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I, Robot
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (31st March 2008). |
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The Film
 Isaac Asimov’s vision of the future in “I, Robot” took a while to finally get to the screen; it was a project heavily in development with various studios before landing in the laps of Fox. With director Alex Proyas and a new writing staff that included Akiva Goldsman the film was tailored for Will Smith and racked up a big budget sum for production. Smith gained credibility with his brilliant performance in Michael Mann’s Muhammad Ali biopic “Ali” (2001) the film earned the mega-star an Oscar nomination and almost made us forget about garbage that was “Independence Day” (1996) and “Wild, Wild, West” (1999). However as easily as he gained admiration and for being taken seriously as an actor he jumps right back into the popcorn arena. “I, Robot” is not a great film, but it’s not an entirely bad one either. It does put preference on style over substance even though the film’s themes tend blur that thinking, it’s like a thoughtful and scary vision of the future wrapped in a candy coated action exterior. “I, Robot” tells the story of Chicago Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith), it’s 2035 and robots have become a mainstay in everyday life. Doing menial jobs and assisting humans at home, etc. they are the workhorses. The robots are programmed with a set of laws that permit them to harm humans, they must do what humans tell them (except if that means to harm a human) and they must always protect humans. So by these set of in-built laws it is impossible for a robot to kill a human. Yet Detective Spooner is not so convinced, he doesn’t trust robots and finds himself deep in a murder investigation at the biggest robot manufacturer USR (U.S. Robotics). Their chief scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell) is found dead, Spooner believes his robot, Sonny (Alan Tudyk) did it and the more he delves into the mystery surrounding his death the closer he gets to uncovering the dangerous truth about the robots. Like a lot of people I grew up with Smith on his television series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (1990-1996) so I have a lot of time for the actor, his recent films have provided solid entertainment. “I, Robot” is good for the entertainment part; it has a lot of cool action spectacles (a few seem very familiar however) and a likeable main character. The effects can be summed up as stunning eye-candy. It’s these things that “I, Robot” does well, however it’s not quite enough to make for a wholly excellent film. The first major problem I had with this film was the insane amount of blatant product placement, it was borderline offensive. Now the future in which these characters reside is the familiar vision of the future run by corporations, we’ve seen many sci-fi films depicting a society inundated with advertising, but what makes this film’s placement so unsavory is that the character references the products on-screen (including a pair of ‘circa 2003 converse shoes). There are ways to make the placement more tactful in such a future, see “Bladerunner” (1982) as a good example of this. While were on the whole corporate vision of the future, it’s not something new, but somehow it feels correct. The look and style is also very sterile and clean but the coldness of USR is juxtaposed by the hominess of the character’s own dwellings. I suppose these familiar surrounds help in giving something the audience can relate to. As far as the cast go, Smith does an admirable job as the lead and does his best with some dialogue deemed cheesy. His counterpart however in Bridget Moynahan doesn’t inspire too much confidence in her acting ability. She plays another in a line of ‘smart pretty girls’, it’s a two dimensional character that’s very forgettable. In fact I’ve seen this film three times and each time I’ve forgotten that she was even in the movie. Although her character was necessary to plot, I actually preferred Smith’s interactions with the robot Sonny more and he’s supposed to be robotic...so what’s Moynahan’s excuse? “I, Robot” is part detective story, part sci-fi film and part action spectacle, so it suffers from trying to be too many things at once and not really striking a balance. One thing that can be said though is that it’s not boring and does make for ok popcorn entertainment.
Video
Presented in the film's original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio this transfer is delivered to us in 1080p 24/fps high-definition and has been created using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The film's previous DVD release did an admirable job in presenting the film with some top notch visuals but this Blu-ray release is simply eye-candy that just has to be seen. The image is sharp and immensely detailed, from the textures on the actor's faces in close ups to the background details which are broad and vast. The film's colors are accurately represented favoring the cold metallic spectrum. Blacks are deep and bold and shadow detail remains consistently good throughout. With some minor film grain peppered about this transfer is about as perfect as HD transfer go.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included an English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track as well as standard Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in both French and Spanish. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD audio track, like previous DTS-HD tracks from Fox this one rocks the room. "I, Robot" was virtually tailor made for HD presentation and the audio mix booms with activity and provides a wholly aggressive sound experience. From clear and distortion free dialogue to action and special sound effects that erupt from the surrounds during the various action scenes, this track is awesome. Optional subtitles are also included in English, English for the hearing impaired, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.
