I, Robot is a 2004 film starring Will Smith and directed by Alex Proyas. Traditionally, it's known as an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's work, but its story is somewhat more complex than that and involves much more screenwriter Harlan Ellison than the Russian writer himself.
What is true is that The story of Detective Spooner takes Asimov's laws of robotics to shape this story about technology and the paranoia that surrounds it in a seemingly utopian future.
Although its commercial success was quite limited, the film has managed to create and maintain a loyal group of followers who, today, continue to watch it to analyze it.Here at Geekine, we declare ourselves loyal fans of I, Robot. So we didn't want to be left out of a healthy discussion about it.
By the way, this post contains some spoilers about this movie.. Therefore, we recommend discretion.
Why is Sonny so scary?
What we want to talk about is this peculiar character (and all the robots that look like him). Well, It is undeniable that from his first appearance his similes and he himself generate a rather disturbing sensation.. I, Robot revolves around Spooner's paranoia about artificial intelligence. And its design helps us empathize with the detective.
It's interesting because Spooner is suspicious of these models, and we as an audience are too, based on their design.But the rest of the characters don't. This is because the robots have a design based on the idea of the Uncanny Valley
What is the Uncanny Valley?
The Uncanny Valley is a concept coined by robotics expert Masahiro Mori, although it has backgrounds from psychology and philosophy. In short, the Uncanny Valley refers to the discomfort we feel when we see an anthropomorphic figure that looks very similar to a human being without actually being one.
The key to the terror that the antagonist robots of I, Robot provoke in us is that, precisely, they seem more human than other robots we know in fiction., like Wall-E or R2D2. So we don't feel our humanity threatened by imitation. It maintains the idea that we are unique in the universe and gives us some sense of control over our surroundings.
Tell us, dear reader, were you familiar with this phenomenon? What other things about the film stand out?
Image: Cine Premiere
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