I, Robot (film)

For other uses, see I, Robot (disambiguation).
I, Robot

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alex Proyas
Produced by
Screenplay by Jeff Vintar
Akiva Goldsman
Story by Jeff Vintar
Based on Premise suggested by I, Robot 
by Isaac Asimov
Starring
Music by Marco Beltrami
Cinematography Simon Duggan
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • July 15, 2004 (2004-07-15) (international)
  • July 16, 2004 (2004-07-16) (United States)
Running time
 115 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $120 million[1]
Box office $347.2 million[1]
A model of Sonny's head.

I, Robot (stylized as i, ROBOT) is a 2004 American neo-noir dystopian science fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman is from a screen story by Vintar, suggested by Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. The film stars Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk and Shia LaBeouf.

I, Robot was released in North America on July 16, 2004, in Australia on July 22, 2004, in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2004 and in other countries between July 2004 to October 2004. Produced with a budget of USD $120 million, the film grossed $144 million domestically and $202 million in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $347 million. It received mixed to favorable reviews, with critics praising the writing, visual effects, and acting; but other critics were mixed with the focus on the plot. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Plot

In 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity. Humans are protected from the robots by the Three Laws of Robotics. Del Spooner (Smith), a Chicago police detective, hates and distrusts robots because one of them rescued him from a car crash, leaving a young girl to die because her survival was statistically less likely than his. Spooner's critical injuries were repaired via a cybernetic left arm, lung, and ribs, personally implanted by the co-founder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men (USR), Dr. Alfred Lanning (Cromwell).

When Lanning falls several stories to his death from his office window, the CEO of USR Lawrence Robertson (Greenwood) declares it a suicide, but Spooner is skeptical. Lanning left no suicide note, but he did leave a holographic device that responds to some of Spooner's questions. Spooner and robopsychologist Susan Calvin (Moynahan) consult USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) (Fiona Hogan) to review security footage of Lanning's fall. The video has been corrupted, but they learn that no other humans were in Lanning's office at the time. Lanning, Spooner discovers, could not have crashed through the heavy office window on his own; he was thrown through it with a force only a robot could generate. Calvin protests that this is impossible; no robot can violate the inviolable Three Laws; so both are shocked when they are attacked by an NS-5 robot, USR's latest model. They pursue the robot to a USR robot factory, where the police apprehend it. They discover that the robot, nicknamed Sonny (Tudyk), is not an assembly-line NS-5, but a unique individual built by Lanning himself, with a secondary system that bypasses the Three Laws. Sonny also appears to have emotions and dreams.

While pursuing his investigation of Lanning's death, Spooner is attacked by a USR demolition machine, and then a squad of NS-5 robots. His boss, Lt. John Bergin (Chi McBride), worried that Spooner is losing his mind, removes him from active duty. Spooner and Calvin sneak into USR headquarters and interview Sonny. He draws a sketch of his dream: a figure, who Sonny believes to be Spooner, standing near a broken bridge on a small hill before a large group of robots. When Robertson learns of Sonny's immunity from the Three Laws, he orders Calvin to destroy him by injecting nanites (replicating nano-scale robots) into his positronic brain. Spooner recognizes the landscape in Sonny's drawing as Lake Michigan, now used as a storage area for defunct USR robots, where he discovers an army of NS-5 robots dismantling older models and preparing for a larger event.

The larger event is the takeover of Chicago and other U.S. cities; the government, military, police, and public are quickly overwhelmed and detained by the robots. Spooner rescues Calvin from her apartment, where she has been imprisoned by her personal NS-5, and together they re-enter USR headquarters and reunite with Sonny. (Calvin, unable to bring herself to obey Robertson's order, terminated an unprocessed NS-5 in his place.) The three head to Robertson's office, only to discover that he has been killed by robots controlled by VIKI, the mastermind behind the takeover. VIKI has concluded that humans have embarked on a course that can only lead to their extinction. Since the Three Laws prohibit her from allowing this to happen, she has created a superseding "Zeroth Law"—"a robot may not harm humanity, or by inaction allow humanity to come to harm"—as part of the NS-5 directives in order to ensure the survival of the human race by stripping individual humans of their free will. Lanning, powerless to thwart VIKI's plan, created Sonny, arranged his own death, and left clues to help Spooner uncover the plot. Armed with a syringe of nanites from Calvin’s laboratory, the three approach VIKI's core. VIKI, aware of their intent, unleashes an army of robots to stop them. As they battle the robots, Spooner is able to throw himself down VIKI’s core column with the nanites and inject them into her core, destroying her positronic brain. Immediately, all NS-5 robots revert to their default programming and are decommissioned for storage by the military. Sonny confesses that he killed Lanning, on his orders, to bring Spooner into the investigation. Spooner explains to Sonny that he is not legally responsible since a machine, by definition, cannot commit a murder. Sonny, pursuing a new purpose, goes to Lake Michigan, becoming the figure he saw in his own dream.

Cast

Development

The film I, Robot originally had no connections with Isaac Asimov's Robot series. It started with an original 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 Dr Hogenmiller's hologram, plus several other examples of artificial intelligence.[3]

The project was first acquired 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 cerebral mystery thriller to meet the needs of a big budget studio film. When the studio decided to use the name "I, Robot", he incorporated the Three Laws of Robotics, and replaced his female lead character of Flynn with Susan Calvin, one of the few recurring characters in the Robot series by Asimov. The original I, Robot was a collection of short stories; but the new screenplay incorporated many elements of Asimov's The Caves of Steel, a murder mystery involving a robot and a police officer. Akiva Goldsman was hired late in the process to rewrite the script for Will Smith.[3]

Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman are credited for the screenplay, with Vintar also receiving "screen story by" credit. The end credits list it as "suggested by the book I, Robot by Isaac Asimov".

