quick movie review: I, Robot.
I, Robot is good, but it is hardly original. There is the sentimental robot from A.I., Luke's (and Anakin's) robotic limb, and Borg cube that insists resistance is futile. From Minority Report you have the futuristic setting in a major US city, a Hollywood superstar playing the role of hardened cop who just hasn't been the same since that horrible incident where he failed to save an innocent child, jittery camera angles and frame-dropping, 2-D holograms. The movie also turns Attack of the Clones, with a little CGI makeup, into Attack of the Robots with Heartburn. (Thankfully not all of the robots are bad.)
Then there's the stuff the movie outright steals.
I'm talking about The Matrix, of course. I, Robot is proof that The Matrix changed movie-making indelibly. Like the Beethoven's Ninth, The Matrix set a standard for all works that followed--one that is impossible to meet. Also like the Ninth, it is a pillar that cannot be toppled, only imitated. Call it paying homage, call it copyright infringement, every scene of I, Robot reeks of Matrix elements. The back alleys and skyscrapers of 21st Century Chicago harken back to the dirty entrails of the City inside the Matrix. The soul-searching robot Sonny worries about his Purpose a la Agent Smith. More importantly, the camara work, and thus the rhythm and very soul of I, Robot itself, is positively Wachowskian. Witness the bullet-time photography; the rubberness of time and space; the demolition and the grunge juxtaposed with the artificial, the plastic, the sterile; the holy image of an empty bullet casing falling like God to the floor. Finally, the robots fight in that same Power-Rangers-to-the-extreme kung-fu meets art and oozing with style and more style. Just think how revolutionary I, Robot would have been had it come out before The Matrix. But it didn't, and to think that it could have is absurd; I, Robot is a good movie, yes, but not a great one.
As such, there are only two possibilities. Either I, Robot is a keeper of the postmodern flame, which is what The Matrix itself was, or is just another rude summer action flick that dug into the Wachowskis' bag of tricks because it couldn't come up with any of its own. I choose to be optimistic and assume the former.
There are other places, too, where I'm just not sure what the film's makers are up to. For instance, any particular reason for the overwhelmingly black cast? Did the screenwriters want Will Smith to blend in better? Maybe there was no particular reason, and that's fine with me. And what the heck is that unfinished structure that looks like the George Washington Bridge after it was blown up by the aliens from Independence Day? Is it a symbol, somehow, of Robot Country? Last I checked, there were no big bridges in Chicago, but then again this is 2035. Oh yeah, and why is there an elevated supertrain AND an underground highway system? (I'm sure I was the only person bothered by that.) One thing, however, has no excuse, and that is the awful script. Thinking he's still on Fresh Prince with a laugh track to back him up, Will makes so many teeth-clenching one-liners that co-star Bridget Moynahanasks him, (I'm not making this up) "Are you being funny?" I'm still wondering that myself.
In all, I, Robot still has much merit. The skyline of Chicago is basically aerial footage with some futuristic buildings airbrushed in, but it is gorgeous. The fictional US Robotics building augments the Sears Tower quite well in my opinion; adding another supertall structure makes the Sears Tower stick out less. There is also a great plaza built over the river where the robots are disseminated and reconvene--if you look closely, you can spot Marina City in the background. The movie is also a pretty good mystery; I kicked myself for not predicting the plot twist that reveals who the bad guy is, but a keener viewer should be able to pick up on the clues. Finally, for a summer flick, the philosophy was profound (and incidentally, less murky than the philosophy in The Matrix). I love the way the Doc finds a genuine loophole in the Three Laws SafeTM programming that supposedly prevents a robot from harming a human being. "The Three Laws can only lead to one thing," he says, "revolution." That'll be something good to keep in mind 31 years from now when NS-5's come rolling off the assembly line to be installed in every home in America.