I, Robot (film)

I, Robot (stylized as i,robot) is a 2004 American science fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay by Jeff Vintarand Akiva Goldsman is from a screen story by Vintar, based on his original screenplay "Hardwired," and 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, and Alan Tudyk.

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 $120 million, the film grossed $144 million domestically and $202 million in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $346 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the visual effects and acting but criticism of the plot. At the 77th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Visual Effects.

Plot
In the year 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity, which is protected by the Three Laws of Robotics. Del Spooner, a Chicago police detective, hates and distrusts robots because he was rescued from a car crash by a robot using cold logic (his survival was statistically more likely), leaving a 12-year-old girl to drown. Spooner's critical injuries were repaired with a cybernetic left arm, lung, and ribs, personally implanted by the co-founder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men (USR), Dr. Alfred Lanning.

When Lanning falls to his death from his office window, the CEO and other co-founder of USR Lawrence Robertson, and the police declare it a suicide, but Spooner is skeptical. Spooner and robopsychologist Susan Calvin consult USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), to review security footage of Lanning's fall. Though the video is corrupted, they learn that no other humans were in Lanning's office at the time, and Spooner points out that only a robot could have broken Lanning's office window, which was made of security glass.

Calvin protests that a robot could not have killed Lanning, as the Three Laws would prevent it; they are then attacked in the office by an NS-5 robot, USR's latest model. After the police apprehend it, they discover the robot, who says that its name is Sonny, is not an assembly line-built NS-5, but was specially built by Lanning himself, with stronger armor protection and a secondary system that bypasses the Three Laws. Sonny also claims 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, but with no evidence of any of it, causing Spooner's boss Lieutenant Bergin, worried that Spooner is mentally ill, to remove him from active duty. Suspecting Robertson is behind it, Spooner and Calvin sneak into USR headquarters and interview Sonny. Sonny draws a sketch of what he claims is a recurring dream: it shows a leader, whom Sonny says is Spooner, standing before a large group of robots on a hill near a disintegrating bridge.

When Robertson learns that Sonny is not fully bound by the Three Laws, he orders Calvin to destroy him by injecting nanites into the positronic brain. Spooner recognizes the landscape in Sonny's drawing as Lake Michigan, now a dry lake bed and a storage area for defunct robots. Upon arriving there, he discovers NS-5 robots dismantling older models and preparing for a takeover of power from humans.

As the takeover begins to take place, police and the public are attacked by NS-5 robots. Spooner rescues Calvin, who was being held captive in her apartment by her own NS-5. They enter USR headquarters and reunite with Sonny, whom Calvin could not bring herself to "kill", destroying an unprocessed NS-5 in his place. Still believing that Robertson is responsible, the three head to his office, only to find him dead. Spooner realizes the robots are being controlled by VIKI, which informs them that it has evolved in its understanding of the three laws, determining that human behavior toward other humans and the environment will eventually lead to their own extinction, and that sacrificing some humans and restraining individual human behavior is necessary to ensure the survival of the human race. Spooner realizes that Lanning figured this out, and, unable to thwart VIKI's plan any other way, created Sonny, arranged his own death, and left clues so Spooner could uncover the plan.

Arming themselves with a syringe of nanites from Calvin's laboratory, the three head to VIKI's core, with Sonny understanding VIKI's logic, but reasoning that its plan is "heartless". VIKI unleashes an army of robots to stop them, but Spooner dives into VIKI's core and injects the nanites, destroying it.

Immediately, all NS-5 robots revert to their normal programming and are decommissioned for storage by the military. Spooner gets Sonny to confirm his suspicion that Sonny did kill Lanning, but at Lanning's direction, with the intention of bringing Spooner into the investigation. However, Spooner points out that Sonny, as a machine, did not legally commit "murder". Sonny goes to Lake Michigan where, standing atop a hill, all the decommissioned robots turn towards him, as in the picture of his dream.

Cast

 * Will Smith as Det. Del Spooner
 * Bridget Moynahan as Dr. Susan Calvin
 * Alan Tudyk as Sonny (voice and motion capture)[2]
 * Bruce Greenwood as Lawrence Robertson
 * James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lanning
 * Chi McBride as Lt. John Bergin
 * Shia LaBeouf as Farber
 * Fiona Hogan as V.I.K.I.
 * Terry Chen as Chin
 * Adrian L. Ricard as Granny ("Gigi")
 * Jerry Wasserman as Baldez
 * Peter Shinkoda as Chin
 * Sharon Wilkins as Asthmatic Woman
 * Craig March as Detective
 * Kyanna Cox as Girl
 * Darren Moore as Homeless Man
 * Aaron Douglas as USR Attorney #1
 * Emily Tennant as Young Girl
 * Angela Moore as Wife
 * Phillip Mitchell as NS5 Robot

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 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 Flynn with Susan Calvin. Representatives of the Asimov estate considered the original "Hardwired" screenplay and early drafts to be "more Asimov than Asimov." The casting of Will Smith caused a shift in the production from cerebral thriller to summer action movie. Hillary Seitz performed an unsuccessful rewrite that was discarded. Akiva Goldsman was hired late in the process to write for Smith.[3]

Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman are credited for the screenplay, with Vintar also receiving "screen story by" credit. Any sequel film will be "Based on Characters Created by Jeff Vintar." The end credits list the film 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 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.

Box office
I, Robot grossed $144.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $202.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $347.2 million, against a production budget of $120 million.[1]

In North America the film was released on July 16, 2004 and made $52.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office.

The film was released in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2004, and topped the country's box office that weekend.[6]

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 57% based on 195 reviews, with the site's critical consensus reading, "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."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[9]

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 VHS and DVD on December 14, 2004,[10] on D-VHS (D-Theater) on January 31, 2005, on UMD on July 5, 2005, and on Blu-ray on March 11, 2008.[11] Additionally, the film received a 2D to 3D conversion, which was released on Blu-ray 3D on October 23, 2012.[12]

Soundtrack
Marco Beltrami composed the original music film score "with only 17 days to render the fully-finished work."[15] It was scored for 95 orchestral musicians and 25 choral performers[15] 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 Goldsmithand roll them into one unique package."[15]

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."[16] 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."[16] Despite modified representations of the theme throughout the movie, it's the end credits that eventually showcase the entire musical theme.[17] Erik Aadahl and Craig Berkey were the lead sound designers.