I, Robot

In 2035, a Chicago cop (Will Smith) suspects that the suicide of a noted scientist (James Cromwell, utterly wasted), was really murder at the hands of one of his own robots (a CGI effect with the voice of Alan Tudyk). Writers Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman claim Isaac Asimov’s stories as their inspiration, but there’s little Asimov here; the plot is lifted from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and is dressed with clichés of the “Turn in your badge; you’re off this case” maverick-cop genre. The rancid script gives Smith and director Alex Proyas nothing to work with, and another liability is the amateurish performance of Bridget Moynahan as that cliché of clichés, the gorgeous female scientist. Nice special effects, though—in fact, that’s another sci-fi-movie cliché: The effects crews do better work than the writers do.