera. Bruce Greenwood gave a suitably slimy performance as Lawrence Robertson, the cruel corporate head of US Robotics. And Adrian Ricard was good in a comic relief role as Smith's Grandmother.

Will Smith, Will, Will, Will. How can you equally like, and dislike an actor for the same role in the same movie? Well Will has done it. Will Smith is an incredibly likeable screen presence. No matter how goofy or bad the role is, you end up liking him (witness the disaster Wild Wild West, horrible movie I would not subject myself to again, but Smith still had that aura about him). Here he is as aggravating as his is right for the part. If this was the straight adaptation of Asimov I had hoped for, he would have been a horrible choice, but as a summer blockbuster type movie, you can't go wrong. One maddening thing about his character was his constant use of the one-liner, which is more the fault of the script than anything on his part, but there are way too many and they are used at inappropriate times. But, when they hit, they are right on the money. Something else that I did not like, was his constant swagger. It was way too pronounced and it is used all the time, and I mean all, it was a bit much after awhile and didn't strike me as the walk of a detective on a big case. Things that were good, mainly his incredible charisma and presence, when on camera he commands your attention. My biggest thoughts on Smith would be, he could be one of the greats if he actually learned to act, most of his roles seem to be variations of himself, or at the least the same character. His emoting is blatant, there isn't a lot held below the surface, the biggest example was the obvious rubbing of his shoulder early in the movie, not giving anything away, it was easy to figure out there was no subtlety to it. Again, this is not criticism, so much as an observation, I have really enjoyed most of his movies.

There were some shots that were fantastic. The best would be Spooner's chase of the NS-5 through the cornfield. Now, wait a minute, I know there weren't any cornfields in this movie, but you do know that any movie that has a cornfield inevitably has a chase through them. Here, instead of corn we get rows of freshly made next generation robots standing in formation. Here Spooner is chasing one of them through this field. It is a great scene, the look, the feel, the row after row of identical robots. Another scene seemed to be taken right out of Kill Bill, there are three robots walking 'with a purpose' in slow motion down a hallway, the same way O-ren Ishii(Lucy Liu) and her body guards walked down a hallway. I even had that music from the Kill Bill trailer going in my head upon seeing the shot.

I think that the biggest problem with the movie was the script, there wasn't enough room in it for too much introspection. Every time we started to get some good dialogue going, usually involving Sonny, it was ended quickly and moved onto the next scene. There was also the cliched rogue cop, debadged by his superior who goes against the odds and his boss in an attempt to save the day, all with a quick one-liner to fire off. It's the role that Mel Gibson mastered in the Lethal Weapon series. The lines were clunky for the most part, reminiscent of Akiva Goldsman's work on Batman & Robin, not quite that bad though. Again, too much reliance on quick comedy, lack of development of any of the characters, Sonny fares the best.

Alex Proyas has served up a somewhat disappointing film, which is a shame considering his previous achievements. I still love his visual stylings, dark, cold, yet retaining a humanity to them that others have tried to achieve yet fail. And he had some really good camerawork in this film keeping focus where it needed to be, and during the final the constant motion casting us into the confusion the characters are experiencing. I will continue to look forward to his work and hopefully it will move back into Dark City territory again. 

In conclusion, it is enjoyable summer fare, although, like so many films it seems, could have been so much more. The good effects, some decent action, moments of clarity make it a movie to see, but keep your expectations lowered. It may help to not be familiar with the Asimov novel, it will keep those expectations at bay. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Final random thoughts.
-I read in another review that the title would have been better had it been iRobot as opposed to I, Robot. Probably due to the NS-5's design similarities to the iMac, iPod aesthetic as much as separating itself from the novel.
-It is similar to The Chronicles of Riddick, in that there are a lot of good, yet unexplored, ideas abandoned in execution.
-There is already talk of a sequel to shoot next year in Australia, there are enough ideas here to build on, maybe the next will have more intelligence.
-The movie takes place in 2035 and great attention was paid to Smith's Converse All-Star sneakers, circa 2004, his grandmother asks about them, but this is only 31 years in the future, surely she was alive and knew what they were. Plus there was no mention of what future footwear was like.
-Credits: Suggested by Isaac Asimov. A bit of an insult to Asimov's legacy if you ask me, he never suggested this, his suggestions had weight to them. Besides, his robot novels were nothing like this, the only connection is the three laws.

I think I've gone on way to long, thank you for bearing with me.
Recommended.