A.I. Artificial Intelligence [2001]

Amazon.co.uk Review

History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick--after developing this project for some 15 years--wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg's kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (based on the Brain Aldiss short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long") after Kubrick's death in 1999, and the result is an astounding directorial hybrid. A flawed masterpiece of sorts, in which Spielberg's gift for wondrous enchantment often clashes (and sometimes melds) with Kubrick's harsher vision of humanity, the film spans near and distant futures with the fairy-tale adventures of an artificial boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), a marvel of cybernetic progress who wants only to be a real boy, loved by his mother in that happy place called home.

Echoes of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun are evident as young David, shunned by his trial parents and tossed into an unfriendly world, is joined by fellow "mecha" Gigolo Joe (played with a dancer's agility by Jude Law) in his quest for a mother-and-child reunion. Parallels to Pinocchio intensify as David reaches "the end of the world" (a Manhattan flooded by melted polar ice caps), and a far-future epilogue propels A.I. into even deeper realms of wonder, just as it pulls Spielberg back to his comfort zone of sweetness and soothing sentiment. Some may lament the diffusion of Kubrick's original vision, but this is Spielberg's A.I., a film of astonishing technical wizardry that spans the spectrum of human emotions and offers just enough Kubrick to suggest that humanity's future is anything but guaranteed. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: A perfect movie for the digital age, A.I. finds a natural home on DVD. The purity of the picture, its carefully composed colour schemes and the multifarious sound effects are accorded the pin-point sharpness they deserve with the anamorphic 1.85:1 picture and Dolby 5.1 sound, as is John Williams's thoughtful music score. On the first disc there's a short yet revealing documentary, "Creating A.I.", but the meat of the extras appears on disc two. Here there are good, well-made featurettes on acting, set design, costumes, lighting, sound design, music and various aspects of the special effects: Stan Winston's remarkable robots (including Teddy, of course) and ILM's flawless CGI work. In addition there are storyboards, photographs and trailers. Finally, Steven Spielberg provides some rather sententious closing remarks ("I think that we have to be very careful about how we as a species use our genius"), but no director's commentary. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews:

Success has many fathers.... and this great movie had four! .......2008-02-05

I loved this movie. It may be not as magnificent as other Spielberg and Kubrick works, but it is still a great moment of cinema. I watched it with a great emotion and I was afraid for the little hero (or rather two little heroes - let's not forget Teddy...) from the beginning to the end. It made me cry twice, no matter how much I tried not to. It really reached deep into my heart as no other movie managed to do in years... So, there is no other possibility - five stars.
I agree however that AI is clearly a patchwork of ideas rather than one project. It is because this story was worked in all successively by four very talented but very different men.
It began as a short story ("Supertoys last all summer") by Brian Aldiss, a great name of British SF, known mostly for his magnificent "Hothouse" novel. As most of SF writers from 60s and 70s Aldiss was very pesimistic and his writings are usually rather sad and gloomy. His mark is clearly visible in the movie.
The short story was rewritten in a scenario by another great name of SF, Ian Watson, who of course left his own personal inprint.
The person who had the idea of making a movie about a modern SF version of "Pinocchio" was the great Stanley Kubrick. He never realised it however and when he died, according to his last will, the project went to Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg inherited a very sad, depressing and dark tale of suffering and despair and he simply couldn't realise it like it was. He changed the story, mainly removing the "horrible bad ending" and replaced it with a kinder "not so happy end" which so many reviewers didn't like. Well, me for one I think he was right because ending AI differently would give a movie that only a really bad person (and by saying this I really mean "a sadistic sociopath") could like...
You probably already know what this story is about - a robot child, who was programmed to love his foster parents and who wants just to be their child, nothing else... but even that little will prove to be too much to ask... No other spoilers.
Haley Joel Osment gives here a performance as brilliant as the one he gave in "Sixth sense". Jude Law and William Hurt are good in second roles. A great "star" of this movie is Teddy, a little teddy-bear robot, once a very expensive and cool toy, now obsolescent and falling in pieces... The scenes in which he is fixing himself with a needle and some yarn will probably touch the coldest hearts.
This is NOT a movie for children! I strongly warn you against watching it with them, unless they are at least 12. Some of the scenes are very disturbing (like the execution of "strays", robots which were abandoned or chased away by the owners) and even after the little Spielberg touch, this movie is still terribly sad....
All in all, I believe you should watch this movie, at least once - you will not regret it. And you can also use AI as a medical test - if the final scene doesn't have any effect on you, you should see a doctor....

Near faultless........2008-01-20

Thoughtful sci-fi story about a robot boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) who wants to become a real boy like in the story Pinocchio so that the woman who purchased him (whom he considers his mother) will love him like she loves her real son. An intelligent sci-fi tear jerker from Steven Spielberg who as usual knows exactly what he is doing. A near faultless movie - ruined only by subplots involving Jude Law that don't go anywhere and a final scene that I felt could have been a bit better - that is emotionally satisfying and far superior to I, Robot (a film with a similar theme of whether robots should be treated like human beings). Spielberg went on to make the also excellent Minority Report the following year, so he was clearly on a roll. Very nearly 5 stars out of 5.

sad yet it makes you think.......2008-01-04

I don't think I've ever cried so much over a film. The film is about a robot/android named david who is created for a family who have lost their son. Unfortunatley things don't go well for the new family and they leave him behind. He goes on a journey to make himself human (much like ponichio, sorry, poor spelling). The film goes into what makes someone human? ethics, love and mostly loss. It's one of thoese films that you get if you feel like a good cry. It left me thinking afterwords. It's a good film but don't expect it to be a happy sunshine kinda film.

Absolute Pants........2007-11-01

I was expecting a lot from this film but in the end did not manage to watch the whole film through to the end as it bored me to death. I thought I would give it another go but after trying to watch it the second time I gave it away to a friend. To me it's a complete dud.

A MASTERPIECE .......2007-10-25

AI: Artificial Intelligence is an incredible film. The subject matter hits the very heart of the human condition and our destructive nature. By creating Artificial Intelligence we believe that we created servants to humanity, when what we created was a race. And in creating an artificial being who can love to fill gaps in our lives, we have created the very thing that the society in the film have forgotten to use, or to have. Not only does the film ask the question, 'what is love?' but it shows a society that has forgotten how to function with it. As Haley Joel Osments character - David - progresses through the film in search of the key to bring him love, we see a society that has pushed love away. Awash with corruption, quick fixes and bitter pastimes (the arena's where the 'mecha'(Artificial beings) are routinely destroyed by techno phobic humans, with no compassion for the race that humanity is responsible for creating). Gigolo Joe - Played excellently by Jude Law - plays David's inadvertent guide who is on the run after being framed for a murder committed by a human. Provoked by self preservation and meeting David Joe begins to show subtle signs that he is evolving beyond his basic functions. Ultimately the human society in this film destroys itself as global warming comes to fruition. But the mecha race evolves beyond what it was. Is this because the mecha that were created held onto that which humans readily throw away or attempt to do without? SPOILER: It should be noted that the race of beings at the end of the film are evolved mecha's not aliens. The film is full of pain and beauty. 'AI: Artificial Intelligence' shows a possible reality as well as the darker and idealistic sides of the human condition. Science fiction and storytelling of the highest order. And yes - it is written as a fable or a story tale. A work of fiction containing an important human truth. 'Will we understand and nurture life of a different order that we create?'

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