*** I, Robot

I, Robot -- 2004; stars Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan; directed by Alex Proyas

My feelings about this film are a bit complex, since I'm a long-time fan of Isaac Asimov's "positronic robot" series of stories. The film isn't actually based on any of them, but makes use of elements of the background -- the company US Robots, some of the characters (Susan Calvin, Alfred Lanning), and most importantly, the Three Laws of Robotics. In the film, Will Smith plays homicide detective Del Spooner, who has a personal grudge against robots. But he also has a personal connection to the father of the industry, Dr. Alfred Lanning, and recieves a message from him when he falls to his death from his office. The only one present on the scene was an experimental robot called "Sonny." Everyone, including his cheif, tells Spooner that the robot cannot possibly be responsible, but Spooner knows something is fishy -- and, of course, he turns out to be right, or there wouldn't be much of a film.

I watched this mainly curious to see how they would resolve the apparent contradiction between the First Law of Robotics ("A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") and the scenes shown in the trailer, which show robots running amok and apparently harming humans wholesale. I would have been very annoyed if they had simply had the robots disobeying the law for no apparent reason.

Fortunately, however, they avoided this, and in fact, while the story is not one Asimov would ever have written (too dependent on action, not enough on deduction) they did manage to stay true to themes he worked with over the course of his career. So my complaints in this regard are minor. True, Bridget Moynahan is much too good looking (and human) to be the Susan Calvin that Asimov imagined, but I thought her acting was decent for the part as it was written.

As an action film -- well, it had some moments. The effects are highly variable, some terrific (the robots themselves are pretty spiffy), some not so great (I thought the car chase scenes were kind of hokey). And the over-all "look and feel" of the future portrayed wasn't anything to particularly impress.

Pretty well fits my three-star definition: worthwhile entertainment, but not a "must-see."