I, Robot (2004)

Title: I, Robot
Director: Alex Proyas
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Highs: Interesting not so distant future look.
Lows: Nothing new here to see.
RhynoBot Grade: B

"AH, HELL NO!" That there is a Fresh Prince staple and is only a matter of time before he spouts those words just like Arnie's, "I'll be back". I wish I could say I loved this movie but I can't. Don't get me wrong it is very entertaining, lots of thrills, lots of action, and Will Smith is great at playing the cop on the edge. But what I find disappointing is that there isn't anything here that we haven't seen already a million times. It basically follows the standard Hollywood cop movie formula: friend of cop gets killed, no one but said cop believes it was a homicide, cop sets off to find killed against departments wishes, cop tracks down killer but wait there's a twist - it's not who the cop thinks it is after all. Standard fair with some cool futuristic technology inserted. The movie actually reminded me a lot of Minority Report in the style and imagery, not a bad thing since that movie had loads of style, probably the best thing about it. The most interesting aspect of the movie is the use of Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotic", essentially: 1. Robot may not harm humans, 2. Robot must obey all orders by human, 3. Robot must protect own existence. This is the basic premise for the movie, moreover, what happens when these laws are in conflict with each other. I will not proclaim to be an Asimov expert, since I have never read any of his work, but it would seem prudent to provide sufficient information regarding the man's theories of robotics and artificial intelligence if you are going to make it the central theme for your movie. I feel director Alex Proyas falls short here. His respect for Asimov is obvious but his implementation is lacking in that the theory takes a backseat to the explosions. Ultimately I blame the studio, god forbid they release an intelligent movie that makes people think. One final complaint - if you are going to put a scene in a movie with a woman showering, of which the only reason to do so is to show the woman naked, then for god's sake you better show her naked. That scene was completely pointless and irritating. I digress. Despite it's obvious limitations I was entertained by the action, the technology, and of course Will Smith.

This is an good eye candy movie, you should see it.