Man vs machine (From Western Telegraph)

Man vs machine

I, Robot. Directed by Alex Proyas. Starring Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell. Dur. 113 mins. Cert PG

I, ROBOT, directed by the little known Egyptian-born director, Alex Proyas, is set in a world staffed by robots.

It's Chicago in 2035, and the very advanced humanoid robots do all the menial tasks the city's inhabitants need.

The story follows police detective John Spooner's investigation into the death of Dr Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), who worked at US Robotics. What's strange about the case is that a robot called Sonny (voiced by Alan Tudyk) is suspected, which is theoretically impossible as the robot, however human it seems, is a machine designed to be unable to harm man.

Spooner doesn't like robots at the best of times, but he wonders now if this robot can kill, and if they all decided to kill, what could the fragile, robot-dependent humans do about it?

The computer-generated action sequences come thick and fast, as you'd expect from any Smith film released during the summer.

As blockbusters go I, Robot is not bad at all!

Vaughan Sivell