I, Robot — Blu-ray Review
I, Robot courtesy 20th Century Fox
Will Smith stars as a police detective investigating the suspicious death of a scientist in
I, Robot, the 2004 action-packed blockbuster movie from director Alex Proyas (
The Crow, Dark City), based on the short stories by Isaac Asimov. This single-disc Blu-ray release is an update of their 2005 Collector's Edition DVD release, and all the bonus material from that release has been brought to Blu-ray, plus this release includes an "Annotated Guide" and a "Search Index" which wasn't present on the DVD.
I, Robot is a movie I've meant to watch for a long, long time. I almost picked up the original DVD release, then passed it over when I heard a Collector's Edition was coming, which I then forgot to buy. I've seen it in the discount bin from time to time, but kept putting off buying it, and then I heard about the killer Blu-ray release that was in the works. I feel fortunate not to have watched the movie on DVD, since now I can experience the movie for the first time in high definition.
There are a ton of special features on this disc, so let's dive right in:
"Behind the Camera" (the red button) offers us a look behind the camera through a series of behind-the-scenes clips in five categories; "Day Out of Days:
I, Robot Production Diaries" (1:16:33), "CGI and Design" (21:29) "Sentient Machines: Robotic Behavior" (35:58) "The Filmmakers' Toolbox" (8:43) and "Deleted and Extended Scenes" (6:48). Most of this material should be 16:9, but it's incorrectly forced to 4:3 which squishes the material on the screen. You can access the material while the movie is playing, or access it from separate menus, allowing you to view them outside of the main movie.
"Commentaries" (the green button) provides insight from Alex Proyas (director) and Akiva Goldsman (screenwriter) on track 1; Jeff Vintat (screenwriter), Patrick Tatopoulos (production designer), Richard Learoyd (editor), John Nelson (visual effects supervisor), John Kilkenny (associate producer), Andrew Jones (animation supervisor), and Erik Nash (visual effects supervisor) on track 2, while the third commentary track features composer Marco Beltrami.
"Search Index" (the blue button) allows you to look up a subject like "Explosions" and then jump to the specific location in the movie. Precise timecode is listed, so you have an idea where you're jumping to. They even provide 66 scenes for "Smith, Will" - which one will you pick?
"Annotated Guide" (the yellow button) is a text trivia track that plays while the movie is playing. It provides interesting facts about the movie, the actors, and some of the Issac Asimov stories which provided the inspiration for the movie.
You can also create your own "Personal Scene Selections" and jump right to your favorite moments in the film, which allows you to bookmark some material to show friends and family; it's something you'll probably do because this release is beautiful! The 1080p AVC encode is stunning, and could be one of the best Blu-ray transfers I've seen. The audio, an English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless track, sounds awesome, and will rock your room with deep bass and crystal clear sound effects and dialog. There are also Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, and subtitles available in English, Spanish, Cantonese and Korean.
This Blu-ray release combines the bonus material from the DVD with the best possible audio and video. If you're like me and meant to watch this years ago, be happy that you put it off.
As seen on TV: Prepare to be dazzled by TV actors in this movie; it would be easier to list the actors that weren't in a TV show! Will Smith is today's action hero, but it was his role on
The Fresh Price of Bell Air that provided his transition from singing to acting, and opened the door for his starring roles in
Bad Boys,
Independence Day and
Men in Black. Also appearing in
I, Robot are James Cromwell (
Six Feet Under), Bruce Greenwood (
Nowhere Man), Bridget Moynahan (
Six Degrees), Chi McBride (
Pushing Daises), Jerry Wasserman (
Smallville), and the voice of Alan Tudyk (
Firefly). The only person without a significant TV role was Adrian Ricard ("Granny"), though she has been a guest actor on countless shows over her career.
Buy I, Robot on Amazon.com.
