I like the paranoia they attempt to build with Smith early on in the film. All of these robot related attacks and such keep happening to him, but of course no one believes him since he is "obviously" blinded by is irrational hatred of robots. I loved all of these instances, it was an attempt at building a menacing mood, a sense of real danger. Sadly, the script falls back to humor to alleviate that tension, which hurts Smith's credibility as a Detective. Anyway, that build of menace could have been great, I am thankful for what was still there.

There are a few performances on the cusp of being good. Chi McBride is always entertaining on screen, but here he is saddled with a cliched role. You know the one, the boss doesn't believe the star detective and yanks his badge, only to be proved wrong later. Although he does have that great trailer shot blowing away the robot with the shotgun through the plate glass, great moment. Bridget Moynahan, I don't quite get the performance here, initially she is cold and calculating, much like the machines she surrounds herself with, then part way through she changes, but the motivations weren't terribly clear. It was as if something clicked and she new she had to do the right thing, problem is that clicking took place off camera. Bruce Greenwood gave a suitably slimy performance as Lawrence Robertson, the cruel corporate head of US Robotics. And Adrian Ricard was good in a comic relief role as Smith's Grandmother.

Will Smith, Will, Will, Will. How can you equally like, and dislike an actor for the same role in the same movie? Well Will has done it. Will Smith is an incredibly likeable screen presence. No matter how goofy or bad the role is, you end up liking him (witness the disaster Wild Wild West, horrible movie I would not subject myself to again, but Smith still had that aura about him). Here he is as aggravating as his is right for the part. If this was the straight adaptation of Asimov I had hoped for, he would have been a horrible choice, but as a summer blockbuster type movie, you can't go wrong. One maddening thing about his character was his constant use of the one-liner, which is more the fault of the script than anything on his part, but there are way too many and they are used at inappropriate times. But, when they hit, they are right on the money. Something else that I did not like, was his constant swagger. It was way too pronounced and it is used all the time, and I mean all, it was a bit much after awhile and didn't strike me as the walk of a detective on a big case. Things that were good, mainly his incredible charisma and presence, when on camera he commands your attention. My biggest thoughts on Smith would be, he could be one of the greats if he actually learned to act, most of his roles seem to be variations of himself, or at the least the same character. His emoting is blatant, there isn't a lot held below the surface, the biggest example was the obvious rubbing of his shoulder early in the movie, not giving anything away, it was easy to figure out there was no subtlety to it. Again, this is not criticism, so much as an observation, I have really enjoyed most of his movies.