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| 7/22/2004 |
| I Robot, You D.J. Jazzy Jeff |
A Movie Review
by Wes Bennett
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To make a long story shorter, the new sci-fi/action film “I, Robot” is better than you might expect, but not good enough to recommend over better films such as “Anchorman”, “Fahrenheit 9/11” or “Spiderman 2.”
Science Fiction movies from the 1970s that are set in the year 2000 with flying cars and ray-guns look completely absurd. In the real 2004 we have CDs, cell phones, the internet, George Foreman grills and those self check-out lines at the grocery store, but nothing that major has really changed in the last 30 years. I for one am skeptical that in the next 30 years we are going to make so much progress that we will have the widespread use of robots in society. More than likely, this film will be scoffed at by people in the future who have no robots.
Will Smith plays Del Spooner, an old-school Chicago cop in the year 2035, who has hated robots ever since a traumatic incident and is convinced that they could represent a threat to mankind.
When robotics inventor and Spooner’s personal friend, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell) dies at the hands of a robot named Sonny, investigators quickly dismiss the death as suicide. It is accepted as fact that robots can not break the three laws they are programmed with that protect humans.
Lanning leaves Spooner with a pre-death holographic recording that offers vague clues to his murder and suggests there are possible problems with the release of the new NS-5 robots. Spooner recruits the beautiful USR psychologist Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan of “The Recruit”) to help him with the case despite the obstacles thrown at him by the sinister USR CEO Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood) whose refusal to stop the release of the new robots result in disastrous consequences.
Perhaps the most memorable part of the film is the robot Sonny who is visually and conceptually a breathtaking piece of work. Skeletal yet fluid, with piercing blue eyes and a translucent skin, Sonny has a childlike curiosity about his own metaphysics and nature that makes the audience think of him as a real character, if not someone that has a personality and perhaps even a soul.
Will Smith as the leading man is able to appeal to the audience on a personal level because of his comedy background, but is also a credible action hero because of his increased size.
Smith essentially only makes one movie every year and “I, Robot” will not be remembered as one of his best films such as “Enemy of the State” or the popular “Independence Day,” but is much better than the failures of “Wild, Wild West” and “Men in Black II.”
Although "I, Robot" isn’t exactly a deep, thought-provoking film, it does delivers gripping action, such as a scene in a tunnel, in which two trucks full of robots attack Spooner's car and try to murder him by crashing his car.
I was worried that the previews had given too much information away. It also seemed really ridiculous that Will Smith was irrationally fearful of robots and he would just happen to be the cop who would make these important discoveries. But the film has a few tricks up it’s sleeve and it’s overall conclusion is smarter and more complex than I would have thought. One should keep in mind that this story isn’t some cheesy, second-rate screenplay, its actually based on classic science-fiction.
In the end, “I, Robot” is a more entertaining film than the recent Ben Affleck movie “Paycheck.” But I would only recommend going to see this if you have already seen all of the better pictures that are still out in theaters right now.
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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