I, Robot

Alex Proyas 2004

In the future we will all have a robots. They will do all those annoying menial tasks and sound eerily like Roddy McDowall. But don’t get too complacent, one day they might rise up and kill us all, or possibly just malfunction.

Detective Del “Spoon” Spooner (Will Smith) doesn’t like robots, so when called to investigate the apparent motiveless suicide of eminent Robotics expert Dr Lanning (James “that’ll do Pig” Cromwell) Spooner suspects that there is some foul play afoot. The main suspect seems to be a Robot, but due to the 3 laws (which basically do not allow the harming of humans in any way) this cannot be true, or can it?

Alex Proyas is best known for “The Crow” which is simply one of the best films ever made. “I, Robot” is basically Proyas’ attempt at breaking into the mainstream and a damn good attempt it is too. The special effects are outstanding, some of the best I have seen in a long time and the plot is a nice little whodunit that keeps you guessing till the end.

Now of course very few films are perfect and I have to say this film does have a few annoyances that slightly spoilt it for me. I have never been a Will Smith fan, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, it seems you can’t keep Will Smith from being Will Smith even when he’s meant to be playing the part of someone else. It seems even impending death can’t keep him from making hilarious (or at least the scriptwriter thought they were hilarious) quips, which rather diluted the tension.

This film also occasionally came across as one big Audi advert. I mean there is subtle, and then there is this film, which seems to see how often it can get the Audi logo onscreen. But its not just Audi…JVC, Converse, if I was looking harder I would have found more.

While this film has its faults, it is a great piece of entertainment, and while it won’t change your life or make you want to invest in Robotics, it might make you want to buy an Audi.