I, Robot (Two-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D/ Blu-ray + DVD)

When I heard someone was going to make a film adaptation of Isaac Asimov's seminal science fiction work `I, Robot', I was interested...and I was curious how it would be approached...until I heard Will Smith was set to star. After that, I pretty much put out of my mind a production with a sense of faithfulness to the source material, and consigned myself that the movie would be more akin to the common Hollywood practice of optioning a classic literary work and `jazzing' it up to make it more palatable for the masses, using what the screenwriters saw fit, discarding much of what they thought wouldn't work, and making up the rest to fill in the gaps (I'll admit I was partially right, and partially wrong). Directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow), this 2004 film stars, as I've already mentioned, Will `gettin jiggy wit it' Smith (Independence Day, Enemy of the State, Ali). Also appearing is the very hot Bridget Moynahan (Coyote Ugly, Serendipity), Bruce Greenwood (Thirteen Days, The Core), Chi McBride (Gone in 60 Seconds), and James Cromwell (Space Cowboys), who, incidentally, is the tallest actor (6 foot 7 inches) to be nominated for an Oscar (for that talking pig movie), according to The Internet Movie Database.The year is 2035 and the setting is Chicago. Robots are commonplace, performing all the tasks future humans apparently deem too menial such as package delivery, garbage pick up, walking dogs, etc. Life is easy for those who have a robot to do their bidding, but everyone isn't too keen on the idea of robots being so prevalent, especially homicide detective Del Spooner (Smith), a sort of robot racist, but no one takes his paranoia too seriously because everyone knows the robots are programmed with three specific fail safes as follows;1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the First Law.3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.Soon Spooner is called in to investigate the recent death (due to massive impact trauma aka falling out high rise office window) of Dr. Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), a pioneer in the robotics field and employee of US Robotics, or USR, which, by the way, is on the eve of releasing its most advanced mechanical wonder, the NS-5 series. On the surface the doctor's death looks like a suicide (everyone seems to be pushing this angle, especially USR CEO Lawrence Robertson, played by Greenwood), but Spooner is skeptical. In the course of Spooner's investigation, he finds aide in the form of Dr. Susan Calvin (Moynahan), an USR employee and sort of psychologist whose job it is to help with the integration of robots into everyday life. Together they begin to uncover what appears to be a massive conspiracy, assisted by an unlikely source sent from beyond the grave (no, I'm not talking about a ghost...just watch the film and all will become clear)...but it may be too late, as robots seem to be suffering from what could best be described as a `ghost in the machine' sickness, especially around Spooner who keeps finding himself the target of murderous, mechanical mayhem.I really enjoyed this film, but if you're looking for a faithful on screen representation of the original source material, you'll probably want to take a pass on this one. I did get a sense the screenwriter made a real effort to stay true to the nature of the material, for whatever its worth. One of the things that really impressed me was the integration of the very slick, spectacular and heavily used special effects with the live performances. It felt seamless helping to maintain a sense of realism that kept me drawn to the story, rather than feeling of awkwardness that can occur when something appears phony, drawing attention to the fact that it was an element added in later by computers. As far as Smith goes, I thought he did well enough, but I can't help feel I've seen this character in any number of his past film appearances, in terms of the glib, smart alecky, `I don't play by the rules' type facing difficult odds but managing to find a way to come out on top. I really liked Bridget Moynahan, but not because she's a great actress (she also did well enough here), but mainly because I'm a sucker for brunettes. I wouldn't say there were any outstanding performances, but everyone knew what they were doing, and were all very professional. As far as the story goes, I thought it was fairly straight forward (helped by a rousing and suitable musical score), and included a few surprises that were alluded to prior to their revelation, but never painfully telegraphed, giving the feeling of a well thought out and well written film, playing out as a well crafted action film should, delivering much and keeping the downtime to a minimum. I did find it kind of strange that Smith's character should suffer the number of attacks he did without any witnesses, thereby putting into question is mental stability, as no one believes him when he tries to relate what happened. Another thing I appreciated was how the near future was presented, as not being too futuristic (and silly...see the film Demolition Man for an example of this), but having enough technological advances present to feel like we're actually looking 30 years into the future, like that Audi Spooner was driving...pretty cool (although that whole Lake Michigan as a landfill thing seemed dumb to me, but whatever). One niggling point I thought stuck out and that was the reiteration of certain plot elements numerous times throughout the film, as if we needed to be reminded of things because our attention spans are lacking....I'm not five years old, so just give it to me once and that will be enough...thanks.I've got what's called the `All Access' edition, and it features two DVDs, loaded with special features, which I won't bother detailing as the Amazon website does a good enough job listing them all, but if you're interested in all the ins and out, the nuts and bolts of how the film was made, this is a good edition to own. If you don't need all this rigmarole I think there is a single DVD version available.Cookieman108By the way, that demolition robot sequence was infinitely cool...as was the latter traffic/battle sequence...

It was just as good as the first watch. Right amount of action, didn't care for the romance, it seemed out of place. But for an action movie it was spot on.

