Why “I, Robot” is Not the Brilliant Film it’s Made Out to be

A few weeks ago, I read I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Now, this is supposed to be a well-known, highly praised book about the future of the human race and the existence of robots, but most people who saw what I was reading told me it was a good movie. I even heard people exclaim “I, Robot is a book?”
Yes, it is one of the most famous science fiction works ever published.
I realized that the movie couldn’t rival the book, but I didn’t realize how horrible Hollywood could make it. The movie is basically your normal action flick, with rogue robots and car chases and guns all over the place, only the script writers have applied Asimov’s three laws of robotics (Robots must not harm humans, Robots cannot disobey a human order, and Robots must protect their own existence, as long as it doesn’t violate laws one and two) and stuck the title “I, Robot” on it.
My friend Karishma was looking at the book while I was reading it, and commented:
“That’s the movie with Will Smith in it, isn’t it?”
It is true that Will Smith plays the main character in the film, Detective Spooner, someone who is never even mentioned in the book. In fact, the real center personality in the book is made into a supporting character in the movie. Dr. Susan Calvin, robopsychologist (which I felt I had to point out as soon as Spooner calls her a “shrink”), has here been portrayed as an intelligent scientist, who is somewhat cold toward other humans and prefers robots. It’s not far from Asimov’s character, but the thing that bothers me is that in the novel she’s middle aged, experienced, and not exactly attractive. Knowing Hollywood, I shouldn’t be surprised that young, beautiful actress, Bridget Moynahan was cast in her role. Horrible.
The thing I liked most about the book of I, Robot was how the cause and solution to every issue related back to the three basic laws of robotics (see above) and the different ways such unspecific guidelines could be interpreted by the robots themselves. In other words, it was intelligent. In a way, the movie stuck with that idea, but the real Dr. Calvin could have figured out what was going on much faster, and without Will Smith to do most of the work, either.

I’m actually surprised at the praise the movie received on other blogs, and I hope that my readers will agree with me. If you really do, I won’t know unless you comment, so post your opinion.

–The Fourth Bronte Sister

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