I, Robot

I, Robot Movie PosterLeah and I went to see I, Robot on Friday night. I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be much like the book, and quite possibly, I. Asimov would be spinning in his grave knowing what had been done to his book, but I like action movies, I like sci-fi and I like Will Smith as an action hero. So it all sounded good. To boot, Alex Proyas, who directed Dark City, one of my favourite films, was at the helm.

Proyas certainly lived up to his billing as a stylish director. He sets visual mood & tone very well, and keeps an internal consistency better than most sci-fi directors. The writing, however, was pretty bad. I didn’t expect much, but the dialogue in this film was simply atrocious. So wooden, the actors seemed to have a hard time even saying their lines; nothing sounded natural. Really, the dialogue ruins this movie.

The storyline was decent enough (man suspects robots, robots rebel, man saves people with help of good robot), if predictable. The film borrows (perhaps) more from the Terminator & Matrix series as it does from the original story, but hey – those were fun movies!

The film shares a lot visually with the recent Minority Report, particularly with the automated cars that can move in any direction, and the car-hangar garages. Was the artistic director the same on these films? Or is there some agreement on what near-future earth will be like that they all carry across? At any rate, it’s interesting.

I can’t say I recommend that you see this film (well, there is a Will Smith shower scene, but it’s a little short to pay $10.50 for), but it does pass the time, and the theatre is likely air conditioned, which is nice given how hot it is out right now. If that’s not enough reason for, wait until it arrives on DVD.

2 Replies to “I, Robot”

  1. i’m boycotting the movie since i lived a block from their infamous “machine gun all night filming” they did for a week that kept me awake.

  2. i’m boycotting the movie since i lived a block from their infamous “machine gun all night filming” they did for a week that kept me awake.

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