DVD: I, Robot

Robophobic cop Del Spooner (Will Smith) is called in to investigate the possible murder of a USR scientist in the week a new line of robots is being rolled out. Enlisting the help of robot psychologist Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), Spooner tries to prove that a robot named Sonny has broken the three robotic laws designed to protect man...


Just when Hollywood blockbusters were starting to look like they’d hit a brick wall (Van Helsing, The Chronicles of Riddick), Will Smith steps up and lets us know it’s business as usual.

Anyone who’s read the original Isaac Asimov stories will realize how loosely the film is based on them, although elements are clearly there. The role of Susan Calvin, an expert in understanding how robots think, is changed from an octogenarian in the books and played by 34-year old Bridget Moynahan.

The story builds slowly but it really gets going once the action kicks in. An excellent set-piece where a demolition robot tears apart a house mixes real set work with CGI to create a believable scene. But even when Spooner’s warnings come true and the robots start to target him, it’s easy to lose yourself in the action sequences. The excesses of later Matrix movies have been heeded so that when an army of robots attacks, the vehicles, sets and the robots themselves are all believable enough.

Playing Del Spooner, the cop with an attitude problem and a hatred for the robot-dependent world he finds himself in, isn’t much of a stretch for Smith. But he doesn’t let the character slip into Bad Boys cliché, which would have been very easy to do. Spooner and Calvin grow closer as the movie goes on, although sparks never really fly. This is a good decision by the director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) as the two of them come from the opposite ends of the spectrum. Where Spooner hates the way robots have infiltrated our lives, Calvin – true to Asimov’s short stories – is a colder figure, distrustful of humans and only truly relaxed around machines.

The other main role falls to someone who’s never seen in the movie, Firefly actor Alan Tudyk who plays Sonny. Like Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, Tudyk lends his weight to Sonny’s performance to give the effects team a real character to work with. Topping off the role is a voice that makes Sonny sound eerily like HAL from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001.

Extras on the DVD include a picture gallery of 30 stills, but with so much rich design in the movie it’s a shame we get two almost identical shots of Will Smith getting out of his car! The 13-minute ‘Making of I, Robot’ featurette is interesting if not in-depth and shows some of the work that went into the special effects, including Alan Tudyk’s portrayal of Sonny. Tudyk played the role in a skintight green bodysuit and he runs down the list of less-than-flattering names the crew had for his outfit.

Director Proyas and screenwriter Akiva Goldsmith offer an insightful commentary to the movie, discussing the physical and psychological building of Asimov’s robots. They also demystify the backstory for Susan Calvin, something that doesn’t happen in the movie. There’s even the usual talk of budget constraints and money wrangles – surprising in a film that looks like no expense was spared.

Buy I, Robot on DVD at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com