I, robot
Year of release : 2004
Run time : 1h50m
Genre : Sci Fi / Action
Cast : Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, Shia LaBeouf
The movie, directed by Alex Proyas, is based on Isaac Asimov’s 1950’s short story collection of the same name, incorporating his 3 laws of robotics.
Chicago, 1935. Detective Del Spooner hates robots although one saved his life. One day he sees a robot running on the street,with a purse, and he thinks it stole it, so he runs after it, only to find it was running to give a woman the inhaler, as she couldn’t breathe.
Del is called to a crime scene that everyone considers a suicide, as doctor Alfred Lanning fell from the window of his laboratory office. The scientist left a hologram message for Del, asking him to investigate his death. His colleagues tell him it’s an obvious suicide as the office door was locked from the inside, but Del doesn’t think so.
He talks to the CEO of the US Robotics company, Lawrence Robertson, and Lanning’s business partner, according to Del, the richest man in the world.
Robertson asks robo-psychologist Susan Calvin to assist Del with anything he needs. She tells Del she didn’t think Lanning was a suicidal. They were about to distribute the largest shipment of robots ever, as they invented a new breed, recalling the older robot versions. Calvin shows Del Lanning’s first creation, artificial intelligence VIKI, which controls the whole building, and the robots, and designed most of Chicago’s protective systems.
When they enter Lanning’s office, they find the book Hansel and Gretel, and Del throws a chair against the window, to see how easy it breaks, realizing the windows are safety glass. He looks through the lab, thinking the k1ller is still inside, and while the good doctor tells him about how a robot can’t harm a human being (the first law of robotics) a robot jumps from the box with robot pieces, feeling threatened, which doesn’t deactivate upon command, and jumps out of the broken window, when the doctor asks VIKI to seal the lab.
The two of them go to the US Robotics Assembly plant, for Del injured the robot badly, and that would be the place it would go to to fix itself.
Looking through the files, Calvin sees that instead of 1000 robots, 1001 are showing. The doctor tells him it would take 3 weeks to go through all the robots to see which one is the one Del sh0t, so Del decides to sho0t them, for a robot is not allowed to defend itself if it violates a direct order from a human.
He sho0ts one, and when wanting to sho0t another, he sees the one he wants moving in line. He chases after it, and when it was about to get away (it jumped on a high building), it’s caught by the police.
Interviewing the robot, it tells Del it didn’t murder Lanning. It also tells him his name is Sonny, that it can dream, and that it was hiding because it was frightened.
Robertson comes with his lawyers and takes Sonny, saying it’s gonna be checked to see if it’s faulty machinery, and will be decommissioned. Also, slaps them with a gag order, as they will create panic if they say a robot k1lled Lanning.
Talking to his superior, he says something which makes him think he’s supposed to find something out, as clues are laid in front of him, but he just can’t see them.
He goes to Lanning’s house (gorgeous house, by the way), which is for some unknown reason scheduled for demolition ! And while he is looking around, the demolition robot activates, and starts demolishing the house with him in it.
He manages to escape, and he also saves the cat. My guess is, the house was not scheduled for demolition, you don’t do that right after someone dies, and leave the cat inside!
Del starts thinking someone from the USR was using his USR home system to spy on him.
When talking to his grandmother (he loves her pies, and he gave her the cat), she says something about breadcrumbs, which makes him think again, that Lanning left him clues. In his interviews he said the robots could have dreams and secrets.
When driving, Del asks VIKI to give him access to the messages between Lanning and Robertson.
It plays music for him, lets Robertson know what Del asked it, and 2 USR trucks filled with robots get to his car, one getting in front of it, one behind. Del takes control of his car (as it was self driving), and tries to avoid crashing into the truck in the front, as robots are jumping onto his car, trying to k1ll him.
Del barely manages to survive, as the AI operated trucks were trying to crush his car, and when telling his superior about it, he’s asking for his badge, as the road is clean, there are no destroyed robots (there was an AI cleaning truck cleaning everything off the street after it happened, before the police showed up).
Del believes now more than ever Robertson k1lled Lanning and now wants to k1ll him. But what if it’s not Robertson, and it’s something much worse than it?
I personally enjoyed the movie.
I didn’t understand Del’s hatred for robots, considering one saved his life. His reasoning is the robot saved him instead of saving a 12 year old girl, as due to the robot’s estimation she had a lower chance of survival.
Lanning kept on talking about a “ghost in the machine” in his interviews, probably trying to leave bread crumbs for the ones investigating.
The future has self driving cars, and when Del drives the car the good doctor freaks out, being seen as a bad thing. Gas is seen as bad too by the good doctor.
I hated Calvin’s outfits. They were so ugly and manly.
I honestly hope they didn’t destroy that beautiful house.
The acting was good.
Shia LaBeouf has a small role.
The visual effects were good and stand the test of time.
The soundtrack by Marco Beltrami was good.
Cinema Score audiences graded the movie an A-, and it received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.
The movie grossed a little over 353 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of around 120 million dollars.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was first attached to the project but didn’t have time to play in it. Denzel Washington was also offered the role , after Arnold quit it.
Rating : Worth a watch !