I, Robot DVD

Advantages: There's no denying it, robots rock! Especially when they're evil robots with beady red eyes...
Disadvantages: Blatant product placement, plenty of continuity errors and occasionally the robots out-act the humans.

...can I have one, can I, can I please?' 'Yes Johnny, in fact I've just replaced your father with one'… Like lambs to the slaughter they bleat their trusting delight as these supposedly benevolent automatons begin to fill every house, even Spooner's dear old mother has gotten herself one which she fortuitously 'won' on the lottery (one can't help but suspect a little rigging by the scriptwriter here). This is all a bit much for Spooner, but his mother ...
...new metallic helpers… 'Embrace them my ass!' Well, before long Spooner finds himself doing just that, well, it's more like a wrestle than an embrace as he struggles to free himself from a small army of AWOL NS5's who woke up one morning and thought '"Three rules my robotic-ass"' and try to take him out. Oh and their eyes turn red.. see, I told you so. Well, Spooner survives but no one believes his story and his fellow cops simply suspect that he's ... Read review

Advantages: Exciting, interesting, moving
Disadvantages: Not the intellectual outing that some might prefer

...quality of the film. I, Robot is also strangely moving. I really felt that there was a point to the whole thing. The film examines several themes, looking at prejudice, the human condition and evolution but the subject matter is handled in a genuinely sensitive way and I have to say that I felt quite touched by certain scenes in the film. The obvious portrayal of the way that mankind abuses the planet is evident but it is the treatment of the robots ...
...that is pretty fantastic. I, Robot will certainly mark the return of Will Smith to the top of the popularity charts. Despite never having been a huge fan of Big Willie, I have to say that he works really well in this. The cocky arrogance of the Fresh Prince has gone and I quickly warmed to the more sensitive, compassionate side that he showed in this film. The humour is still there - he is still very much the maverick – but it is all very ... Read review

Advantages: Intelligent story-telling with high production values
Disadvantages: Really obvious product placement

Technophobe Detective Del Spooner lives in a near future where robots are as common as kettles. But when Alfred Lanning, the father of robotics apparently commits suicide, Spooner believes he has been murdered and that the murderer may be a robot named Sonny, who has somehow managed to break his programming. Spooner’s biggest problem is how to get anyone else to believe him. Especially as mega-corporation US Robotics is about to release its latest ...
...robots to one for every five humans. Director Alex Proyas has never been one to shy away from a challenge. After dealing with a star dying on set in “The Crow” and a film that existed in eternal night in the aptly named “Dark City”, he decided to take a crack at the heretofore unfilmable work of physicist turned futurist Isaac Asimov. Thankfully technology has now caught up with the ideas Asimov had fifty years ago and Proyas has created that rarest ... Read review

Advantages: A superior sci-fi blockbuster
Disadvantages: It won't be winning any oscars

Just as ‘Cruel Intentions’ was by Choderlos de Laclos’ ‘Les Liaisons dangereuses’ so ‘I, Robot’ is “suggested” by Isaac Asimov’s many ruminations on his three laws of robotics. It is a new inspirational credit which gives filmmakers free reign to alter and update a work of fiction in any way they see fit. Hence ‘I, Robot’ is not an adaptation of any one of Asimov’s texts but rather a completely new beast which takes his essential theories on robotics, ...
...story. Homicide Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a man with a (micro) chip on his shoulder, Spooner hates robots. In 2035 this is more of a problem than you might envisage, as robots are now a fully integrated part of everyday life mainly thanks to their willingness to do humanity’s dirty work (in half the time). On the eve before a mass distribution by the largest robotics company in the world (US Robotics) which will see the ratio of robots ... Read review

Advantages: An intelligent action movie
Disadvantages: Bypasses a lot of Asimov's intelligent writings

...or second law. I, Robot is loosely based on a number of Asimov’s short stories, taking the basic premise of them, and some of the characters and certain situations from his writings and forging a new narrative. The stories are all set in the future, in a world where robots exist to be our servants and in many cases constitute our workforce. The clever intricacies of the 3 laws in the short stories, and how they have an effect on the robots in certain ...
...‘species’ adds another dimension to I, Robot. He seems to know a lot about, and concentrate on, an age when there was still a lot of prejudice against his own race. Is this a clever way of highlighting prejudice today by making Spooner the man practising it? Even though Spooner has a reason for his dislike of robots, and this dislike is an integral element to the story, the discovery of what is the genesis of this animosity is either downright stupid ... Read review