I, Robot Delivers More Than the Nuts and Bolts of an Isaac Asimov Sci-Fi Classic

July 14, 2004 — -- I have to confess to a prejudice. When I was a kid I read an awful lot of science fiction and I loved Isaac Asimov. He was the only writer I knew who wrote more than I could read.

I read Asimov's books by flashlight, head under the covers, so my folks would think I was asleep. When I heard they were making his I, Robot stories into a Will Smith movie, my prejudices hit both ways: I can't wait to see it! What if they screw it up?

The truth, another confession: I wasn't expecting a movie this good.

It's 2035, and there's been a murder at U.S. Robotics, a Chicago company that has succeeded in selling robots to 20 percent of the American population. The company's owner has become the richest man in the world by providing robots that can't hurt a human or commit a crime — they're programmed that way.

Will Smith, a bit more serious than usual but as exciting and fun to watch as ever, is a Chicago cop who doesn't like robots. He has his reasons; I won't spoil them. He's investigating the murder at USR headquarters. He thinks a robot did it. Bridget Moynihan, who played Big's wife on Sex and the City, plays a robot shrink.

"A robot could no more commit murder," she hesitates, "than a man could … well … walk on water."

"Yeah," Smith says, rummaging through a pile of robot parts. "But there was this guy a long time ago …" And a robot leaps out of the garbage, does a triple somersault and grabs Smith's gun.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Gotcha! moment. They had me. They'll get you.

OK, it takes Moynihan (and Smith's fellow cops) a little too long to cast their lot with Smith, and there's a corporate greed subplot that might have shocked once but plays today like Harvard Business School 101.

But from that leap on, I, Robot comes at you at 1,000 mph and doesn't stop until the disclaimer in the end credits: No actual robot was harmed during the making of this film.