@ the movies: I, Robot

Hi Kari:

Is "I, Robot" on your list of movies to see?

Saw it Thursday night at a pre-release marketing event with the local ESPN station here in Los Angeles, KSPN-710.

Rottentomatoes.com's round-up has more positives than negatives. Yahoo! Movie's round-up has the critics less than impressed.

Our audience was overwhelmingly positive. However, given that it was an ESPN radio demographic, that might not be so surprising.

I'm giving it 3 stars out of 4!!

I've only read Asimov's Foundation series. In those (an initial trilogy which got two additional books decades later) books, the topic of robots did appear and his famous Three Laws of Robotics were discussed. The Three Laws are probably so well known that non-readers of his books have probably been exposed to the concepts.

And so the logic of the Three Laws seems to insure that things would go fine. Of course, Will Smith's character soon finds out that things are going wrong and he has to figure out what happened. He has to convince robotics engineer played by Bridget Moynahan to help him solve the mystery.


The two stars in a production still. Image source: http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/twentieth_century_fox/i__robot/_group_photos/bridget_moynahan6.jpg

Will Smith does have a certain type of character he often plays and indeed he is that here. And certainly the action set pieces are sort of obligatory in a summer action flick. The action sequences are quite well done and draw stylistically upon other films. Thus, there is a certain visual familiarity to the scenes but they feel they belong and are not so overwrought as to become boring.

Most importantly, the story line unfolds nicely and intelligently. The film applies the logic of Asimov's concepts quite well to the extent I understand Asimov's robotic notions. I found myself following along trying to figure out what was next. The humor in the form of some amusing banter between Will Smith and co-stars is pretty good. We aren't talking rolling in the aisle type of humor but its snappy enough for my tastes.

I'll be curious to see what you think.

I'm definitely giving it a big thumbs up to anyone who asks.

Have a nice weekend, Kari.

Be well,
Rene

P.S. Oh, and by the way, Happy Birthday!!!