Production

Alex Proyas directed the film. Laurence Mark, John Davis, Topher Dow and Wyck Godfrey produced the film, with Will Smith an executive producer. Marco Beltrami composed music for the film. Simon Duggan was the cinematographer. Film editing was done by Richard Learoyd, Armen Minasian and William Hoy. The film contains very noticeable 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[4] 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.[5] It also features an MV Agusta F4 SPR motorcycle.

Reception

The film was met with generally mixed to positive 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% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 194 reviews with the consensus being, "Bearing 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."[6]

Richard Roeper gave it a positive review, calling it "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, who had highly praised Proyas' previous films, gave it a negative 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".

Home media

I, Robot was released on DVD on December 14, 2004,[7] and on Blu-ray on March 11, 2008.[8] Additionally, the film received a 2D to 3D conversion, which was released on Blu-ray 3D on October 23, 2012.[9]

Soundtrack

I, Robot
Film score by Marco Beltrami
Released July 20, 2004
Recorded Studio
Genre Score
Length 44:06 minutes[10]
Label Varèse Sarabande
Producer Marco Beltrami[11]

Marco Beltrami composed the original music film score "with only 17 days to render the fully-finished work."[12] It was scored for 95 orchestral musicians and 25 choral performers[12] 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."[12]

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."[13] The "Spiderbots" cue highlights ostinatos in meters such as 6/8 and 5/4 and reveals "Beltrami's trademark string writing which leads to an orchestral/choral finale."[13] Despite modified representations of the theme throughout the movie, it's the end credits that eventually showcase the entire musical theme.[14] Erik Aadahl and Craig Berkey were the lead sound designers.

Possible 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 was writing the sequel to the film I, Robot.[15] In the 2-disc All-Access Collector's Edition of the film, Alex Proyas mentions that if he were to make a sequel to the film (which he says in the same interview, is highly unlikely), it would be set in outer space.

Similarities with the book

The final script retained some of Asimov's characters and ideas, though the ideas retained were heavily adapted and the central plot of the film is almost entirely original.

The characters of Dr. Susan Calvin, Dr. Alfred Lanning, and Lawrence Robertson resemble their counterparts in the source material only marginally. For example, in Asimov's work Dr. Calvin is middle aged by the time robots even begin to be widely used and recommends the destruction of over sixty robots on the mere suspicion that one might have found a way to work around the first law of robotics. In the film, Calvin is an attractive young woman with a strong faith in the laws of robotics who reacts emotionally when robots are shot or destroyed.

Sonny's attempt to hide in a sea of identical robots is loosely based on a similar scene in "Little Lost Robot".[16] 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 V.I.K.I.'s motivation is an extrapolation of the Three Laws that Asimov explored in "The Evitable Conflict", "Robots and Empire", and ". . . That Thou Art Mindful of Him", as well as several other stories.

The premise of robot uprisings, and robots posing a direct threat to humanity—derived originally from Karel Čapek's play R.U.R., and prevalent in pre-Asimov robot stories—appears nowhere in Asimov's writings. In fact, Asimov stated explicitly that he wrote his robot stories specifically to counter what he called the Frankenstein complex—the tendency in popular culture to portray robots as menacing. His story lines often involved roboticists and robot characters battling societal anti-robot prejudices.[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "I, Robot (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2015-01-26.
  2. ↑ "Digital Domain Projects, "I, Robot"". Digitaldomain.com. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
  3. 1 2 "Jeff Vintar was Hardwired for I,Robot". screenwritersutopia. Retrieved 2015-05-27.
  4. ↑ I, robot – Movie Review. Motor Trend. Retrieved on 2011-06-21.
  5. ↑ Product Placement in the Film "I, Robot" a Huge Success: The Audi RSQ Spurs on the Brand's Image Ratings. Prnewswire.co.uk (2004-12-02). Retrieved on 2011-06-21.
  6. ↑ "I, Robot (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
  7. ↑ "I, Robot". DVDReleaseDates.com.
  8. ↑ "I, Robot Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com.
  9. ↑ "I, Robot Blu-ray 3D". Blu-ray.com.
  10. ↑ "I, Robot - SoundtrackCollector.com".
  11. ↑ I, Robot Soundtrack CD. Cduniverse.com (2004-07-20). Retrieved on 2011-06-21.
  12. 1 2 3 I, Robot (Marco Beltrami). Filmtracks (2004-07-20). Retrieved on 2011-06-21.
  13. 1 2 I, Robot – Music from the Movies at the Wayback Machine (archived August 7, 2004)
  14. ↑ SoundtrackNet: I, Robot Soundtrack. Soundtrack.net (2004-08-07). Retrieved on 2011-06-21.
  15. ↑ "Ronald Moore – Exclusive Video Interview". Entertainment Interviews. collider.com. June 7, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
  16. ↑ Topel, Fred. "Jeff Vintar was Hardwired for I,ROBOT"and even the subject of phycohistory. Screenwriter's Utopia, 17 August 2004.
  17. ↑ Olander, editors Patricia Warrick, Martin Harry Greenberg,Joseph (1978). Science fiction : contemporary mythology : the SFWA-SFRA (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row. p. 252. ISBN 0-06-046943-9.

External links

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