I, Robot (Movie review)

In the future... there will be... product placements.
No, seriously. The movie almost begins with a Converse ad so blatant it's funnier than the 'sell-out' segment in Wayne's World (or, come to think of it, Return of the Killer Tomatoes).
So, what else is new in one hundred years? not much; the future looks a lot like the present, but with clunky CGI effects overimposed on it, and robots doing most menial tasks. Not a lot of thought went into it, and it shows in a certain unevenness between the tech levels. Borrowing a lot more from Spielberg's Minority Report (especially in the visual department) than from Asimov's book series, the script follows the misadventures of a police detective who just doesn't trust robots as he tries to unravel the murder of an underdeveloped father figure, who also happened to be the lead researcher for the robot manufacturing company. This gradually reveals a conspiracy that could endanger the whole world, as foreshadowed by the ads for the deployment of millions of a new model of robots.
It's predictable, but not quite as dire as it sounds, and it even includes a few rather neat details. But don't worry, they manage to bring it down. The main character is an asshole, and what's worse, an asshole that the script treats as a hero... which makes it all the more grating. Will Smith, in full MiB mode, can't do anything to save the character.
In the end, I, Robot both suffers and benefits from being an action movie. Suffers, because the script ridiculously boils down the plot to a series of action setpieces, and makes character interactions a series of poses and one-liners. And it benefits, because when the action kicks in... let me put it this way- director Alex Proyas left behind the trademark aestethics of The Crow and Dark City for a standard sci-fi one, but he dedicated all his attention to getting the action sequences exactly right. The level of detail and, much more rare, inspiration they achieve are astounding; I really wouldn't hesitate much before saying they're the best action sequences I've seen since the original Matrix. They don't quite make up for the tripe and the commercials forced down our throats along the way, but damn, they come pretty close.
And that's saying something.