I Robot - Single Disc Edition [2004] [DVD]

I had (and like) the movie allready, so i only bought this disc to get the extra disc with the bonus material as well. It was nearly impossible to learn about those features from the other reviews (read these if you're more interested in the story!), so here's a list: "Three Audio commentaries/The Making of I, Robot/Still Gallery/Production Diaries/Post Production featurettes/Sentient Machinery: Robotic Behaviour/About Science Fiction and Robots/The Filmmakers Toolbox and Visual Effects/Extended and Deleted Scenes". Quite enough to satisfy most fans of the movie.

There are many films which some people love and other people hate. It is less common for the same person to both love and hate a film, but I felt that way about "I, Robot."

If you are a big fan of Isaac Asimov, and particularly of his robot stories such as the original book "I, Robot" there is a strong possibility that you will be absolutely infuriated by this film.

Firstly, this is because most of Asimov's robot books were works of absolute genius both for the time they were written and even by comparison with events and things which have been written since. Asimov's depictions of robots and computers are far closer to the reality of computers and machines which surround us today than were the mechanical frankenstein monsters which every previous author who wrote about robots created. To be in the same league as Asimov's books the film would have had to be brilliant, and it isn't.

Secondly, the scriptwriters have used the name of one of Asimov's books, the names of two of his characters, and his three "laws of robotics" to produce a film which at first sight appears dangerously close to being exactly the type of robot story which Asimov detested and was trying to get away from.

As Asimov explained himself, he wanted to move on from the cliche in which every film or book about robots retold the story of Frankenstein with robots as the monster, repeating a cycle in which "robots were created and destroyed their creators; robots were created and destroyed their creators."

Some Asimov fans will see the film "I Robot" as falling into exactly that pattern and will loathe it for this reason. The character Susan Calvin in the film, despite some good acting by Bridget Moynahan, is also a disappointing shadow of the much more human person created in Asimov's books.

Having said all that, even from the viewpoint of an Asimov purist there are some good things about the film. During the first half of the film, Will Smith as Del Spooner, a paranoid detective who is something equivalent to an anti-robot racist, is the only person who suspects that anything might be wrong with the robots. During this part of the story, all the robots, except one apparent rogue, act exactly as Asimov predicted that his "three laws of robotics" could be used to make them support human society. Some robots continue to do so throughout the book and are effectively sympathetic characters rather than demons.

Other good things in the film - there is some excellent acting, particularly from Smith, Moynahan, and James Cromwell who plays the father of robotics, Dr Alfred Lanning. The robot character Sonny was created using CGI based on the movements of actor Alan Tudyk (who played the pilot Wash in Serenity / Firefly) in the same way that Gollum was created for the "Lord of the Rings" films. This was particularly well done, but special effects were spectacularly good throughout the film.

Dramatic tension was well managed and you are made to care about most of the characters. There is some excellent humour in the film. Overall I didn't think it was a bad film.

If you like science fiction films and have not read any of Asimov's robot novels, give this a try and you will very probably enjoy it. If you have read and enjoyed the original novels, and are willing to accept that a film inspired by them does not have to rigidly follow all of Asimov's ideas, then the same will apply.

If however you are a huge Asimov fan and are likely to be offended by people who are not quite up to his level of genius taking liberties with his work, you should probably leave this film alone.

I enjoyed this film - a good action / adventure sci-fi thriller...

I've read the books its "based" on and it would be fair to say it was "inspired by"; its a merging of three stories; some characters changed beyond recognition and generally very little relation.

If you want an action adventure film this is good entertainment; if you want the film based on the book of the same title - this isn't it.