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I, ROBOT, Alex Proyas (2004)
I, Report, You Decide: Where Does an Asimov-Inspired Flick Fit in a Dick-Adapted World?
Review by PRESTON GISCH
a Film Comment online exclusive
The pairing of perennially bankable Will Smith with Isaac Asimov's Fifties-era governing laws of Robotics may seem like the forced integration of mainstream pop and nerd culture. And it is. But throw in a classic murder mystery with a futuristic twist and you get director Alex Proyas's invigorating, if halting, I, Robot.
Will Smith ably plays standard-issue against-the-grain detective Del Spooner, and Bridget Moynahan believably channels Dr. Susan Calvin, the eventual Watson to Spooner's Holmes. After establishing Spooner as grandma-loving, nightmare-suffering, and robot-distrusting, Proyas cuts to the chase: Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), über-scientist and visionary at U.S. Robotics, inexplicably commits suicide, and the subsequent investigation acquaints Spooner with Dr. Calvin and the spastic robot Sonny, Lanning's pet project, superbly voiced by Alan Tudyk.
The ensuing 100-odd minutes rumbles through action-flick clichés-a rousing high-speed car chase, ribcage-shredding, sawed-off shotgun combat, the discovery of the hero's kick-ass superpower. Unfortunately, the kinetic nature of these high-octane scenes only makes more apparent the slow pace of Spooner's investigation. While this alternation of fast and slow, spontaneous and calculated, reflects the competing plot lines (robotic world domination vs. traditional murder mystery) it also comments on the differences between man and machine. A similar duality is found in Simon Duggan's cinematography, which is calm and incremental when framing robots en masse but frenetic and swooping when capturing Spooner in action. Similarly, Marco Beltrami's score is by turns pending and raucous as called for, but it feels unearned - where a John Williams or Hans Zimmer score would accrete lyrical themes and build to an aural apex, Beltrami's refrains are underdeveloped and malnourished. The same anemia weakens the film's integral plot twists and character revelations, resulting in an overall diminished emotional impact.
Inevitably, this film will be measured against Steven Spielberg's superb Minority Report. Indeed, both films share several key features: murder detective protagonists, fragmented underwater dream sequences, the loss of a young child, defenestration, etc. Even the automobiles of the future in I, Robot bear a remarkable resemblance to those in Spielberg's film (with the difference that Audi dominates the 2035 market whereas Lexus seems to have the market cornered 19 years hence). Yet, Minority Report's strengths illustrate I, Robot's shortcomings. Where Spielberg's film is an intimate tale of the personal struggles of John Anderton (Tom Cruise), Spooner's prejudice-fueled crusade against robots ultimately seems more impersonal. Minority Report's specific, tension-accreting timescale is far more compelling than the robots-could-strike-at-any-moment ambiguity of I, Robot, and, consequently, the former narrative is intimate and tightly wound while the latter evinces a more fractured chronology. And while viewers can identify with Anderton's personal loss, Spooner's affinity for Converse sneakers and sweet potato pie come across as shallow attempts at characterization.
I, Robot's other significant downside is its climax. The emotional payoffs in most murder mysteries and action flicks tend to be structured around the revelation of the murderer or the villain's comeuppance. Whereas Minority Report merges both murderer and villain in one character, I, Robot splits the emotion too many ways. Our supposed villain, U.S. Robotics CEO Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), turns out to be one more victim, so the screen time devoted to developing him as an antagonist is wasted. As it turns out, the Butler did it: namely VIKI, the super computer that controls U.S. Robotics' robot upgrade systems. Confused? Try working it out once the bullets begin flying and the robots are overrunning the city.
The revelation of VIKI as the puppet master comes off as a deus ex machina - literally. Usually, the least likely suspect is revealed as the murderer. In I, Robot, the culprit has barely been present. The film's ending smacks of a future "suggested by" Asimov's book, but there is only one moral to this story: when watching this movie, don't shut down your brain - just minimize and let it run in the background.
© 2004 by The Film Society of Lincoln Center
