23 January 2005 15:45 pm
The time is 2035 and the age of robots is now. Of course they are just doing menial tasks – they work in factories, deliver mail, clear our garbage. And all found by the three laws that a robot cannot hurt a human being, a robot must obey human commands and a robot can protect itself all of course providing one law does not conflict with the previous.
Del Spooner (Will Smith) is one of those who aren’t a big fan of robots however. I can emphasis with his distrust. As much as I love technology I don’t even trust electric car windows. Although to add a bit of morality to the movie, this distrust plays a key role in the end solution of the film.
The basic storyline is that the new generation of robots, led by Viki, the general computer of USR, the company building of all the robots, decide to take over as humans are killing each other and going to war and such so if the robots take over they can stop all this and protector their creators – cold hearted logic.
As the tagline says, “one man saw it coming.” Despite the flashy images of Will Smith on the commercials though, the “one man” is actually Dr. Lanning, a friend of Spooner’s and co-founder of USR and chief creator. Realising Viki is watching him there is only one way he can get his message out – using Sonny the emotional robot and a suicide.
The graphics and visual scenes are more than impressive. If you thought the storm trooper scenes from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones looked cool you might want to see this movie for the robot scenes alone.
If there was one criticism of the movie is that it has a too nicely wrapped up in a little package style editing. I mean seriously would you say, “it was my prejustice that led me to you” and allowed me to solve the entire problem providing a great ending to the film. It’s a nice sentiment but perhaps not appropriate in a sci-fi thriller.
There is a feel that this could be society in thirty years though – each characters explore different parts of society, the poor old woman who wishes she had a robot, the cop with a mistrusting hate, the techy computer programmer who’s social life consists of her watching TV with her NS5 robot, the major corporation pulling in billions in profit, the list goes on.
Performances are good all round with Will Smith bringing a lot to the film. Obviously his previous roles in films such as Independence Day if a little on the lighter side helped build up his character before the movie but his interaction with Sonny offers a new depth to the film. Sonny has some heart felt lines too while still maintaining the coldness of artificial intelligence such as “I think it would be better not to die,” and even poses the question “will it hurt,” when Calvin prepares to deactivate him.
Underneath it all there is the classic AI taking over storyline that has been used so many times before (2001, Terminator, Matrix, etc) but it is not all doom and gloom as we find a hero in Sonny. It’s hard to make an emo flick of a sci-fi thriller but somehow Proyas does it brilliantly.
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