Review of I, Robot (2004) by Phillip D — 10 Dec 2014

This film tries to be as thought-provoking as Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and in all fairness, there are moments where the film's premise can make you think, but that's only for a short while before the film lapses back into being yet another summer blockbuster.

The story often doesn't make sense, and it seems like an attempt to cram intelligent sci-fi subject matter into a blockbuster action romp. For me, this is reflected in the acting, mainly because many of the performances feel quite familiar, but at the same time they're watchable, and the film does have its best moments.

The production values are alright, but it's nothing really special. The robots don't look very appealing at all, but the special effects can actually get pretty good at times, even if in one of the last scenes of the film there's a lot of blue everywhere (then again, this isn't a film with a wide colour palette).

The film is primarily action-oriented, and thus, you're most likely watching this film for action, and this film delivers it competently, but it's not very potent at truly satisfying action scenes.

Overall, it's a film that I wouldn't mind watching again, but there are a lot of flaws, and to be frank, I find that it's one of those films that tend to squander a lot of their potential.