I, Robot: Blu-ray Movie Review (2008)

Like so many science fiction movies, Alex Proyas’ “I, Robot” peers into the future and sees a wealth of technology it doesn’t like or trust.

In this case, it sees robots, one for every five people in the United States alone.

As the film opens, it’s 2035 and these gleaming automatons are everywhere, weaving through Chicago’s crowded streets with their weirdly translucent faces and good manners.

Created by Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), the robots are a cheerfully enslaved race of circuitry and metal that do the work we don’t want to do while abiding by three laws--they must never injure humans or allow them to be injured, they must obey humans unless doing so would injure a human, and they must protect their own existence, unless doing so would go against the first two laws.

For most, that philosophy is sound--it covers the bases. But for Will Smith’s Detective Del Spooner, there are holes in those laws that are worth worrying about, particularly when Dr. Lanning is found dead.

The film's first-rate action and special effects sequences are thrilling, especially at the end and particularly given its high-definition transfer, which just enhances everything.

As for Smith, he holds the movie together with a performance he has given before in other, similar films, but the good news is that the script doesn't let him down. It gives him enough funny, throwaway lines to make this movie a swell crowdpleaser.

PG-13. Grade: B