I, Robot

20th Century Fox presents

Staring: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell

Directed by: Alex Proyas

Rating: ***1/2

Plot: Will Smith plays Detective Del Spooner and he hates robots, so when he believes a new line of robots have a problem and kill people no one really listens to him. He is sent to investigate the suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning the man who created robot technology played by James Cromwell (The guy from Babe, the talking pig movie, that movie rocked by the way!!!) but he believes a robot found in Dr. Lanning's lab killed him. Guess what he was right and the robots have a plan and some serious robot ass kicking ensues, Will Smith style beyatch.

Acting: Now don't get me wrong I really like Will Smith he seems like a cool guy. Independence Day in my eyes is a classic and he was a big part of it. He was great in the Men In Black movies and he has had some crap movies like Wild Wild West (Hahaha) but returns the favor by making really great performances in movies like Ali. Here he plays a pissed off cop with robots in his cross hairs. He plays the movie safe though, doing what he knows best, being a bad ass and a smart ass at the same time. Actually he does a lot with the script he was given, sadly his surronding cast was just not there. Sometimes literally. Alan Tudyk voices Sonny the robot suspected of killed the good doctor. His voice is quit calming actually and his character has more depth then most of the human characters, which is extremely sad if you think about it. Sonny asks very inspired questions to the detective and a doctor like talking about emotions and death. Now the rest of the human actors did not pull their weight, Bridget Moynahan plays Dr. Calvin the woman working with the dead Dr. Lanning and she gave the robots a human face and crap. Sadly her character is about as real as the robots on screen. She cries a lot but its never really clear why, and constantly she asks Will Smith's character the same type of questions over and over again. She was the typical female scientist from a lot of movies like these. James Cromwell doesn't do much in this movie since his character is dead so I'll move on. Back to Will Smith his character is fine until about half way through the movie when we learn about his motivation for his hatred for robots. I won't give anything but I will tell you this, it makes no sense. If you just put it to mind you'll really go "what?". But whatever, now I must comment on something in this movie. Shia LaBeouf (goofiest name EVER!) the guy from the second season of project green light that nobody watched. Well for some reason he is in this movie and he sucks so hard he could take nails out of wood. His character is pointless he plays some annoying kid who comes in at the beginning randomly and then comes back at the end. Every time he was on screen I was asking myself why he sucks so bad, I couldn't figure out, it might because he looked like a rat, anyway if they cut him from the movie I swear this thing could have been great haha.

Directing/Writing: Alex Proyas has directed some hard core movies like Dark City and the Crow, two really kick ass movies. Now I must say he has an amazing eye. The movie looks great, the atmosphere was perfect. A future world with humans living side by side with robots, you'll be amazed I promise. Some small things stood out to me which I thought were cool. Like the size of cell phones and the cars and stuff. Sadly the script does not keep up with Proyas talents. The movie is a basic cop following the crumbs that are obvious to end up in a sictuation the audience basically knew was coming. Now it tries to make up with this with some kick ass action scenes. One where robots attack Smith while he's driving. Also the final action scene is really hard core but it doesn't help the movies lack luster plot and half assed acting work. Also the movies tries too hard to be funny, so a lot of the stuff hits and misses, but when Will Smith hits it, it's like a Barry Bonds homer, out in the park baby. Sadly though leaving the theatre I felt like I've seen it all before. The movie doesn't stick it's not as amazing as it should have been. I really believe if they made a movie really well based off of Isaac Asimov's stories you'd have the best sci-fi movie ever. But since studios only care about the buck and getting kids in the theatres that would never happen. I thought it was hilarious that since all they used from Asimov's stuff were the names and the three robot laws. So at the end of the movie I saw they said the movie was Suggested by: Isaac Asimov, that was hilarious. So yeah if your a fan of the books you may want to avoid this movie because your head might pop off in anger while watching it.

Overall: It's a great summer ride, with a great look and a couple decent action scenes. Sadly though it could have been better and the movie falls flat too many times to make it great. Also Shia LaBeouf? What was that seriously? They should never put him in movies. Anyway this review is over, I must go smash my toaster with a bat right now before it kills me in my sleep.