I, Robot stylized as i, Robot is an American movie released in 2004. The genre of the film is science fiction action, directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman is from a screen story that was written by Vintar. It was based on his original screenplay named Hardwired. Also, it was suggested by the short story collection of Isaac Asimov in 1950.
The main story of this cool action film was based on robots that took the public service positions throughout the dystopian in 2035. It was released in the United States on July 16, 2004, and in July and October in other countries. It was produced with a budget of $120 million. It received worldwide critics and praise for the acting of the main actors and visual effects.
I, Robot; A Cool Action Film
Cast
- Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner
- Bridget Moynahan as Dr. Susan Calvin
- Alan Tudyk as Sonny (voice and motion)
- Bruce Greenwood as Lawrence Robertson
- James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lanning
- Fiona Hogan as VIKI
Plot
The interesting plot of this cool action film was that in the year 2035, humanoid robots were serving humanity. It was protected by the Three Laws of Robotics of Isaac Asimov. A homicide detective in the Chicago Police Department, Del Spooner hated the involvement of robots in public services. It was because of an incident where the robot rescued him in a car crash and leaves the 12-year-old drowning girl. It was due to the odds of survival and cold logic.
Alfred Lanning, co-founder of U.S. Robotics (USR) falls from his office to death and left a message requesting Spooner to investigate his death case. The police department declared his death as a suicide but the message left the Lanning made Spooner skeptical about his death. Lawrence Robertson reluctantly allows Spooned to investigate Lanning’s death case.
Susan Calvin, a robot psychologist accompanied the case with Spooner. Spooner consulted the USR’s central Artificial Intelligence Computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) for the inside footage of Lanning’s office. The footage was corrupted. The security glass of the window was not breakable by elderly Lanning. Suddenly, USR’s latest robot model, NS-5 attacks them and flees. NS-5, also known as Sonny, was not the standard NS-5 but it was built by Lanning himself.
Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny fight an army of robots inside the VIKI’s core. Spooner injects the nanites and destroyed her immediately. Other NS-5 robots were on default programming. In the end, Spooner declares that Sonny, as a machine, did not murder Lanning.
Development
I, Robot had no connection with the Robot series of Isaac Asimov. The screenplay was originally written in 1995 by Jeff Vintar named Hardwired. The script was based on a true story of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery. It took place on a crime scene with one lone human character. The project of this movie was first acquired by Walt Disney Pictures for Bryan Singer to direct.
Later on, it was acquired by 20th Century Fox and assigned the direction to Alex Proyas. The detective character was supposed to be played by Arnold Schwarzenegger but he was replaced by Will Smith because of Schwarzenegger’s delayed schedule of participation. When the studio decided to name this big-budget studio film I, Robot, Vintar replaced his female lead character Flynn with Susan Calvin. The hiring of Akiva Goldsman was done to write for Smith.
Differences and Similarities between the novels and movie
Asimov’s characters were retained in the final script. The ideas were adapted from Asimov’s story collection but the plot was different from Asimov’s work. The attempt of Sonny to hide in the sea of robots was relative to the similar scene in Little Lost Robot. In earlier years, the positronic brains of Sonny and his fellow robots appeared in Catch That Rabbit.
The main plot of the movie resembles the plot of Eando Binder’s short story I, Robot. It was also having the plot of the trial of a robot that was accused of the murder of his creator in a room with no witnesses.
Track Listing
All of the music of the movie was composed by Marco Beltrami. In only 17 days to render the final work. It was scored for 25 choral performers and 95 orchestral musicians and emphasized sharp brass ostinatos. The track listing as following:
- Main Titles
- Chicago 2035
- 1001 Robots
- Sonny Interrogation
- Man on The Inside
- Spiderbots
- Round-Up
- I Robot Theme End Credits
Box Office
In the United States and Canada, i, Robot grossed $144.8 million and $ 202.4 million in other countries. The worldwide gross was 347.2 million against the budget of production of $120 million. In North America, it made $52.2 million in its opening weekend of July 16, 2004. In the United Kingdom, it topped the country’s box office on the weekend of August 6, 2004.
Critical Response
The approval rating of the film on Rotten Tomatoes was 56% based on 225 reviews. The average rating of the movie was 6.07/10. The critical response was mostly about the slightest resemblance of Isaac Asimov’s short stories. I, robot is still a summer blockbuster.
On Metacritic, the average score was 59 out of 100 with 38 critics. It indicates the mixed average reviews on the film. The average grade on CinemaScore A-, on a scale of A+ to F. Richard Roeper gave the positive reviews and called it a slick and entertaining thrill ride. The Urban Cinefile Critics gave names to the movies as the coolest, meatiest, meanest, exciting, and most engaging movie in a long time.
Kim Newman from Empire said that the picture is having a brain with muscles. Washington Post critic, Desson Thomas called it thrilling fun. IGN Movie critics declared it as the best action movie so far. A. O. Scott from The New York Times had a mixed feeling about this movie and commented as a hectic thrilling movie that engages some interesting ideas with an overblown and incoherent ending.
Roger Ebert, who has praised Proyas’ previous movies had a negative comment on the review on this cool action film that he was disappointed by the plot and it was simple-minded. The chase and actions in the movie were pretty much routine used in most of the sci-fi and action genres.
Claudia Puig had a negative review saying that the cast, plot, performance, the pacing was almost like the hard-wired cast. Todd McCarthy from Variety also had a negative review saying that it was a failure of imagination movie.
Home Media
I, Robot was released on DVD and VHS on December 14, 2004. It was later released on D-VHS on January 31, 2005. On May 24, 2005, it was released on 2-Disc All-Access Collector’s Edition. On July 5, 2005, it was released on UMD. After four years, it was first time released on Blu-ray on March 11, 2008. Later on, the movie received 2D and 3D conversions on October 23, 2012.
Possible Sequel
In July 2007 Ronald Moore, writer, and producer of I, Robot gave an interview with the website Collider at Battlestar Galactica event that they are working on the sequel to the film. In 2-Disc All-Access Collector’s Edit of the film, Alex Proyas mentioned the sequel of the movie that if they were making a sequel then it would have been set in outer space.
Conclusion
I,Robot is a collection of nine short stories by Isaac Asimov. It is a film on robots where a robot fights for the moral implications of technology.
The use of technology in public services cannot be a good idea. Sometimes the evolution of technology gets out of your hands and the outcomes can be devastating. The movie depicted the killing of one man but it can be of the whole of humankind.