THE robots rebel. No surprise there. Will Smith gets to preen himself in a shower scene. No surprise there. His cop boss is a fat guy whose fashion sense is even louder than his voice. No surprise there.

I, Robot is a cautionary B-movie made with Hollywood's finest precision tools, a twinkling A-list star and an old plot wherein errant lead man and rogue robot are both suffering an identity crisis.

The setting is 2035, the city Chicago, a place where pre-programmed cars travel underground and are parked like books on shelves. Skeletal robots, disposable as razors, have taken over domestic chores, doing the washing, shopping and chopping vegetables with all the haste of Ready, Steady, Cook.

Smith's Agent Del Spooner has a retro thing going on, from his choice of soul sounds to accompany his soapy shower to his eye-popping delight at opening a box of 2004 vintage Converse boots - and a recurring bad dream.

Despite his love of all other hi-tech gadgetry, he alone distrusts robots, whereas all around him have faith in Isaac Asimov's original three rules for the robot code of conduct (first aired in his I, Robot short stories in 1950).

Spooner, in his earrings and leathers, stands out as a loner, all the more so when his mentor Dr Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell) falls through his reinforced window at US Robotics, the biggest player in the robot industry. Lanning had once rebuilt Spooner's arm with cyborg technology, and Spooner vows to uncover the truth behind the scientist's alleged suicide.

US Robotics has a new line of ultra robots ready for the domestic market, and could do without a hotshot, lone-wolf cop and his theory that a robot prototype killed the doc. Spooner is set on a collision course with robots, company boss and his own boss alike (and yes, as is obligatory in all cop movies, his badge is taken off him part way through).

I, Robot is devoid of originality, but it has pace, car chases, some wit in Men In Black vein and it looks as good as Smith (without the vapid vanity of Wild Wild West). It is a clinical, impersonal piece of bravura film making by Alex Proyas, strong on special effects and technical wizardry, and if you want a Shaft for the cyborg generation, here it is.

Updated: 16:26 Thursday, August 05, 2004