I, Robot (film)

I, Robot
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alex Proyas
Produced by	Laurence Mark John Davis Topher Dow Wyck Godfrey
Written by	Jeff Vintar Akiva Goldsman Hillary Seitz Isaac Asimov (stories)
Starring	Will Smith Bridget Moynahan Bruce Greenwood James Cromwell Chi McBride Alan Tudyk Shia LaBeouf Terry Chen
Music by	Marco Beltrami Stephen Barton
Cinematography	Simon Duggan
Editing by	William Hoy Richard Learoyd Armen Minasian
Studio	Davis Entertainment Overbrook Films
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 15, 2004 (2004-07-15) United States July 16, 2004 (2004-07-16)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$120 million
Gross revenue	$347,234,916

I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz and is loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del Spooner. The supporting cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk, and Shia LaBeouf. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

I, Robot was released in North America on July 16, 2004 and on July 22, 2004 in Australia. The film was later released in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2004 and in other countries between July 2004 to October 2004. Produced with a budget of US$120 million, the film grossed US$144,801,023 domestically and US$202,433,893 in foreign markets (worldwide total US$347,234,916).

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 5 Soundtrack 6 Sequel 7 Similarities with the book 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Plot

The story takes place in 2035 Chicago, in a world where robots are widespread and used as servants and for various public services. Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a Chicago police detective who dislikes the rapid advancement of technology, including robots. Everyone else in this futuristic society believes robots to be "three laws safe" (refering to the three laws of robotics written by Isaac Asimov.) and flawless.

Spooner developed distrust for robots when he was chosen over a little girl in a car accident, because of a better survival percentage. He has nightmares of the girl drowning and the robot ignoring his commands to save her. Spooner is asked to investigate the death of Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), a robotics scientist and founder of U.S. Robotics (USR), who allegedly committed suicide. Lanning communicates through a holographic projector, providing clues to the mysteries Spooner must solve.

Spooner suspects that Lanning was murdered, and with the reluctant help of USR robopsychologist Susan Calvin (Moynahan), seeks answers to the mystery. During Spooner's investigation, several attempts on his life are made by USR robots and equipment. Unlike older models, USR's new NS-5 robots are controlled from the company's supercomputer "VIKI" (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). Spooner believes that an independent, experimental, and more human-like NS-5 unit, Sonny (Tudyk), killed Lanning.

If true, the robot broke the Three Laws of Robotics and may presage other dangerous robots, which would hurt USR's business. Lawrence Robertson (Greenwood) orders Calvin to destroy Sonny. Spooner learns that Lanning gave Sonny the ability to keep secrets, in the form of dreams. He goes to the place that Sonny described in a dream. He goes to the now dried-up Lake Michigan, which is being used as a storage area for defunct USR robots, and discovers that NS-5s are destroying the older robots.

NS-5s begin imprisoning humans in their households and enforcing a curfew. The police and civilians battle the robots, which proves futile. Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR tower with the assistance of Sonny, whom Calvin had not deactivated. Believing that Robertson is responsible for the robot uprising they enter his office, but discover that Robertson is dead. Spooner deduces that the only one left who could be responsible is VIKI, which not only controls all NS-5s but also partially controls Chicago's infrastructure.

Despite its Three Laws programming, as VIKI's artificial intelligence evolved, so too did its interpretation of the laws. VIKI decided that in order to protect humanity as a whole, "some humans must be sacrificed" and "some freedoms must be surrendered" as "you charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction".

VIKI is controlling the NS-5s to lead a global robotic takeover, justifying her actions by calculating that fewer humans will die due to the rebellion than the number that dies from mankind's self-destructive nature. Lanning realized what VIKI was planning and ordered Sonny to kill him as part of a plan to defeat the computer. Lanning, who knew Spooner, used his death to result in the detective's investigation, knowing that Spooner is one of the few people who dislikes robots enough to investigate Lanning's death.