Extras
Fox has released this film with many of the film's extras found on the 2-disc DVD release, however some have been parred down. The extras included are three audio commentaries, a series of twenty-three featurettes under several sub-headings, deleted scenes and alternate endings. Below is a closer look at these supplements. Fox has provided a new way of accessing these supplements, you can use the color buttons on your remote to select the features. First up is a feature-length audio commentary by director Alex Proyas and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. The best and most interesting of the three commentaries is this first one, the two comment on the development of the screenplay and the various changes that occurred before the final version was shot. The director comments on the film, his intentions, the tone and themes as well as the cast and various other production issues. They provide a slew of information and it never feels boring as they both manage to keep your attention throughout enthusiastically talking about this film. Next up is the second feature-length audio commentary by production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, editor Richard Learoyd, visual effects supervisor John Nelson, associate producer John Kilkenny, animation supervisor Andrew Jones (Digital Domain), visual effects supervisors Brian Van't Hul (WETA Digital), Joe Letteri (WETA Digital), Erik Nash (Digital Domain), Dale Fay (Rainmaker), lead CG supervisor Eric Saindon (WETA Digital) and composing supervisor Erik Winquist (WETA Digital). Entitled "The Legacy and Design" track, unlike the previous track this is a very technical track at times with the VFX crew taking us through the various tricks used to create what you see on-screen. For those that have an interest in special effects and the technical nature of films this is a good track to use as reference for others it's rather dry and cumbersome. The third and final feature-length audio commentary by composer Marco Beltrami, entitled "Music Score" track, Beltrami comments occasionally after musical segments, it's half music-only track and half commentary. He comments on writing the film's score and having only a short time to complete it, the musical themes and working with the director among other things. Next we've got "Day Out of Days: Production Diaries" presented in standard definition and running 76 minutes 33 second this section features a series of diaries that explore the making of the film, they provide a unique look at the production process and go inside to reveal how certain shots were done, the DVD version included more footage exceeding 100 minutes but this Blu-ray version seems to be cut down, which is a shame. Despite this these vignettes are well produced and worth a look. The individual sections of this extra include: an "Introduction," "USR," "Following Bread Crumbs," "You Are Experiencing a Car Accident," "One on One," "Lost and Found," "Will Smith's Night of Thunder," "Will Smith's Wild Ride," and "It's a Wrap." Next up is "CGI and Design" compromising of a series of four featurettes all of which are also in standard definition. Collectively they run for 21 minutes 29 seconds and include: - "Designing The City" Which takes a closer look at how futuristic Chicago was designed for the film, the environment includes CG models to bring it to life. - "Designing Sonny" takes a closer look at how the robot was designed and the challenges of making something cool and realistic. - "Shooting Miniatures" Not all of the film's elements were CGI, some were shot miniature scale and composited into the final shot, this clip takes a closer look at this process. - "Learning To Walk" takes a look at the green-suited actors that play the robots, most of the robots movements were motion captured but the actors had to learn to walk in a robotic manner. Next up is "Sentient Machines: Robotic Behavior", this section includes a series of seven featurettes again all in standard definition and running a total of 35 minutes 58 seconds. This section is one of the coolest extras on the disc and appeals people that are eager to learn more about robotics, it;s history, development and where we are today with the technology. It's a fascinating series of clips that provide an informative overall look at the science, theory and possibilities of robotics. The chapters include: "When Scientists Dream," "Automata To Tortoises," "Top Down," "Bottom Up," "Swarm," "Inside Outside-In" and "When Machines Dream." "The Filmmakers' Toolbox" is next and includes a look at the tools that the filmmakers have at their disposal to sell a shot, these clips are also in standard definition and run for a total of 8 minutes 43 seconds, these are basically a brief rundown of how the visual effects artists achieved their effects and includes: - "Compositing Breakdowns: Visual Effects How Tos": ---- "Digital Domain 'How Tos'" featurette ---- "Weta Digital 'How Tos'" featurette ---- "Rainmakers 'How Tos'" featurette Extended and deleted scenes follows and runs for a total of 6 minutes 48 seconds and include the following all of which are in standard definition: - "Basketball" this scene shows exactly that, a basketball game featuring the character Farber. - "Hilltop: 'I Miss You Old Man'" A scene where Spooner talks some more to Lanning's hologram - "Alternate Ending: Original Scripted Ending" depicts an ending that is tonally much different to the one used in the final film, revealing more would be a bit of a spoiler. - "Alternate Ending: Current Ending Ver. 01 – Pre Vis" a pre-visualization of the ending, this is used to plan out shots and craft parts of the film before anything is shot. There are some exclusive features on this disc the first is a search index this feature lets you select keywords from an alphabetically organized list, when you choose the keyword the disc will jump to a scene that corresponds to the word. Next is an "Annotated Guide" which is a text trivia track which pops up information during the film. A personal scene selection allows you bookmark your favorite scenes and lets you jump to them when you like. Finally this disc is D-Box enabled, if you a D-Box you can sit back and enjoy the rumblings of this track.
Overall
While the movie may be a little hit and miss at times it is overall entertaining, the Blu-ray disc features some beautiful visuals and an amazing soundtrack but the extras are stripped down from the 2-disc DVD release. These stripped down releases from Fox are becoming an annoyance, why not just include all the extras?
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