I, Robot [Blu-ray]

Better than expected!!

A good movie by Will Smith.

Great movie, appears to be coming true because of Elon.

When I heard someone was going to make a film adaptation of Isaac Asimov's seminal science fiction work `I, Robot', I was interested...and I was curious how it would be approached...until I heard Will Smith was set to star. After that, I pretty much put out of my mind a production with a sense of faithfulness to the source material, and consigned myself that the movie would be more akin to the common Hollywood practice of optioning a classic literary work and `jazzing' it up to make it more palatable for the masses, using what the screenwriters saw fit, discarding much of what they thought wouldn't work, and making up the rest to fill in the gaps (I'll admit I was partially right, and partially wrong). Directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow), this 2004 film stars, as I've already mentioned, Will `gettin jiggy wit it' Smith (Independence Day, Enemy of the State, Ali). Also appearing is the very hot Bridget Moynahan (Coyote Ugly, Serendipity), Bruce Greenwood (Thirteen Days, The Core), Chi McBride (Gone in 60 Seconds), and James Cromwell (Space Cowboys), who, incidentally, is the tallest actor (6 foot 7 inches) to be nominated for an Oscar (for that talking pig movie), according to The Internet Movie Database.The year is 2035 and the setting is Chicago. Robots are commonplace, performing all the tasks future humans apparently deem too menial such as package delivery, garbage pick up, walking dogs, etc. Life is easy for those who have a robot to do their bidding, but everyone isn't too keen on the idea of robots being so prevalent, especially homicide detective Del Spooner (Smith), a sort of robot racist, but no one takes his paranoia too seriously because everyone knows the robots are programmed with three specific fail safes as follows;1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the First Law.3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.Soon Spooner is called in to investigate the recent death (due to massive impact trauma aka falling out high rise office window) of Dr. Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), a pioneer in the robotics field and employee of US Robotics, or USR, which, by the way, is on the eve of releasing its most advanced mechanical wonder, the NS-5 series. On the surface the doctor's death looks like a suicide (everyone seems to be pushing this angle, especially USR CEO Lawrence Robertson, played by Greenwood), but Spooner is skeptical. In the course of Spooner's investigation, he finds aide in the form of Dr. Susan Calvin (Moynahan), an USR employee and sort of psychologist whose job it is to help with the integration of robots into everyday life. Together they begin to uncover what appears to be a massive conspiracy, assisted by an unlikely source sent from beyond the grave (no, I'm not talking about a ghost...just watch the film and all will become clear)...but it may be too late, as robots seem to be suffering from what could best be described as a `ghost in the machine' sickness, especially around Spooner who keeps finding himself the target of murderous, mechanical mayhem.I really enjoyed this film, but if you're looking for a faithful on screen representation of the original source material, you'll probably want to take a pass on this one. I did get a sense the screenwriter made a real effort to stay true to the nature of the material, for whatever its worth. One of the things that really impressed me was the integration of the very slick, spectacular and heavily used special effects with the live performances. It felt seamless helping to maintain a sense of realism that kept me drawn to the story, rather than feeling of awkwardness that can occur when something appears phony, drawing attention to the fact that it was an element added in later by computers. As far as Smith goes, I thought he did well enough, but I can't help feel I've seen this character in any number of his past film appearances, in terms of the glib, smart alecky, `I don't play by the rules' type facing difficult odds but managing to find a way to come out on top. I really liked Bridget Moynahan, but not because she's a great actress (she also did well enough here), but mainly because I'm a sucker for brunettes. I wouldn't say there were any outstanding performances, but everyone knew what they were doing, and were all very professional. As far as the story goes, I thought it was fairly straight forward (helped by a rousing and suitable musical score), and included a few surprises that were alluded to prior to their revelation, but never painfully telegraphed, giving the feeling of a well thought out and well written film, playing out as a well crafted action film should, delivering much and keeping the downtime to a minimum. I did find it kind of strange that Smith's character should suffer the number of attacks he did without any witnesses, thereby putting into question is mental stability, as no one believes him when he tries to relate what happened. Another thing I appreciated was how the near future was presented, as not being too futuristic (and silly...see the film Demolition Man for an example of this), but having enough technological advances present to feel like we're actually looking 30 years into the future, like that Audi Spooner was driving...pretty cool (although that whole Lake Michigan as a landfill thing seemed dumb to me, but whatever). One niggling point I thought stuck out and that was the reiteration of certain plot elements numerous times throughout the film, as if we needed to be reminded of things because our attention spans are lacking....I'm not five years old, so just give it to me once and that will be enough...thanks.I've got what's called the `All Access' edition, and it features two DVDs, loaded with special features, which I won't bother detailing as the Amazon website does a good enough job listing them all, but if you're interested in all the ins and out, the nuts and bolts of how the film was made, this is a good edition to own. If you don't need all this rigmarole I think there is a single DVD version available.Cookieman108By the way, that demolition robot sequence was infinitely cool...as was the latter traffic/battle sequence...

Awesome movie

We had this on dvd when I was younger. I had to go watch with the new Telsa bot memes going around now lol. I forgot how much this was one of my favorite movies back in the day. Very well done.

Crazy watching this in 2024

Watched it more than once

Un grande classico in DVD, lo stra consiglio

Although was late arriving the product is in great condition I can't wait to watch it later

No tuve oportunidad de ver la película en su momento y ahora gracias a Amazon tuve tuve la oportunidad de adquirirla.

100 % OK Goede verzending en besteld item beantwoorde volledig aan de beschrijvingvan de verkoper ( uiterst tevreden ):-):-):-)

Très bon film. Arrivée dans les délais. Je recommande.