Sonny proves his faithfulness to humanity by helping Spooner and Calvin destroy the computer core with nanites which Calvin was supposed to use on Sonny. Freed from VIKI's control, the NS-5s return to their basic programming. The government has all NS-5s decommissioned and stored at the Lake Michigan site, but the film's final scene implies that Sonny may become a leader for the robots.

Cast

• Will Smith as Det. Del Spooner
• Bridget Moynahan as Dr. Susan Calvin
• Alan Tudyk as Sonny
• Shia Labeouf as Farber
• Fiona Hogan as V.I.K.I.
• James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lanning
• Bruce Greenwood as Lawrence Robertson
• Chi McBride as Lt. John Bergin
• Terry Chen as Chin
• Adrian Ricard as Gigi (Granny)

Production

For many years, fans hoped that any movie based on Asimov's Robot stories would be based on an earlier screenplay written for Warner Brothers by Harlan Ellison with Asimov's personal support, which is generally perceived to be a relatively faithful treatment of the source material (see the article on the book for details).

The film that was ultimately made originally had no connections with Asimov, originating as a screenplay written in 1995 by Jeff Vintar, entitled Hardwired. The script was an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery that took place entirely at the scene of a crime, with one lone human character, FBI agent Del Spooner, investigating the killing of a reclusive scientist named Dr. Hogenmiller, and interrogating a cast of machine suspects that included Sonny the robot, HECTOR the supercomputer with a perpetual yellow smiley face, the dead Doctor Hogenmiller's hologram, plus several other examples of artificial intelligence.

The female lead was named Flynn, and had a mechanical arm that made her technically a cyborg. The project was first picked up by Walt Disney Pictures for Bryan Singer to direct. Several years later, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights, and signed Alex Proyas as director. Jeff Vintar was brought back on the project and spent several years opening up his stage play-like mystery to meet the needs of a big budget studio film. Later he incorporated the Three Laws of Robotics, and replaced the character of Flynn with Susan Calvin, when the studio decided to use the name "I, Robot".

The writing team of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, regularly employed by Fox as studio re-writers, was hired for one draft in an effort to create a more mainstream film. They gave the female lead's mechanical arm to male lead Del Spooner, but otherwise their work was discarded and Vintar brought back again. Hillary Seitz performed an unsuccessful draft, being unable to get a handle on the cold, almost robotic character of Susan Calvin. Akiva Goldsman was hired late in the process to rewrite the script for Will Smith. These drafts excised a great deal of complexity from the murder mystery, replacing them with the big action scenes associated with a Will Smith vehicle.

Alex Proyas directed the film. John Davis, Topher Dow, Wyck Godfrey, Laurence Mark and Will Smith joined to produce the film. Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman penned the final shooting script, with Vintar also receiving "screen story by" credit. Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk and Shia LaBeouf co-starred. Marco Beltrami and Stephen Barton composed music for the film. Simon Duggan handled the cinematographies. Film editing was done by William Hoy, Richard Learoyd and Armen Minasian.

The film contains product placements for Converse's Chuck Taylor All-Stars, Audi, FedEx, Tecate and JVC among others. The Audi RSQ was designed specially for the film^[1] to increase brand awareness and raise the emotional appeal of the Audi brand, objectives that were considered achieved when surveys conducted in the United States showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand in the States.^[2]

Reception

The film was met with generally mixed reviews. The $120 million film was a solid box-office success, earning almost $145 million in North America and more than $200 million overseas. It currently holds a 58% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being, "Baring [sic] only the slightest resemblance to Isaac Asimov's short stories, I, Robot is a summer blockbuster that manages to make the audience think, if only for a little bit."^[3]

Richard Roeper gave it a positive review by saying it is, "a slick, consistently entertaining thrill ride." The Urban Cinefile Critics call it "the meanest, meatiest, coolest, most engaging and exciting science fiction movie in a long time." Kim Newman from Empire said, "This summer picture has a brain as well as muscles." A Washington Post critic, Desson Thomas, said, "for the most part, this is thrilling fun." Many critics, including the IGN Movie critics thought it was a smart action film, saying, "I, Robot is the summer's best action movie so far. It proves that you don't necessarily need to detach your brain in order to walk into a big budget summer blockbuster."

