Oh, that chemistry is great, but I don’t think he plays the investigator part well, especially when trying to follow the clues left by Dr Lanning. Will Smith’s style is very off the cuff and anti-authority, and while that works in MIB where there’s the very strict Agent K to play off of, I don’t think he works as the sole driver of a light mystery. Sonny and Spooner’s interactions are fantastic, but they’re usually driven by Sonny giving exposition. Spooner is usually just running from things as they unfold.
All in all, not a bad performance (there were plenty of objectively worse ones), but I don’t think it does the movie any favours. There are plenty of great things about i, Robot, but Will Smith is not one of them in my opinion.
Oh, that chemistry is great, but I don’t think he plays the investigator part well, especially when trying to follow the clues left by Dr Lanning. Will Smith’s style is very off the cuff and anti-authority, and while that works in MIB where there’s the very strict Agent K to play off of, I don’t think he works as the sole driver of a light mystery. Sonny and Spooner’s interactions are fantastic, but they’re usually driven by Sonny giving exposition. Spooner is usually just running from things as they unfold.
All in all, not a bad performance (there were plenty of objectively worse ones), but I don’t think it does the movie any favours. There are plenty of great things about i, Robot, but Will Smith is not one of them in my opinion.