I, ROBOT

REVIEWED BY SHANNON H.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: violence, brief nudity

Rated:

At first I thought I, Robot was overrated by watching the previews for it on movie screens. Then I started to develop an interest in seeing it so Mom and I went to the local theater to catch the 1:00 p.m. show. Needless to say, it's one of those rare films that are as good as they looked on the previews.  In fact, it looks BETTER than the trailer.

The story is set in the year 2035 in Chicago, Ill. Everyone uses robots to do their work for them. They are so commonplace that people trust them to do ordinary jobs assigned to humans, such as working for Fed Ex or garbage removal (santitation). Robots are revered as a machine of necessity for mankind. Well, not everyone is happy about robots. Police detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) has a certain prejudice about robots and because of his past, he is quite bitter and not so happy about life. Det. Spooner doesn't look like your average Chicago cop. He sports a leather jacket, cool vintage Converse shoes ("vintage 2004" by the way), and other duds. He responds to a call at a robotics company and is met by a digital hologram of Dr. Alan Lanning, the guy who invented the personal robot. The conversation is brief and vague until Spooner finds out that Dr. Lanning is dead. Most people believe that he committed suicide but Spooner suspects an updated creation of one of Dr. Lanning's robots may have killed him.

Enter Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a psychologist who specializes in the "mental" affairs of robots. She, like everyone else, denies that Dr. Lanning's newest creation killed him because of how the robots are bound by three laws: Law I - A robot may not harm a human or, by inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; Law II - A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law; Law III - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law. Det. Spooner is still skeptical and his opinions are constantly being ignored, even by his own boss, Lt. John Bergin (Chi McBride) until Dr. Calvin makes an interesting discovery. The alleged killer of Dr. Lanning is Sonny (Alan Tudyk), a robot who can think, feel human emotions, experience dreams, and so forth; Dr. Calvin discovers that Sonny is capable of free will and is able to ignore the 3 laws of robotics, which proves Det. Spooner's opinion that just because there are laws doesn't mean that individuals obey them.

This is brought to the attention of the C.E.O of the robotics company, Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), but he fails to acknowledge it. Soon chaos breaks loose with personal robots attacking innocent civilians under the control of an "evolved," holographic robot, V.I.K.I. The plot gets complicated from this point. I had to keep whispering questions to my mom to see if she understood any of the plotline and she managed to mumble something inaudible and continued to watch the film. It's not for kids under 10. The PG13 rating is mostly for cussing and violence. There's no sex and the only nudity we see is Det. Spooner showering in one of the beginning scenes, and Dr. Calvin doing the same toward the end (they DO NOT shower together, so don't worry...in fact, there's no romantic relationship whatsoever). Like I said, the scenes are brief and we only see the bare backsides of both individuals. The cussing ranges from h*** to a** to d*** and to s*** and people taking the Lord's name in vain. The violence is the typical action-flick style.

There are spiritual issues regarding the nature of mankind. Is there a way to achieve perfection? Can we be perfect? Det. Spooner says laws are always broken and do not guarantee that everyone will abide by them. God has His law, the Bible. However, human nature is sinful and just because the Bible sets the guidelines on how to live life and serve the Lord doesn't mean everyone will abide by what God says. The film also puts emphasis on the fulfillment of an individual purpose. Sonny the robot poses the question to V.I.K.I, the mastermind behind the race of psycho-robots (paraphrased of course), "Do I have a purpose?" In the Bible, our purpose is to serve God. In the film, the robots are made to serve mankind. Unlike the film, God didn't create us to serve as robots. Rather He created us as individuals, enabling us with a choice to serve Him and help fellow human beings or stumble on an individualistic path to "life." Christ/God is mentioned only a couple of times during the film (excluding the time the Lord's name is taken in vain), however, the Lord is portrayed in a positive light. Det. Spooner's grandma (Adrian Ricard) is seen as a godly woman whose prayers are answered when a robot gone bad refrains from killing her. Det. Spooner makes reference to Christ as someone who walked on water "a long time ago."

I loved this movie. It was worth every cent of my admission ticket. It is one of the few films I've seen this year that were worth full price. The action scenes kept me on the edge of my seat. Let's put it this way: just watching Will Smith is worth it. And I do want Det. Spooner's cool spy car if it ever makes it to dealer's showrooms.