Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
59
(38 sources)
59
(38 sources)
-
90
Washington Post
Fabulous mental escape. It's fun and playful, rather than dark and foreboding. And there doesn't seem to be an original cyber-bone in the movie's body. But it's put together in a fabulous package. Read Full Review » -
88
New York Daily News
The perfect sci-fi movie for a post-9/11 world, in that it tells us we're afraid of threats hiding in plain sight. Read Full Review » -
88
ReelViews
This is a movie to restore the faith of those who had given up on science fiction after "The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions." By adeptly combining action and ideas, it proves that Hollywood can still produce astonishing entertainment. Read Full Review » -
80
Dallas Observer
Once this movie gets going, it works, and it works well. It has a slow buildup, but its final third manages to generate some eye-popping thrills. Read Full Review » -
80
Washington Post
Smith makes it look easy, but underneath the physical high jinks and slick veneer of I, Robot lies a performance of real discipline and intelligence. Read Full Review » -
80
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75
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75
Christian Science Monitor
Less ambitious than "Blade Runner" but more coherent than "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.," which it vaguely resembles, I, Robot is best during homely moments when Smith shows his human side. Read Full Review » -
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
For its first two acts this flashy vehicle is an anodized titanium streamline baby. Then comes a robot rumble that brings the action to a crashing halt. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Although I, Robot provokes thought, it doesn't exactly deliver thought, despite the occasional Cartesian reference to "ghosts in the machine." Read Full Review » -
75
New York Post
Hollywood's umpteenth tale of robots run amok is surprisingly smart, cool-looking, nicely paced and well-acted. Read Full Review » -
75
Baltimore Sun
Moves along with great speed and verve, and it's got just enough of a sci-fi sheen to make things interesting, if not provocative. Philosophers and true believers may be disappointed, but for movie fans, I, Robot mostly delivers the goods. Read Full Review » -
75
Charlotte Observer
A summer action movie that has a brain and doesn't let it atrophy? Fan me, I'm fainting! Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
It's much more of an action flick than either "Metropolis" or "Blade Runner," but there's a provocative and visionary side to this free adaptation of Isaac Asimov's SF classic that puts it in the same thoughtful canon. Read Full Review » -
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It dares to test the audience in several ways: It may not be Asimov but its plot is truly labyrinthine, it works a specific theme (the very real possibility that robots will evolve on their own) and it's happy to end itself in a shroud of enigma. Read Full Review » -
67
Portland Oregonian
Proyas does a jaw-dropping job, particularly in the opening scenes, of depicting Chicago in the year 2035. Read Full Review » -
67
Entertainment Weekly
A routine Will Smith cop-on-the-hunt thriller at heart, I, Robot lacks imaginative excitement. Read Full Review » -
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
A movie of its kind and of its time -- functional, professional, slickly manufactured and slouching toward consciousness -- I, Robot is a perfect slave to mechanical convention. Read Full Review » -
63
Miami Herald
A slick, shiny video game of a movie bursting with computer-generated chase scenes and cool gadgets. Read Full Review » -
60
TV Guide
Although Sonny is computer generated, Tudyk supplied his voice and body language -- provides the story's emotional core, an irony Asimov would surely have appreciated. Read Full Review » -
60
Time
In the end, I, Robot is just an assembly-line product of a not very advanced model. Read Full Review » -
60
The Onion (A.V. Club)
A cluttered, awkward blockbuster that's just smart enough to get itself into trouble. Read Full Review » -
60
Film Threat
While not a classic by any means, is still a mostly entertaining experience. Read Full Review » -
60
The New York Times
Lacks both the intellectual rigor and the soulful sublimity of "A.I.," but it nonetheless allows some genuine ideas and emotions to pop up amid the noise and clutter. Read Full Review » -
50
The Hollywood Reporter
The film works best as a kind of mindless, action-packed B-movie. But on the A-level at which recent science fiction/fantasy films operate -- meaning the "Spider-Man," "Harry Potter" and "Terminator" series -- this movie falls woefully short. Read Full Review » -
50
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50
USA Today
Performances, plot and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast. Read Full Review » -
50
Wall Street Journal
Impressive for Patrick Tatopoulos's production design but depressive for the juiceless story. Read Full Review » -
50
Variety
A humans vs. robots saga that feels machine-made, I, Robot looks to have been assembled from the spare parts of dozens of previous sci-fi pictures. Read Full Review » -
50
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50
Chicago Sun-Times
The plot is simple-minded and disappointing, and the chase and action scenes are pretty much routine for movies in the sci-fi CGI genre. The robots never seem to have the heft and weight of actual metallic machines, and make boring villains. Read Full Review » -
50
Boston Globe
A stylish, watchable, very familiar future-cop action thriller. What was once original is now almost completely derivative. Read Full Review » -
50
Film Threat
Proyas creates a futurescape that's snazzy in a “Blade Runner” lite sort of way and one or two of the film's effects are eye poppers. Read Full Review » -
50
Premiere
If you subtracted from the story and style components recycled from landmark sci-fi films of Hollywood past, you’d be left with Will Smith wisecracking over a box of unformatted floppies. I, Unimpressed. Read Full Review » -
50
Salon.com
I, Robot strives to be so many things that it ultimately falls away to nothing, a heap of expensive metal parts. Read Full Review » -
40
Los Angeles Times
More disturbing, yet another robot, or maybe two, seems to have written a Hollywood script and hijacked a major studio production. Given the film's assembly-line screenplay and mechanistic storytelling, no other explanation seems viable. Certainly no one with a heartbeat or taste would blow so much talent, time and resources on such rubbishy writing. Read Full Review » -
40
Austin Chronicle
The film’s accumulation of unnecessary complications, bad visual choices, one completely superfluous character (LaBeouf), and tonally inappropriate quips makes us distractedly ponder the limits of human rather than artificial intelligence. Read Full Review » -
30
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