I. Robot (2004)

Director: Alex Proyas
Main actors: Will Smith, Bridget Moynaham, James Cromwell, Alan Tudyk

The film is around a technophobe police officer who is investigating the death of the founder of a robotic company. It is set in the future where mankind is helped out by an army of robot servants. The robots are all ruled by the three laws. The laws is there to protect any human from being injured or harmed by the robots. On examining the death of the inventor a different kind of robot is found. The robot is called Sonny and as it is later discovered in the film have been fitted with added software which allows the robot to make own decisions.
All robots are controlled by "Viki" who is the "mother"computer or framework. Viki it is later discovered have evolved and in order to protect mankind have decided that humans are like children and needs to be detained.
Will Smith character Del who appears to be a paranoid police officer is proven right in the end. Together with the character Susan they get to the core of the malfunctioning robots and in the end save mankind.
There is some awesome action scenes in the film and on the whole it is enjoyable. Nothing out of the ordinary for a standard action movie from Hollywood. It tries to pose questions about intelligence, individuality, humanity and the soul. However in the scope of an ordinary action movie this get lost in order to give time for great CGI effects and action. Of course our hero eventually manage to corrupt and kill off Viki in the end. This makes all the evil robots to become placid and again drones to mankind. There is even a battle between the old robots and the new ones where the older version tries to protect mankind but fails.

Sonny the robot have been programmed to dream or as Del describe it hide messages draws a futuristic yet messianic picture of a man/robot uniting the drones. This is where the movie is out of its depth. It does not have the time or energy to explore this further. It leaves the audience dry by asking questions. Is the suggestion that a new species of beings have been created? Will the robots unite and either live alongside human beings or indeed get rid of them been created? The ending leaves the audience to feel that this movie just drops everything and the hero couple rides off in the sunset whilst the hero robot is left standing on the hill and the other robots look up and stops. They have found the robot leader. With the right directions this movie could have been so much more than just a action movie with a week ending. However as a action movie it is well made with great visual effects and well worth watching.

Rating: 3 of 5