I, (Think Therefore I Am) Robot

On Sunday, my Auntee Debra took me to see Will Smith’s latest I, Robot. This movie looked kind of stupid to me, based on the commercials. Alex Proyas (of Dark City and The Crow) directed it, so I was hopeful it wouldn’t be as dumb as the commercials made it look.

Fortunately, it wasn’t as dumb as I thought it would be...but at the same time, it isn’t exactly a great movie, either. There are actually a lot of good points to the movie, though. I liked that it was set in the near future (the year 2035). It takes place in Chicago and mixed in with the futuristic buildings are Chicago landmarks like The Sears Tower, John Hancock Building, and Marina City. The performances are pretty good. Will Smith essentially plays the same action movie character he has in previous films. However, there is a little more depth as his character has issues with robots that aren’t as predictable as you’d think. Also, this movie has a nice pace to it. It’s nearly two hours long, but it almost flies by. Even with the things I didn’t like about it, the movie is never boring.

The thing with this movie is that I didn’t really hate anything about it...what I didn’t like was kind of “meh.” The special effects range from very good (the exterior shots, mostly) to video game-like (many action scenes with the robots). Like the special effects in general, the action scenes also range from very good (when the robots attack the car and when Will is trapped in a house that is being demolished) to video game-like (when the robots attack Will and the woman during the climax).

The actual plot is a little smarter than a dumb blockbuster and has some genuine surprises. However, some parts of the mystery are really easy to figure out (I knew who the real villain was pretty quickly). Also, the influence of the Matrix and Terminator films is very evident. There are scenes late in the film that recall “The Second Renaissance Part II” from The Animatrix not so much in how they’re done, but in what they represent. Anyone who remembers how the machines came to power from the Terminator films will see some parallels in the later scenes of I, Robot as well. It’s kind of sad that a film based on a book that predated both The Matrix and The Terminator looks to those films for inspiration.

Overall, I’ll say that this is a movie that I almost liked. If I were to give it a star rating, it would probably be two-and-a-half stars. It’s so close to being good. It seemed like if they tried just a little bit harder that they would’ve had a great movie. Maybe after I see it a couple more times it’ll grow on me. However, it’s not in the league of an X2 or even The Matrix Reloaded (I liked it, so sue me). But at least it’s a whole lot better than Bad Boys II.