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(- 2001 -)

Original Title Artificial Intelligence: AI Director Steven Spielberg Genre Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy Released 2001-06-26 MPAA Rating Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and violent images. Rated 6.9

Plot Summary

In the not-so-far future the polar ice caps have melted and the resulting raise of the ocean waters has drowned all the coastal cities of the world. Withdrawn to the interior of the continents, the human race keeps advancing, reaching to the point of creating realistic robots (called mechas) to serve him. One of the mecha-producing companies builds David, an artificial kid which is the first to have real feelings, especially a never-ending love for his "mother", Monica. Monica is the woman who adopted him as a substitute for her real son, who remains in cryo-stasis, stricken by an incurable disease. David is living happily with Monica and her husband, but when their real son returns home after a cure is discovered, his life changes dramatically. A futuristic adaptation of the tale of Pinocchio, with David being the "fake" boy who desperately wants to become "real".

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Actors / Character

Haley Joel Osment as David Swinton , Jude Law as Gigolo Joe, Lover Mecha , Frances O'Connor as Monica Swinton , Brendan Gleeson as Lord Johnson-Johnson, Flesh Fair Owner , Sam Robards as Henry Swinton, Monica's Husband , William Hurt as Professor Allen Hobby, the Visionary , Jake Thomas as Martin Swinton, Monica's Son , Ken Leung as Syatyoo-Sama , Michael Mantell as Dr. Frazier at Cryogenic Institute , Michael Berresse as Stage Manager , Kathryn Morris as Teenage Honey , Adrian Grenier as Teen in Van , Clark Gregg as Supernerd , Kevin Sussman as Supernerd , Tom Gallop as Supernerd

IMDB User Comments

flawed masterwork Steven Spielberg's A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is one of the most thought-provoking, visually stunning films to come along in a really long time, perhaps even since Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (one of my favorite films -- this one often reminded me of it). This is very high praise, I know, but the film is a remarkable achievement in imaginative filmmaking. I haven't seen this many incredible visuals since STAR WARS I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, but the amazing thing is that the film is also consistently involving, absorbing, powerful, and fascinating. Spielberg's film, in its own unusual and unique manner, definitely lives up to the expectations -- and it exceeded mine. What made me skeptical in those expectations was that the man who made E.T. was going to take over a project from the man who made A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. I was afraid that Spielberg would turn Kubrick's icy intellect and brilliant cinematic technique into something shallow and tear-jerking. The surprise is that Spielberg puts his own personality only into the final 20 minutes which represent the film's third act. The rest really looks and feels like something Kubrick could have made with a 90 million dollar budget. The film has some truly awesome special effects. Sequences showing cities of the future, all kinds of robots, cities we know like Manhattan half-submerged in water will have your jaw dropped in amazement and wondering how they got it all on screen. It has the most astonishing effects ever seen even in a Spielberg film, and that's not saying little. But not only did he direct this film, he also was responsible for the carefully written screenplay. It's his first writing credit since 1982's POLTERGEIST, and he has written only one of his movies, which is 1977's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. In the film's first act we see the life of a robotic, or 'mecha', child called David, played very well by Haley Joel Osment. He is adopted by a mother (Frances O'Connor) and father (Sam Robards) whose child's survival is very uncertain, and he's cryogenically frozen. Initially David seems to be having a good time with these people. He has some weird attitudes, to be sure, but most of the time he seems to be acting like a real kid. Osment's performance is intelligent in the way that he doesn't give his character a typically robotic voice or attitude, but acts and reacts sort of mechanically to his surroundings. It's a unique and intelligent performance that blends the attitude of a real boy and a cold machine. I'm not sure if the Academy will see the goodness of this performance. Perhaps the scene where he shines brightest is the one where his mother, played by Frances O'Connor, leaves him in a forest to fend for his own; once he realises it, his immediate reaction is played to perfection by Osment. He bursts out in tears, and yet the little genius still manages to give hints that his character's emotions are not real, not human anyway. After this heart-wrenching scene the movie radically changes tone. The film's first 40 minutes or so are rather slow, shot with a blanket of haze by Oscar-winner Janusz Kaminski (who has photographed every Spielberg film since SCHINDLER'S LIST), played subtly and delicately, but after that the look and pace of the film become crisper as it assaults our senses with some big, confusing, fast action sequences as David is captured by a weird character, played briefly by Brendan Gleeson, who travels around the land in a balloon in the form of a huge moon in search of lost mechas so he can take them to his 'Flesh Fair', an ugly festival where all sorts of robots are tortured and killed as entertainment. David manages to win the audience's sympathy and escape certain death (or is it just destruction?). He makes a valuable friend at the Fairs, a 'love mecha' named Gigolo Joe, played by Jude Law, with whom he will leave the Fairs and set out for Rouge City, a sleazy, glitzy, light-filled place with every kind of woman you could wish for, as Joe puts it. David wishes to find the Blue Fairy, since he's been listening carefully to the Pinocchio tale his mother told him and thinks that if he'll find the blue fairy she'll turn him into a real boy. Once they're in Rouge City they go and see a sort of digital Albert Einstein, a computer that answers every of your questions with an animated character called dr. Know, voiced by Robin Williams. This sequence is technically mervelous, but largely wears out its welcome. He's amusing to watch for a while but gets tiresome after a while, although he is important to the plot's development because he leads the two to Manhattan, which as I've said is shown almost completely submerged by water, and deserted, in this film. The effects in this sequence are incredible and scary in a way as well; to give you an idea, we only barely see the head of the Statue of Liberty and it all looks completely credible. I will not spoil the movie more for you by revealing what happens once David and Joe arrive there. Suffice it to say, the movie gets consistently weirder and more intriguing as it goes along after that point. In that way in reminded of 2001, as it takes the main character's journey to a climax in a place he doesn't know, but is shaped into something familiar to him (like Dave Bowman in the weird hotel room) by unknowns to make him comfortable. Many critics around me were disappointed by that ending, and although I must admit that I found the final 5 minutes a bit forced and sentimental, I was still enchanted, all the time wondering what would happen next. For those reading who have seen the film, you must agree with me it's the only way this film could've ended. It also raises arguments for discussion; for example, how can we be sure that a robot can't have real feelings? When a mechanical 'being' has such a burning desire for anything, in this case to find his 'mother', can we just coldly say that it can't be genuine emotion? What makes us more real than robots? We are also made out of organs, atoms, molecules, biological cells. We also react more or less logically to our surroundings, don't we? So do robots. In this unusually long review for me, I still have just scratched the surface of this film's richness, depth, and power. Its flaws and partly unsatisfactory conclusion keep me from giving it my highest rating. It is definitely a 'flawed masterpiece' if there ever was one. After I came out of the theater I was thinking so many different things, not being sure if I had seen a great film, thinking about the parts I loved, about the flaws, about those last 20 minutes... imperfect as I felt it was, I couldn't put it out of my head. That's definitely a higher compliment than you can give to most other movies. I think I could go on for a lot longer, but I will stop right now and tell you that if you like Kubrick movies, if you like to think about movies, this film won't disappoint you.

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