It’s
the middle of summer. Time for Will
Smith to save the world.
Over the past several years, the
former Fresh Prince has been promoted to King of the Summer
Blockbusters, and
once again he delivers the goods in I,
Robot, a sci-fi action film
loosely
based on stories by Isaac Asimov.
Even before the movie was
released,
Asimov fans on the Internet were debating whether it would be true to
the
author’s intent. I haven’t read his
robot stories since I was a teenager, but a colleague with more recent
experience pronounced herself satisfied, especially with the portrayal
of the only
character to also appear in the books, Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget
Moynahan).
Asimov’s famous Three Laws of
Robotics play a central role in the movie’s plot. In
the year 2035, Chicago
detective Del Spooner (Smith) is
called to the headquarters of US Robotics to investigate the apparent
suicide
of robot inventor Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell).
He soon suspects a robotic killer, although
that would seem to violate the first and most important robotic law,
that a
robot may not injure a human being.
For most moviegoers, though,
fidelity to Asimov’s robotic world will be less important than the fact
that
this is a Will Smith action movie. Before
it’s over, we want Smith to make wisecracks, get beaten
up, and
beat the enemy with his fists and some awfully big handguns. We are not disappointed.
“I, Robot” departs from earlier
Smith blockbusters in significant ways, though. This
is a film of ideas, with a more serious side than the
campy Wild,
Wild West and Men in Black,
or even the apocalyptic Independence
Day. In addition to the obvious
theme of
technophobia, there are important undercurrents about prejudice and
about what
constitutes a “person.”
Are robots “people”?
What if a
robot could dream, or feel
emotion? Would it still be just a
machine? The robot who wants to be human
is already familiar from earlier films like Bicentennial Man (also
from a
story of Asimov’s) and Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next
Generation.
And if robots could be
“people,” what
should be our attitude toward them? In a delicious bit of irony, the
(white) head
of US Robotics – “the richest man in the world” – calls detective
Spooner on
his intense dislike for robots: “Prejudice
never shows much reason,” he says.
In keeping with the serious
theme, the
humor is a bit more subdued than in most Smith action films. His character has a darker side, haunted by
memories of the event that turned him against robots, and some of the
funniest
lines are given to other actors, as when Spooner mistakenly brings down
a robot
he thinks has snatched a purse. The
asthmatic woman whose inhaler the robot was retrieving tells him,
“You’re lucky
I can’t breathe or I’d walk all up and down your [posterior].”
When Spooner asks the rigidly
controlled
Dr. Calvin what her function at the robotic company is, she deadpans,
“to make
the robots seem more human.” Naturally,
enough, by the end of the movie we are convinced that robots can be human – and so can the ice
maiden, who thaws under the spell of Spooner’s charm.
The film continues a recent
trend of
showing the future as not very unlike today. Remember
when science fiction set even a few years ahead
involved fancy,
technological sets? Visually, Chicago in 2035 looks an awful lot like Chicago in 2004,
except for the robots
walking around. The cityscape contains
much of the existing notable architecture, although the Sears Tower
has lost its title as the city’s tallest – that distinction goes to the
gleaming US Robotics tower, the one futuristic set in the film.
Spooner’s apartment could be any
urban
bachelor’s flat today, right down to the JVC stereo (playing Stevie
Wonder’s
“Superstition” (1972), already an oldie today) and his preferred
footwear,
vintage Converse All-Stars. A diner
where Spooner eats and a bar where he and Lt. Bergin have a couple of
beers
also resemble their present-day equivalents – except, of course, for
inflation:
a breakfast of steak and eggs at the diner is $30.95; a couple of beers
at the bar
bring a bill of $46.
Now that’s
scary!