As a historian, one aspect of historically based movies I pay attention to is the caveat at the beginning, which usually says something to the effect that this story is based on true events.  I italicized that word because sometimes it varies.  I have seen it rendered as “inspired” or that it is a “dramatization.”  Today’s film, I, Robot (2004), is not history, thankfully.  It does have these same words attached to it, but in the most unique manner I have witnessed in the thousands of movies I have seen.  Instead of being at the beginning, the little prevarication comes at the conclusion.  I used stronger language here because as the end credits roll, it says that what we have just seen was “suggested” by Isaac Asimov’s successful science fiction stories of the same name.  Indeed, it seems the most you can say about the film and its source is that they share a title.  There are a couple other pieces that they have in common that I will get into momentarily, but either way, there is plenty of material for a Catholic reviewer.

The first thing to say about I, Robot the film is what it shows us at the beginning, which speaks to the fact that it has a Catholic message and relates in one respect to its source.  It is the three laws of robotics that were introduced by the original author: I, A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; II, A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law; III, A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.  These rules are presented in a dream sequence happening in the head of Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) of the Chicago Police Department (CPD).  As is later revealed, but shown without context at this point, Detective Spooner had been saved by an automaton after his car and another person’s vehicle had been pushed into the Chicago River during a collision with a semi-truck.  Obeying the first guideline, the machine saved Detective Spooner instead of a little girl he had wanted to help.  Because of this incident, he has a distrust of robots despite them becoming as commonplace in society as traffic lights.  Because of his suspicions, on his way to work he stops a robot from bringing a lady her forgotten purse.  Yet, not long after getting to his desk, he gets the kind of call for which he has prepared.  At the worldwide headquarters of U.S. Robotics (USR), the company producing all the androids currently walking the streets, there has been a death.  It is no janitor, either, but rather the co-founder and inventor of the three laws, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell).  With a hole in a window in a floor high above, and his mangled body leaking blood on the ground several stories below it, everyone assumes it is a suicide.  This includes USR’s chief executive officer (CEO) Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), though he sends the enterprise’s lead scientist for robot-psychology, Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), with Dr. Spooner to investigate.  Suspiciously, all surveillance video of the lab from which Dr. Lanning plummeted is missing.  Once Dr. Calvin and Detective Spooner enter the premises, he figures out that if somebody had tried to kill Dr. Lanning, that person would still be in the room.  Not long thereafter, Sonny (voiced by Alan Tudyk), bursts from his hiding place and goes on the run.  Sonny looks like any of the other new NS-5 model robots USR is about to bring to the public.  This makes it tricky to locate him in the factory he retreats to for repairs after being struck by a bullet.  Not tricky enough, though, as Detective Spooner finds Sonny and the robot is brought into custody.  Lieutenant John Bergin (Chi McBride), Detective Spooner’s boss, reluctantly gives his junior five minutes of questioning.  When pressed, Sonny angrily claims he did not murder Dr. Lanning before being led away by an annoyed Lawrence.  Not content with what he has found out thus far, Detective Spooner goes to Dr. Lanning’s house, which is scheduled for demolition in the morning.  As Detective Spooner is inside, the deconstruction robot activates, and he barely makes it out alive.  What he discovers before having to make a harrowing escape is that Dr. Lanning had apparently not been home in a while.  Detective Spooner presents his suspicions of a conspiracy to Dr. Calvin, but this is something she is not ready to accept, especially with a new NS-5 already in her house.  What begins to change her mind is interacting with Sonny, who does not behave as his fellow robots.  Unlike other machines, he talks of dreams and his desire to live.  At the same time, a number of NS-5’s attack Detective Spooner as he is driving, attempting to cause his car to get into an accident.  Lieutenant Bergin, hearing Detective Spooner continue to sound crazy by blaming the machines, takes away the gumshoe’s badge.  Undeterred, he goes to confront Lawrence about the incident and learns that the CEO has ordered Sonny’s destruction.  Going down to talk to the unique android, Sonny creates a picture on paper of the dream he has.  It takes Detective Spooner out to the dry bed of Lake Michigan where the previous models are being stored.  Consulting with Dr. Lanning’s interactive hologram one more time, it becomes evident that the NS-5s had been built and programmed differently, suggesting an imminent revolution.  It breaks out just as Detective Spooner finishes with the image, and he races back to the city.  Upon returning to the USR building, it is evident that the real culprit is the Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (VIKI) (voiced by Fiona Hogan), the artificial brain of the entire operation.  She has decided that humans are the problem, and is in the process of locking all society safely behind closed doors.  From here, it is pretty much an action movie as, with some help from Sonny, who had been special built for this purpose, they must destroy Viki and save the world.

You do not see the world in I, Robot, only Chicago, but that is enough for this native Chicagoan.  What should have been more than enough story-wise is the philosophical undertones contained in the story.  The three laws laid out the beginning, albeit applied to robots, are a pro-life message.  Everyone has a right to life, and this makes up the reason for why Detective Spooner is not keen on the androids.  As Dr. Calvin later explains to him, the machine that saved him instead of the girl calculated that he had a better chance to survive than she did.  This does not jive with Church teaching, which says that the odds do not matter.  Every opportunity at life must be exhausted.  Being pro-life is the kind of attitude Detective Spooner displays because it is the younger generation that should take precedence.  It is the same philosophy that guides, for example, putting woman and children first onto the lifeboats of a sinking ship.  It also extends to the Church’s stance on corporal punishment and the death penalty.  You might think this gets complicated when dealing with artificial intelligence (AI), and you would not be wrong.  The Vatican has spoken on AI, saying that it should remain a tool of humanity.  Yet, what Dr. Lanning and Sonny suggest is that, if we are not careful, AI can become something else.  Hence, if the argument can be made that Sonny has basically become a human with a soul, albeit trapped in a body of circuit boards and wires, then you are dealing with something else entirely.  As such, I applaud Dr. Calvin’s defiance, spurred when Sonny asked if what is about to happen to him is going to hurt.  Of course, one could say that there are plenty of instances of saints in Church history who have willingly died for the sake of others.  That does not appear to be the case with Sonny, and in this sense, the notion of not intentionally doing harm to another applies.

It is the film’s exploration of doing harm or not, and how to justify it, that makes I, Robot somewhat interesting.  The rest is basically action schlock with some of Smith’s off-color jokes thrown in for comedic relief.  In other words, it is something you have already seen.  However, it you can focus on one small sliver of it, there is something that can keep you attention for a little bit, and teach something about the value of life.