I, Robot: Movie Reflection

When I saw the previews for the movie I, Robot, I expected the worst. The image of robots in rebellion, attacking humans. The plot wasn’t too complicated, but it did have a few interesting twists and a few unexpected turns. Honestly, it was a great film even though I was not able to saw the full movie. It’s quiet interesting. I, Robot’ strikes a fine balance between the amazingly expressive computer generated imagery used to create its legions of robots, and the all too human presence of Will Smith whose typical wise-ass delivery keeps things grounded. The plot makes good sense only so long as you do not think about it too hard, but as a summer crowd-pleaser with edge-of-your-seat pacing and spectacular stunts, ‘I, Robot’ would be hard to beat.

The movie is an excellent example of what great direction, very good acting and a decent plot can do – add in the excellent animations and the blood pumping action scenes and you have a classic sci-fi thriller. Then add to this the way in which the movie makes you think and you have a very compelling and subtly frightening movie that appeals on many different levels. It deals with many difficult subjects such as the essence of a soul, and whether humanity is the only ‘being’ capable of anything other than following a simple program – can a robot move beyond programming into the realms of love and caring? Can a robot be capable of hatred? The movie also deals with injustice in many subtle ways, making a social commentary but not making any judgments.

The movie comments on how ‘directives’ are likely to be very restrictive and often lead to complications not thought of when the rules were created – essentially they leave no room for growth and interpretation. The movie is a thought provoking one at many levels, it comments on insecurity, alienation, racism and injustice. In a way this is a direct commentary on some of the arbitrary rules society has placed on itself now.
The way in which the movie portrays the future as simply a higher tech version of our own is very clever, and makes the settings very familiar and believable. While perhaps not as sinister as AI, the movie still has an atmosphere that is creepy at times, and is creepier because of the believability.
The animations and special effects of the robots, the cars etc are simply stunning. While you expect this these days with blockbuster movies, the way in which they blend into the movie seamlessly and make you really believe that they are real is uncanny – some of the scenes where there are literally hundreds of robots on the screen sends shivers down my spine – this again adds to the believability factor and makes you think what life could be like if we are not careful in the way we progress with technology.