"I, Robot" Computes a Winner

Talk about famous last words. At least, that’s what techno-phobic homicide detective Del ‘Spoon’ Spooner (Will Smith) believes. After a senseless tragedy, he refuses to accept that robots are harmless, no matter how intricate and perfect their programming. But after friend and engineer – as well as author of the three rules that revolutionized robotics – USR scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell) seemingly commits suicide, maybe Spoon isn’t as neurotic as everyone believes.

Why? Because lurking in the scientist’s office is the latest USR product, an NS-5 robot with the ability to break the three rules. Did this robot murder Lanning? The ramifications if so could be devastating, and on the eve of the largest robotic rollout in company history URS owner and CEO Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood) doesn’t even want to consider the possibility.

Ordered to let it drop by his superiors, all involved believing this is nothing more than a malfunction and not cause for worry, Spoon just can’t let things alone, certain Lanning’s death is a clue leading him to a larger conspiracy. With the help of skeptical USR robotic psychiatrist Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), the detective starts to uncover the truth, and what he discovers will change the face of the human race forever.

Based on the works of Isaac Asimov, “Dark City” and “The Crow” director Alex Proyas has created a stunningly esoteric and dangerous future world that is surprisingly effective. Much like Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” half the fun of “I, Robot” is examining the director’s vision of the future, but also like that prior epic Proyas never lets his visual pyrotechnics overwhelm his story. The screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman is rich with big ideas and multi-layered intelligence. And if it does finally stumble at the end, getting there is so much fun, so thought-provoking, forgiving this third act slippage is far more easy than it probably should be.

The reasons for this are many, but most have to deal with the deft way Proyas balances the intricacies of Asimov’s theories on robotic evolution with the requirements of a big budget action spectacular. I particularly liked the way the director treats his main CGI star, the confused and soul-searching robot Sonny (voiced with quiet resolve by “Dodgeball” pirate Alan Tudyk). For the most part, Sonny is seamlessly integrated into the picture. Not since Gollum has a computer-generated character been used so effectively. His story is deeply effecting, and I was really moved by his plight.

Don’t get me wrong. The action in “I, Robot” is pretty darn spectacular. Much like his work on “The Crow,” Proyas lets the violence come in fits and starts, unleashing brief flourishes if only to remind the audience that the world of 2035 can be just as dangerous and unsettling as the our world today. For me, the best of these moments is Spoon’s escape from a mansion being demolished by an obscenely large robotic machine. It’s a quick scene, loud and chaotic, yet it is also tense and terrifying and sets the stage for the eventual revolution to come for more effectively than many of the scenes that come after it.

Said revolution, however, is where things unfortunately start to go wrong for the flick. While impressive on a visual level, the fact three characters can quell this worldwide robotic revolt is a tad on the silly side. And while the action is undeniably impressive – the look on Smith’s face as an army of robots climb up to his position like silver-chromed spiders is priceless – it doesn’t really matter. It is as if Proyas and his writers have backed themselves into a corner and don’t have a clue how to bring their tale to a head, and much like “Total Recall” decide to go out on a coda of super-human violence instead of finding something intelligent to say.

Still, so much does work this final frame collapse does not bother me half as much as it probably should. The director gets so much right – from the look of the iMac inspired robots to Marco Beltrami’s eerie score to Patrick Tatopoulos’ stunning production design – I can’t help but applaud his vision. He also manages to keep Smith in check, the actor delivering an effectively restrained performance that’s far better than the movie’s absurdly silly trailers led me to believe. Sure it’s a star turn, and thus without much in the way of too much depth, but Smith is still effective in the role all the same, easily making me remember why we like him so much to begin with.

For the most part, the other actors in the film do what they can but other than Tudyk – whose character is completely computer generated – the roles they are playing are all types and not flesh and blood human beings. As much as Greenwood, Moynahan, Cromwell and the rest try, they can’t escape their character’s single dimensions. As hard as Vintar and Goldsman work to bring multiple dimensions to their CGI star Sonny, they forget to do the same for the human counterparts and as such the film suffers just a little bit because of it.