"Here's a surprise. The robots are the bad guys."

I admit that initally I wasn't impressed about I, Robot just from the trailer. So when I saw the movie, it was better than I expected. Not much though.

I, Robot tells the story of Detective Spooner who has a problem with robots. Specifically, he thinks they are too logical to a fault. So much that they don't recognize the value of human life when it is necessary.

So then there's a corporation in the process of distributing the newest model to all the homes in the city. However, the lead scientist turns up dead and a robot is suspected of his murder.

This is a problem because robots can't kill people because it would violate the basic three laws (3 laws safe) robots are programmed with.

As the story progresses we learn that maybe robots are destined to evolve beyond their programming. The phrase "ghost in the shell" pops up now and then.

So for the rest of the movie, Will Smith runs around trying to prove the robots are malfunctioning while involved in perilous situations and danger.

The movie is okay, just not surprising or challenging. The visuals are pretty good, a lot of it is noticeable compositing through green screen. Most of the movie looks like a bright washed out painting. The style is similar to Minority Report. One cool element was that the city wasn't very futuristic. The production designers did a good job of layering new technology over the old much like our own futures would be.

In summation, I, Robot is an alright flick. I guess I just required more from it.

I get the feeling like this movie could have headed toward a more relevant social context involving how robots are taking over our lives and how corporations could pervert their usefulness to suit their needs. Instead, the robots are just programmed to be illogical and full of bad wiring. Yawn.