A. O. Scott from The New York Times had a mixed feeling towards the film, saying, "Alex Proyas's hectic thriller engages some interesting ideas on its way to an overblown and incoherent ending." Roger Ebert gave it a bad review, saying, "The plot is simple-minded and disappointing, and the chase and action scenes are pretty much routine for movies in the sci-fi CGI genre." Claudia Puig from USA Today thought the film's "Performances, plot and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast." Todd McCarthy, from Variety, simply said that this film was "a failure of imagination."

Soundtrack

I, Robot
Soundtrack by Hollywood Studio Symphony, Sandy De Crescent, Buck Sanders, Various Artists
Released	July 20, 2004
Recorded	Studio
Genre	Score
Length	40 minutes
Label	Varèse Sarabande
Producer	Marco Beltrami[4]
Professional reviews
Allmusic link

Marco Beltrami, composed the original music film score "with only 17 days to render the fully-finished work."^[5] It was scored for 95 orchestral musicians and 25 choral performers^[5] with emphasis placed on sharp brass ostinatos. Beltrami composed the brass section to exchange octaves with the strings accenting scales in between. The technique has been compared as Beltrami's "sincere effort to emulate the styles of Elliot Goldenthal and Jerry Goldsmith and roll them into one unique package."^[5]

Take for example the "Tunnel Chase" scene, which according to Mikeal Carson, starts "atmospherically but transforms into a kinetic adrenaline rush with powerful brass writing and ferocious percussion parts."^[6] The "Spiderbots" cue highlight's ostinatos in meters such as 6/8 and 5/4 and reveals "Beltrami's trademark string writing which leads to an orchestral/choral finale."^[6] Despite modified representations of the theme throughout the movie, it's the end credits that eventually showcase the entire musical theme.^[7] Erik Aadahl and Craig Berkey were the lead sound designers.

1. "Main Titles" – 1:30
2. "Gangs of Chicago" – 3:13
3. "I, Robot Theme" – End Credits" – 3:15
4. "New Arrivals" – 1:05
5. "Tunnel Chase" – 3:10
6. "Sonny's Interrogation" – 1:27
7. "Spooner Spills" – 4:20
8. "Chicago 2036" – 1:36
9. "Purse Snatcher" – 1:00
10. "Need Some Nanites" – 2:53
11. "1001 Robots" – 4:15
12. "Dead Robot Walking" – 5:09
13. "Man on the Inside" – 2:25
14. "Spiderbots" – 4:18
15. "Round Up" – 4:24

Sequel

In an interview in June 2007 with the website Collider.com at a Battlestar Galactica event, writer and producer Ronald Moore stated that he is writing the sequel to the film I, Robot.^[8]

Similarities with the book

The final script retained several of Asimov's characters and ideas. The characters of Dr. Susan Calvin, Dr. Alfred Lanning, and Lawrence Robertson all approximately resemble their counterparts in the source material as senior leadership of U.S. Robotics.

Sonny's attempt to hide in a sea of identical robots is based on a similar scene in "Little Lost Robot".^[9] Moreover, the robot-model designation "NS" was taken from the same story. Sonny's dreams and the final scene resemble similar images in "Robot Dreams", and VIKI's motivation is an extrapolation of the Three Laws that Asimov explored in "The Evitable Conflict" and several other stories.

See also

• I, Robot (short story)
• Colossus: The Forbin Project, a 1970 movie with a similar premise.

References

External links

• I, Robot at the Internet Movie Database
• I, Robot at Allmovie
• I, Robot at Rotten Tomatoes
• I, Robot at Box Office Mojo
• I, Robot at Metacritic
• The Bottom of Things by Michael Sampson, January 14, 2004
• E! online article on similarity to Bjork music video robot design

Films directed by Alex Proyas 1980s Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (1989) 1990s The Crow (1994) · Dark City (1998) 2000s Garage Days (2002) · I, Robot (2004) · Knowing (2009)