 Critics appear to agree that I, Robot, starring Will Smith, is a serviceable summer film to accompany a large tub of popcorn, but little else. Philip Wuntch in the Dallas Morning News comments: "I, Robot is yet another summer entree in which good intentions are stymied by excessive bric-a-brac. But you'll still enjoy the robots on parade." Ty Burr in the Boston Globe remarks that Isaac Asimov's 1950 short story collection "has been remixed and remodeled into a stylish, watchable, very familiar future-cop action thriller. What was once original is now almost completely derivative." Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal remarks that the movie "is impressive for Patrick Tatopoulos's production design but depressive for the juiceless story." Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer similarly remarks: "While I enjoyed its look and Smith's charisma, [director Alex] Proyas' film is long on flash but short on resonance." Several critics suggest that the movie has a lot in common with the robots it depicts. Rick Groen in the Toronto Globe and Mail describes it as: "A movie of its kind and of its time -- functional, professional, slickly manufactured and slouching toward consciousness -- I, Robot is a perfect slave to mechanical convention." And A.O. Smith in the New York Times observes: "This kind of movie presents a troubling paradox, since it is an example of the very phenomenon it purports to warn against. Dramatizing the threat of runaway technology seems to demand ever greater technological innovation, as digitized special effects increasingly push human beings off screen." |
