No, I am Robot

It was a slick production at the time, but most people I know said it was a horrendous take of Isaac Asimov's work.

In the future, Spooner is a cop on the edge, always looking out for the big bad menace of the robots. And then he is handed a case in which it looks like a robot is a killer... although how is that possible when they all obey the Three Laws and you need to be a human to be a killer. What then follows is a random set of scenes as Spooner wanders from one plot point to the next for no readable credible reason, interrupted by CGI sequences of robots all over the place. Then, finally, the robots enact Law Zero, and it can only be solved by more CGI. And lots of fancy camera moves.

Will Smith is in standard 'good guy' mode, and doesn't really get stretched acting wise. Bridget Moynahan has to deliberately not act to portray Susan Calvin, but still manages to slip in some subtle performances, although they are very overt subtle performances because people have to read it. I listened more carefully to hear Alan Tudyk's performance, which was nice. And Chi McBride, James Cromwell and Bruce Greenwood help fill out named performances.

Looking back now, this just doesn't do anything interesting. Any mass robot movie is going to end up with the mass robots turning against people, and this has no surprises there. Next time, can we do better peoples?

[END]