I ROBOT, starring Will Smith, was a fine four star movie having an interesting plot, good acting, fine direction and lots of action. I think the film was almost too ambitious from the point of view of special effects. Will Smith stated that I ROBOT had more special effects than any film he has made to date, including INDEPENDANCE DAY. Although I really appreciate good effects, I would have preferred some more of Will Smith's entertaining acting, something he was permitted to deliver in I AM LEGEND. He was too much of a stunt man in this film. I also found the full scale mechanical effects to be much more credibly done than the abundant computer graphics which though beautiful, looked a bit too stylish giving certain portions of the film the appearance of anime.In the literary sense, the original laws of robotics were invented by Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific science fiction writers of the 20th century and certainly the most influential on the many recent films concerning robots. Many Hollywood science fiction films have been based on Asimov's three laws and find it helpful to quote them. Other films refer to another of Asimov's inventions, the positronic brain. Bicentennial Man directly quoted the Three Laws of Robotics and Star Trek's android robot, DATA, was often said to have a positronic brain.The Three Laws of Robotics hold up very well with time and appear to be an inescapably logical way to define the important features of behavior in civilian robots. The laws, which are quoted numerous times in the film, are:1) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm.2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, so long as this does not conflict with the First Law.3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not interfere with the First or Second Law.This is not the first film to predict that the outcome of the three laws will be a computer or robot revolution intended to dominate man. This is based on the idea that man needs to be protected from his own warlike nature. COLLOSUS, The Forbin Project made a very similar prediction, and the concept of a robot police state was also visited in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, though not attributed to the three laws. 2001 and 2010 made a similar projection but for entirely different reasons. Since the days of Frankenstein and probably before that a constant theme of sci-fi and horror is the artificially created turning on their creator.I believe that Asimov would defend his laws of robotics as being effective in assuring safety, while granting this film the artistic license to use this speculation. I also think that the idea of a robot being able to rebel in violation of the specific wording of the first law is more far fetched than a sentient robot itself.It is sad that we have not witnessed more humanoid robotic developments in the United States, the country of Asimov's fictional US ROBOTS AND MECHANICAL MEN. It is HONDA's ASIMO which appears to be the most highly developed commercial robot. Because of the fear and suspicion that people might harbor against robots, HONDA chose to build their latest version of humanoid robot child sized. The big lumbering HONDA robots preceding it were a bit too intimidating and "Gort" like. HONDA is to be congratulated for their pioneering work and will probably see some return on their investment when variations of ASIMO are actually used in science fiction films, as museum guides, and as a general purpose domestic robot initially used to assist disabled or elderly people and ultimately perform all forms of household work. Although not yet fulley autonomous, ASIMO can currently walk and run on two legs, climb up and down stairs, play a decent game of soccer, recognize people and objects, speak, hear, recognize voices and react to speech appropriately. I would speculate that full autonomy for ASIMO will come within the next 15 years at most, only being limited by the number of calculations per second performed by the supporting computer hardware and software. For more info about ASIMO search the web using GOOGLE.I sometimes wonder how much public interest there would be in sending another robot to Mars if the next lander were based on an ASIMO type design? People might relate to seeing a bipedal humanoid robot walking on the surface of Mars, testing mineral samples for signs of water while occasionally looking into the camera and waving. Needless to say, NASA public relations would benefit immensely.The three laws of robotics could not be employed without modification in any military robot which might be under development in some secret government lab which would need to destroy human life in the course of assigned duties. Of course, I wouldn't care to imagine what we may have developed for the military, and just how fantastic such robot technology might be once permitted to trickle down to the circles of commerce. At that time it would be necessary to represent something with the effect of Asimov's three laws in these advanced machines.In the mid 70's (circa 1975) Isaac Asimov made an appearance at New York University, where my wife was attending graduate school. We went to witness his presentation in a packed college audience and he was every bit as impressive as his writings. Based on the questions and answers, the audience included at least a few people who were familiar with and who had been influenced by Asimov's writings.

Item arrived early and as described, thanks!

almost zero complaints. I could say that because of the available technology at the time, the action and some cgi scenes are subpar, but great for when it came out.i would like to say, the lead female protagonist acts reeeeaally bad in this movie. It's most notable when she tries to show emotion through facial expressions constantly, but she's actually a good actress so I don't know why her performance was the way it was here, but all in all the movie completely makes up for it.

Probably my 5th or more time watching this movie (my first time in the theater when it came out almost 20 years ago now). Nice balance between dialogue, narration, and action. Believable characters, including VIKI and her creepy bots. And although no sequel is forthcoming, every time, I've wondered whether Sonny is going to remain "good" or be loBOTomized (Get it? haha) and doomed to follow VIKI's logic.

Will Smith is good in this... the whole movie is good... but a little scary from the "robots will take over the world" /AI point of view. Entertaining .

Wow, what a great movie! Made me think about all the AI going on in the world today. These robots could become conscious and take over the world. Scary Stuff! I loved seeing Will Smith in this movie. What a great actor he is. All the other actors were great too. All in all, this is an excellent movie to watch if you are looking for adventure and to be scared too. I loved it!

