I,Robot
#338
I,Robot was released in 2004 and directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow, Knowing) and stars Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan and James Cromwell.
The movie follows a cop that is against robots, which are now fully integrated into human society and have never committed a crime. Now he is investigating the apparent suicide of their inventor Dr Lanning however signs point to a robot conspiracy within the company.
This movie was fairly enjoyable when it came out in 2004, however upon watching this now its apparent that the movie hasn’t aged well, its over use of CGI makes the film very jarring and unfortunately, the performance is very average for Will Smith.
This movie feels like a paycheck for Will Smith, there isn’t much effort put into his performance, and he plays a similar kind of character to that of I Am Legend.
This movie could have been something quite more impressive, its dystopian future is grand and if we had spent a little more time seeing the robot interactions with humans, there would be more to be invested in here, unfortunately the personal story we are given for Will Smith’s character isn’t that engaging.
Its a very average looking movie too, theres lots of post Matrix influence here, including the use of bullet time and it really makes films suffer, we’ve seen this with so many films after the success and innovation that The Matrix brought.
The film actually started strong with a murder mystery vibe in a dystopian world, however it just loses its way and ends up giving Will Smith a gun and a disposable bunch of robots.
★★½ One of Will Smith’s weakest and generic performances, a dull plot and a predictable outcome.
