Will Smith's best movie work is considered to be in Ali and Six Degress of Separation. I also think he was remarkable in Independence Day, almost as remarkable as one of my favorite actors, Brent Spiner. And, let's not overlook that despite detractors, Smith does get plenty jiggy on his better raps. I think he has earned his keep.

Oops! I mentioned Muhammad Ali, a true uppity Negro in his prime. Another 'she can't say that' for your list, eh, TDavid?

Simply judging by the TV trailers, I don't really see how anyone could have gone into this thinking it was going to be pure and true Asimov.
The shoot-em-up scenes that you said so disagreed with the Asimov works... well, they were in the previews!

Also, about Will Smith... of course his character will be the same as MiB, it's been the same through Men In Black, Enemy of the State, and Independence Day (Law enforcement or military type caught up in the rush of a conspiracy, gets sucked into it, etc.) Again, I don't see how you could really expect much else from him at this point, in a film like this.

Last quip - Don't speak for ALL geeks! After all, what evidence do you have that there wasn't some brilliant security device preventing the mainframe from being hacked?... But that's off the point, a tiny line that is spoken off-handedly and is irrelevant to the plot. To me, the underlying Cautionary Tale-type warning on technology was all TOO plausible. And that's what counts.

O' resident comment shit stirrer - I think Will Smith did an outstanding job in Ali (his best work I've seen, in fact) but that's not the film I reviewed here, yanno?

And MD are you trying to suggest that Smith is not typed as a science fiction action flick guy?

Perhaps he should go more the path of Denzel Washington if anybody will ever take him seriously on film. Lest we all forget the masterpiece (sarcasm) Wild Wild West that has taken Smith a couple years to live down. Personally I didn't care for Smith in MIB or Independence Day. I would have rather seen Jamie Foxx or Chris Rock opposite Tommy Lee Jones in MIB if I'm being honest. Musically, Smith has a good voice and the dude is buff and in good shape so I can see why the ladies might be into him, but I don't see where pictures of him in the shower have much of anything to do with I, Robot.

Then again the same thing could be said for a hundred horror flicks where women are in the nude just before getting wacked. It's eye candy for the ladies (former) and men (latter).

[edited]

Andrew - Why don't you go drop down a few bones and actually see the film and then come back to this review and LMK how much of what I wrote you (still) disagree with?

Otherwise if you are/were basing your commentary going solely off seeing the trailers than you are not even in the same ballpark for judging the film.

In the meantime, however, thank you for reinforcing the whole point -- they whored out Asimov's good name and pissed on his fanbase with a jumbled mess of implausible plot and structure.

We all knew, yes, obviously it wasn't going to be an Isaac Asimov film -- the guy (RIP) has been dead for a little awhile -- but if they are going to use Asimov's name and title of his famous collection of stories than at least they should get the implementation of the Three Laws of Robotics correct. Shaking those laws and their implementation destroys any plausible future scenario involving these robots.

There are many, many fascinating scientific discussions about the future of robots, and I've blogged some of them like: Robots, Unemployment and the future impact of image processing. For those who are interested in this subject, it goes far deeper than was explored in this rather weak script.

Fans of Asimov know he would never have put his name on this Hollywood action trash. I was really hoping that somewhere buried in the action crap there would be some semblance of the stories I so enjoyed as a child. Total mistake :(

Whoever is minding Asimov's estate should be taken out back and whipped for giving up his name for this garbage.

I gave the example of the car chase as an example of just one (of many) implausible scenarios in this movie. Implausibility is the main problem with this film and that was something that Asimov would not have had trouble with had he penned the screenplay adaption. I could go on and on if I really want to totally spoil what IMO is already damaged goods.

Despite my negative review of the film, I really, really wanted to like this film. I looked forward to it but what I expected to get out of it and what I saw was a letdown.

Let's see: take a car and spin it 360 degrees at over 100 miles per hour fighting against an army of robots and then have the car be successfully driven out of the way of danger, only to crash into a concrete barricade and leave the protagnist with a few cuts above his head and a little blood? Yeah, that's real plausible.

And as a viewer -- geek or not (and I don't speak for "all" geeks so not sure where you got that) I understand the concept of filling in the holes and being able to think through some of the gaps in plot but there are just too many holes in this movie.

And as for using trailers to gauge the quality of a movie? I've never found that a successful barometer of any movie. Practically any movie can be edited down and mixed for a two minute clip that looks interesting. Monkies could make interesting trailers if given enough time.

(that was a joke)

Alien vs. Predator looks like the next Spiderman if you go by the trailers that much though. I like the whole idea of pitting bad guys against each other. If interested, check out what I had to say about Jason vs. Freddy

Here's something Asimov -- who died on April 6, 1992 BTW -- actually said about his robot stories:

"In the 1920's science fiction was becoming a popular art form for the first time ..... and one of the stock plots .... was that of the invention of a robot .... Under the influence of the well-known deeds and ultimate fate of Frankenstein and Rossum, there seemed only one change to be rung on this plot - robots were created and destroyed their creator ... I quickly grew tired of this dull hundred-times-told tale .... Knowledge has its dangers, yes, but is the response to be a retreat from knowledge? .... I began in 1940, to write robot stories of my own - but robot stories of a new variety ...... My robots were machines designed by engineers, not pseudo-men created by blasphemers"

I thought you might enjoy knowing that a new website campaign, "3 Laws Unsafe," which critiques Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, has just been launched by the nonprofit I work at.

Here's a link to the meat of it: http://www.asimovlaws.com/articles/.

Thanks for your excellent blog. Take care.

Great stuff, Christian. Thanks for sharing :)

TDavid, i myself am also a self-confessed geek, but one of filmic persuasion. As such, although I, Robot was riddled with holes and had some truly diabolical expositionairy dailogue stretches, i found the visual invention to be stunning.

This was a great review though, and i agree with pretty much everything you say, except for the part about summer blockbusters being on a downward slide. The Hulk, Spiderman 1 & 2, Pirates Of The Carribean, Hellboy and loads that i'm forgetting have all been exceptional.

But thoughtful stuff here, and keep up the good work, is what The Duke would ask.