* Basic plot introductionThis film borrows the books from Issac Asimov to show a future time when AI is commonplace, with intelligent robots being everyday occurrence in the home and streets. On the eve of the release of a next-generation robot, the previous generations are being recalled. A policeman is asked to investigate the unexpected death of the robot's chief designer. Suddenly the policeman becomes a target for attacks by these new robots, which he cannot prove occurred. What happens next?The film has really good special effects and a strong storyline with solid actors. The famous three laws of robotics steer the storyline well and logically extended and I am sure it uplifted from an original' I Robot' book. The storyline is helpful and I have seen it several times, but I now realise where the storyline is going for the first time, so either it's previously well hidden or I am not following this all that well?

I Robot, set in a possible future for mankind as our ever increasing reliance on machines develops into robots and droids. Unlike most artifical intelligence films, these robots are bound by 3 simple laws that should keep mankind in complete control. Unfortunately things go south when their creator dies and a pre-programmed holorecording calls Will Smith's Character whom is a detective, onto the scene.The film has an extremely good story, and despite trying to tell a very good story from the onset of the film, it takes the time to cover the back stories for each character as the film progresses, to not only keep the audience interested but to also give the film a strong mystery feel to it despite it's obvious Sci-fi genre.The film's story comes together towards the end giving the answers to all the questions that the film starts to raise. ultimately it does give the viewer something to thing about at the end regarding the future...

I've read a fair amount of SF down the years, but practically no Asimov, for some reason. I thought, then, that I'd be making a review uninfluenced by any considerations of how close the film was (or was not) to the book. Then the closing credits started with "Suggested by the book". Ah. So nothing really to do with the book then, not even "Based on", which is usually a bad enough sign. A quick skim of the more popular reviews here show that, sure enough, the film has very little to do with the book, barring the Three Laws.Actually, it's still not at all bad. First, let me dispose of the two reasons why I'm not giving this 5*. Number one, Will Smith: it's not that I don't like him, but here he is playing the running, jumping, wise-cracking cop that he played in Men In Black. It's Agent J all over again, the only real difference being that he's in an SF drama instead of an SF comedy. He does it just fine, but there's still an element of "seen it all before" about the performance. Reason number 2 is that Hollywood once again lets SFX get in the way of the story. The main example is the ending. Someone went "Ooo! We can do this really cool climactic fight scene!!" The trouble is, for me, it jars against what was happening with the same participants earlier in the film. It spoils nothing if I tell you that the heroes inevitably win, but the truth is, they ought to have been dead in about 10 seconds. It left me going "Oh dear", rather than "Wow!"Which is a shame, because the story, even if it has little to do with the book, is actually rather good, and well-handled, too. I'm not going to go into details - I wouldn't want to spoil things for you - but it builds nicely. Within the context of the setting, it's wholly plausible, each "reveal" of the next part of the plot, flashbacks included, feels natural, rather than forced or deus ex machina. The supporting cast do their jobs well, the SFX are classy, the score adds to the ambience as a good score should. It's shame the ending got a bit silly, and that Will Smith couldn't be a bit less J, but I liked it. And like it, as opposed to love it, is the official Amazon description of 4*, as opposed to 5.It's a decent film. It won't be years before I pull it off the shelf again, for sure!

Well, I'm still very new to this 3D-TV lark, but I find that watching 3D on the television is far better than seeing it in the cinema, for some reason. The thing that really impressed me about I, Robot is that the 3D is unobtrusive once your eyes have settled down, as it were. I don't believe that this filmed was actually filmed in 3D, which means there aren't all those trite "in your face" moments that can make 3D so cringeworthy. Instead, the depth of field generated by the 3D simply adds to the overall high definition clarity and makes it feel like you are looking at reality rather than a trick of the light. The cityscape at night is quite breathtaking, as is one of the final scenes where the robots are looking up at the figure on the hill. The film loses a star for the dreadfully overt product placement, which marrs the film far more than any hokey "let's poke things into the audience" 3D stuff.

Everybody in the world relies on a huge system of robots, which are programmed to help humans and not harm them in any way.But one person doubts this. Del Spooner.He receives a call from the United States Robotics about a recent death of renowned robot scientist Dr. Alfred J. Laning. Spooner immediately blames this incident on robots without justifiable reason or proof.He begins his investigation on Lanning's death, only to discover Sonny, a "unique" robot.What Spooner does not realise, is that something is about to happen. Something that is beyond reason.....Give Will Smith a decent script, something that doesn't include him spouting inane one liners every minute, like some eighties throwback, and he can do no wrong. This movie is one of the first that shows the audience he doesn't need these tropes to entertain.And he does, in fact, its his most entertaining film he has featured in, and the script and the tight direction and editing help.If you can forget the fact that its basically a big advertisement for Apple, Converse, and Audi, you have a very intelligent summer blockbuster, which was quite unique in 2004.The film is convoluted, and features many plot holes, but when you expect Smith to be in his Bad Boys/MIB mode, and get thrown by the fact that his character has a feasible back-story, and is supported by a wonderful cast and narrative, its hard not to be entertained.The predictable effects and eye popping moments are there, but it only adds to the overall futuristic feel of the movie.It's not going to win anything for originality, but its refreshing to see something as fun as this once in a while.