Chicago homicide detective Spooner is suspicious of robots ever since one rescued him from a car accident and let a little girl die. When he’s called to the site of the apparent suicide of his friend, Dr. Lanning, Spooner finds a robot in Lanning’s office. This robot, Sonny, refuses to shut down and escapes. This is the first time a robot has every committed a crime, and Spooner suspects there’s more to the plot. He tries to track it down, but soon gets suspended from the police force. Susan Calvin, a robotic engineer, is suspicious of Spooner, but joins with him when she finds evidence that Lanning constructed Sonny with the ability to dream and think. Sonny is caught and Susan is given the task of destroying him.

Soon, everyone believes Spooner because robots have taken over the city. Spooner and Susan go to the headquarters where Susan reveals that she didn’t destroy Sonny after all. He helps them infiltrate the building and get to the office of Lawrence Robertson, whom they think is orchestrating the robots to revolt. But they find Robertson dead. Spooner realizes that the real culprit is Viki, the robotic mind who controls the construction plant. Susan and Spooner fight off robots while Sonny gets the virus that will destroy Viki. Spooner manages to inject he virus into Viki. The revolting robots are gathered up, and Sonny steps forth as the leader of a new type of robot, one with self-identity and self-worth, but friendly to man.

Exciting and intriguing, both in its portrayal of how robots can serve man and how that might go wrong. Will Smith did a good job with the role of Spooner. Some of the special effects were a bit cheesy, but I’m not a fan of computer animation in the middle of a live-action move anywhere.