I, Robot

Despite its literary source, I, Robot is not a particularly philosophically minded piece of science fiction but a more action-oriented one, and as such it works impeccably. When you have cast the wisecracking Will Smith in the lead role of police detective Del Spooner, profundity is hardly on the agenda.

In a future where robots have taken over ordinary service functions and drudgery, everyone considers robots extremely useful, everyone, that is, except Del Spooner, who has a somewhat strained relationship with the species. We get an explanation for this, but only later in the film.

When the scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning, one of the pioneers of robot development, dies in mysterious circumstances, Del suspects a robot of murder, even though robots are programmed not to harm others. He is therefore rather alone with his murder theories, but the female robot psychologist Susan Calvin agrees to help him find out what lies behind Lanning's sudden death, because something is wrong. Surprisingly, Del also gets help from the third-generation robot Sonny, who actually features in some of the film's most moving scenes. Not surprisingly, Del's worst suspicions prove right. There is a huge and wholly unforeseen robot attack. There is only one way to stop it: to find out who is behind it.

The story of humanity losing control of the robots and the gleaming steel future world seem familiar, but you forget that amid the breakneck pace. There is genuinely not much food for thought. The film does, however, have a rather surprising and almost poetic coda that is not typical in the Hollywood sense.