Meanwhile, the setup, at least initially, is unpleasantly reminiscent of Minority Report and Paycheck, with a cop (Will Smith) in a dystopian near-future falling afoul of a corporate bigwig (Bruce Greenwood) and making decisions that cause most everyone to question his sanity. A top scientist (James Cromwell) has been found dead of an apparent suicide, yet Smith's Detective Del Spooner remains convinced that a robot was the culprit. This hypothesis presents a problem, however, in that such a murder would violate the laws of robotics.
Oh, yeah--this is the Asimov part. For those unfamiliar with the author, he posited three laws that every robot should be programmed to obey, and they go a little something like this (in order of priority): A robot may not harm a human or allow a human to be harmed, a robot must obey human orders except those that would harm other humans, and a robot must protect itself unless doing so would harm another human or violate an order. Aside from these laws, the dead James Cromwell character and the pivotal role of Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), the film's script is mostly the creation of screenwriter Jeff Vintar, who called it Hardwired until the producers figured out that more money could be made by creating an Asimov connection (as is, the Calvin character barely resembles her counterpart from the book). The producers really ought to have optioned Asimov's The Robots of Dawn instead--it's one novel-length story, and, like this film, it centers on a murder mystery involving robots.
But here's the important thing, for the ladies: Will Smith does a shower scene! Bridget Moynahan does, too, but hers is maddeningly concealed behind frosted glass. Smith, also credited as executive producer, apparently still wants to show off his Ali-enhanced physique as much as possible within the bounds of a PG-13 rating.
Once he's done showering, he displays some mysterious scars, which, like his scary dreams, are just bound to be relevant to the plot at some juncture. Then it's off to the murder mystery, which tries to remain somewhat true to the spirit of Asimov's stories inasmuch as it involves unexpected paradoxes created by the three laws. Since this is a summer movie, however, it also has to have big action setpieces, even when such conflicts with the relatively less important laws of screenplay logic.
All mockery aside, though: Once this movie gets going, it works, and it works well. It has a slow buildup, but its final third manages to generate some eye-popping thrills without the usual obligatory dismissal of all narrative in the face of explosions. It's not as visually unique a movie as some others in the canon of director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, Garage Days), but the robots, whose colored-plastic-atop-circuitry design was reputedly inspired by iMacs, are very cool, and kids are gonna want an action figure version, like, yesterday! (None are available, alas.) As the main robot, who gives himself the name Sonny, Alan Tudyk amazes with a Gollum-like ability to create a soul behind motion-capture CG eyes. Who knew that the actor best known as the dorky German in 28 Days and the pirate fetishist in Dodgeball had this in him? Not all the CG is as polished, and in some scenes the bluescreen work is obvious but forgivable (it'll probably look better on a digital projector or DVD).
Smith is, well, Smith. With each movie he seems to get progressively calmer, so his trademark wisecracks are fewer and farther between (that's a good thing), and perhaps a tad more subdued herein than you're used to. The characters onscreen even get some laughs at his expense this time. Moynahan has the best rebuttal: "I'm sorry...are you being funny?"
Smith's response: "I guess not."
