  urlLink The New York Times > Movies > Critic's Notebook: For Asimov, Robots Were Friends. Not So for Will Smith. : "...The movie's retro material, then, may be a kind of a wink at its antique source. But in his book, Asimov also declared war on those who think about robots with fear and trembling, dreading the dangers of technological change. The new movie, though, often seems to oppose Asimov's view. Spooner hates robots, and he may have good reason.
So Asimov's old battles are being engaged yet again and may be worth thinking about because they touch on so much more than android design. Asimov's robots can certainly seem born of a more innocent, less knowing world: one loves hearing children's stories, another malfunctions by drunkenly going around in circles, a third may or may not be masquerading as a well-meaning human politician.
Surely this gently imagined future is hopelessly eclipsed now that we have seen the killer android of 'Terminator 2' morph into any human shape out of blobs of mercury, or watched the machines of the 'Matrix' trilogy rule the post-apocalyptic earth, plugging humans into energy pods with elaborate software. The movie, as if troubled by its innocent origins, even tries to leave the book behind. (A more faithful adaptation is in a published screenplay for 'I, Robot,' written in the 1970's by Harlan Ellison. ) Any similarities that remain are on the surface..." 
