I, Robot

I hate it when a potentially thought-provoking film ends up being a simple action ride with only one goal: entertainment. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I refuse to be only entertained with such a topic. On top of that, everyone is praising the special effects, but to me that ubiquitous CGI eye pounding was terribly annoying, only surpassed by Will Smith in the main role – I hate his typical cool pose. Proyas’ excellent direction saves things a little and I, Robot is at least watchable – I even felt some tension by the end… but I’d much rather see this theme approached in another way. And only imagining how Asimov’s “Foundation” will turn out in the hands of Emmerich brings tears to my eyes. (30/06/2009)

At first, I took a long time to get used to the unusual form, but the second projection confirmed a visually refined spectacle and a thought-provoking story. Proyas rocks again, Smith is in top form like never before, and Sonny is the best partner I can imagine. Over the years, Robot has also become almost a classic because there are not many action movies combined with a clever thriller side. (21/11/2005)

A very solid film with flawless special effects that I believe will not become a sci-fi classic like, for instance, Blade Runner. It lacks a deeper dimension of thought for that, its ambition is only to entertain, nothing more. Which, of course, is no small feat, and it delivers without problem. The futuristic vision was very impressive, some of it really amused me, because the horizon of 30 years is not that far away, the creators really let their imagination run wild in places. Will Smith with his swagger is an advert for testosterone, some of the action sequences were outstanding (especially Smith's duel with the robots in the tunnel) and the whole thing ran like a Swiss watch without a hitch. Cool. (05/09/2004)

I, Robot is a spectacular, technically flawless action flick for mainstream popcorn fans, but even more discerning viewers will enjoy it. But any talk of highly intelligent entertainment in the mold of Minority Report is out of line. The film’s screenplay is simple and unsophisticated, with banal dialogue and a sizable portion of clichés. The screenplay is brought up to the level of high-quality entertainment only by director Alex Proyas, thanks to whom the result is dynamic enough not to be boring, and paranoid and disturbing enough to be enthralling. (14/09/2004)

Although this is Proyas’ worst ever picture, it is still on a high quality level. It’s proof that a “summer blockbuster" isn’t always necessarily a dumb movie that you have to switch off your brain for and suffer laboring through two hours of movie just to see a quarter hour of new generation CGI effects. I have two fundamental objections to make and neither of them is “regular". Firstly I’m unsure of what this has to do with Asimov. If you’ve read his books, you will be disappointed with it, if not, then the name will mean nothing to you. Apart from the three laws of robotics (which are ignored here anyhow), a couple of names and one pleasant nod in the factory, we get no hint of Asimov. My second objection concerns Alex himself for abandoning his habit of making cult movies not made just for the masses. The first objection just surprises me, but the second is understandable, because he wanted to film an action sci-fi that would enjoy commercial success and he succeeded in that to the maximum. (02/09/2004)