While certainly not the most amazing movie ever, I, Robot will probably not leaving you wearing someone else’s underwear. The special effects were pretty good, if possibly overdone and slightly undercooked. This is a movie where you need to suspend your disbelief to make it good. Obviously this has to happen with most movies, but if you start in with the “Ohgeezhe’dneverdothat,that’sstupid” lines, the movie won’t be very good for you. But, on the other hand, if you start in with the “Whoacoolhe’srunningonthewallsanddoinga
flipthroughtheairthatwassoawesomedudewhoa” lines, it will be good for you. So suspend your disbelief, and fall into the moment.

I felt that the acting was not necessarily the best. Will Smith, of course, was good as always, but it seemed like maybe he was just warming up the whole time. Supporting roles, comprised of actors I’ve never heard of, were merely alright. The voice of the main robot was emotionless and boring, so I guess that part was pretty good.

It may be an important distinction that this movie is not based on the book of the same name (curse them for filling the cover with their movie picture). It is more like they read all the Asimov books about robots, thought carefully, and came up with a new story set in that universe. In fact, the movie does not even claim to be based on the book, I believe at the end the credits say “suggested by”, which is, in my mind, entirely reasonable. Props to the makers for quoting the Three Laws in the beginning word for word.

Also, the product placement in that movie was sick. An atrocity, really. Quickly: JVC, Converse (this one was really obscene), FedEx, and Audi.

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