I, Robot: Movie Review

2004, PG-13 on Disney+ and IMDb

What is it about humans that AI can’t mimic?

I, Robot explores a near-future dystopia where robots are safe because they’re constrained by rules… Until they aren’t. Does something become human because it can choose when it’s right and good to transcend laws?

Dr. Calvin: “A robot can no more commit murder than a human could … walk on water.” 

Detective Spooner: “Well, you know, there was this one guy…”

In this crime thriller, technophobic Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) investigates what appears to be a homicide committed by a robot despite the “3 Laws” preventing robots from harming humans. Sonny, the robot suspect, must figure out how to gain Spooner’s trust in order to save human lives.

If you need a good shot of humour, watch this film for Spooner/Will Smith’s snark. His comic interaction with his world is not only entertaining but important because the African American culture and community—including faith and family—are envisioned clearly here, rather than blended into obscurity as often happens in sci-fi. The humour and culture humanize the story, and cunningly contrast Sonny struggling to make sense of humanity and its humour.

A storytelling device that I particularly enjoy is “the object.” Notice the journey of Del’s favourite Converse shoes and how they anchor his humanity. A physical object that’s part of a character’s journey helps the audience connect with the character’s emotion and growth arc. As a parallel, in the film Oblivion it’s Bob the Elvis bobblehead who goes on the journey with Jack, the protagonist. 

Now, the movie does set up some brief, non-sexual nudity in what I think is an artistic attempt to contrast the unclothed robots that get destroyed by the dozens. The human body means something to the audience in a way that a mechanized, depersonalized human form does not.

There’s some startling violence against humans that justifies the PG-13 rating, but it heightens the question: how do we feel about violence against a robot who’s behaving eerily human?

A few years prior to I, Robot, the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence presented a humanoid boy programmed to give and receive love, a modernized Pinocchio in tech garb; I, Robot joins its questions about AI ethics. Transformers in 2007 relieved the robots-craving-to-be-loved theme with compassionate robots who don’t care whether they’re treated humanely, furthered in 2009’s Terminator: Salvation. Incidentally, Shia Laboeuf must have resonated as helper character Farber in I, Robot because he got the lead for Transformers.

What’s not explicit in any of these movies is the way a person’s character is revealed by how they treat technology just as much as by how they treat animals, as in Iwájú or John Carter. In I, Robot, Sonny’s humanity is anchored by his care for how he and other robots are treated.

Anyone with concerns about AI art might appreciate Detective Spooner’s accusation that AI can’t create artistic masterpieces. Sonny’s response: “Well, can you?” Oh, touché.

Altogether, the movie has good tension requiring only moderate adrenaline as characters argue and countdowns heighten the action tempo and flow through good twists. The music is appropriate but not memorable. The plot progresses with pleasing ebbs and flows, along with repeated dialogue and actions increasing the significance of earlier ones.

That said, there’s still an emotional arc left unfulfilled. Dr. Susan Calvin isn’t emotive, perhaps on purpose, but it fails to provide a satisfying contrast to Detective Spooner’s intensity and guilt complex. And the two are never attracted to each other. Adding an attraction storyline could have required an additional 15 to 20 minutes to the 1h55 runtime, which would have been just fine with me. 

As it is, the movie succeeds by focusing on ethics and character development without requiring intimate human relationships, perhaps meaningful when dealing with platonic human relationships with robots.

A few more great lines:

1. “…the good old days when people were killed by other people…”

2. “This relationship just can’t work. I mean you’re a cat. I’m black, and I’m not going to be hurt again.”

Review written by: Jazmine Lawrence, Captain (Retired, RCAF), BSc Honours Physics, MA (Theology) student, future sci-fi author.