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movie review - I, Robot

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Product placement. That's what they did with this classic collection of works by Isaac Asimov. One of the principal works of science fiction in the 20th century reduced to a vehicle for converse shoes and suped-up vehicles.

How bad was it? At two points in this movie, characters make sudden references to the hero's footwear. In one instance, he responds by telling us that the shoes date to 2004. At a third, unspoken reference to the shoes, we see the camera lovingly pan across the shoes with the pretense that he's stepped in something that'll have to be cleaned off.

The shoes are the most blatant product placed, but they're by no means the only one. I'd like to say that the parties behind this should be held accountable for making people pay $15 for a series of commercials, but it seems that we're well past the concept of accountability, now. Maybe I should just relax and be glad the movie didn't stop for a Will Smith video.

Alan Tudyk's voice and motion-acting (or whatever they call it when an actor is wired with recording gizmos and flails around and they use the recording as the basis of an animated character) are about the best thing about this movie. He seems to have been aping "HAL" from 2001 voice wise, which lent a creepy bit of character to the robot. Which is more than could be said for anything the lead live-action actors did for their roles.

Not recommended.