DVD Review HTF REVIEW: "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (1 Viewer)

[MatthiasK]

 

[Travis D]

Well Ron, I thought they were aliens
too.

After I had seen the movie, someone told me that they were future machines.

When I learned that, I jumped up and said, "Well that makes a lot more sense!" I thought since it was a Spielberg film..... but thank God I was wrong.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

I think the whole point of creating David was specifically to make him feel/recreate love above all other emotions. Some robots were created to serve people as assistants or to provide a specific function like Gigilo Joe, and David was created in that same mindset for a sole purpose 'to love'.

That's a good point, and I guess it gets to the heart of my complaint, so to speak. I would have liked the film to explore this huge philosophical question about artificial intelligence: Is it possible for a computer to truly think and feel emotion, or is a computer limited to acting as if it thinks and feels? (And is there any difference between the two?)
I agree that David was "programmed" solely to love, for the benefit of his parents. But I have to assume that he's only acting as if he loves them -- despite the marketing tagline that "his love is real". In my opinion, a robot could not truly feel love without also being able to feel other emotions. I was disappointed when the film briefly raised this point but then discarded it. Maybe the question is too deep for such a film, but I had pretty high hopes for a film that claims to be about AI.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Gentlemen,

You gotta know that I am enjoying this

spirited debate....

...but no matter how many times I post my

point, it gets misconstrued.

Rob got it. Nobody else seemed to.

It's not how the story ended. I totally agree

that the ending was appropriate. I agree with

the storyline.

The problem is how Spielberg chose to visualize

and harmonize it.

Had Kubrik shot this movie entirely, I would

bet you a box of donuts that at 1:55, the film

would not have suddenly turn into something so

radically different. That is what happened here.

 

[Travis D]

I think this film will not be forgotten once it hits the home market. Since it IS better than 90% of the dreck out there, it CANNOT be forgotten. It will be toiled over and dissected for years to come just like we are doing now. Any film that inspires discussion over subjects we have covered will always get a thumbs up from me.

Also, sidenote - I have to see this movie again for the sheer fact that I saw it in DTS Left Channel Mono. That's right. The theater was SO bad that only the left audio channel was present and sometimes the right would kick in. Needless to say, I Got My Money Back! I'm hoping that DTS is a little better this time around.

 

[Coressel]

Rob got it. Nobody else seemed to.

I did...

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Ron, I am even more sure that I am not misconstruing, just disagreeing. The radically different "feel" of the ending was, to borrow a software developer's phrase, not a bug, but a feature. It underlines the point that the world has changed beyond all recognition, and only David remains unchanged (well, OK, Teddy, too). All of the humans that had been testing him and toying with him and hindering him are long since dead. The world is a completely new place, but David's too-perfect love has not diminished. Spielberg did an admirable job of creating an entirely new world in which David could find himself upon "waking".
It was not only desirable for it to feel jarring, but it was thematically necessary, IMHO. As I stated previously, there are other parts of the film that I think Kubrick would have approached quite differently, but he could hardly have gotten the tone of the last 20-30 minutes more perfect than Spielberg did.

Edited for embarassing grammatical errors. Non-embarassing grammatical errors have been left unscathed.

Regards,

 

[Patrick Larkin]

This is where I would have liked to see Kubrick's original concept for the ending. Was it Kubrick who chose that the future ultra-advanced mecha look EXACTLY like Hollywood's representation of aliens (see Close Encounters). The ending would be more clear if they didn't happen to look like aliens - the only saving factor was the fiber optics running under their skin.

And this was not a Kubrick film - only a Kubrick concept. A concept so intellectually complex that you can't blame Spielberg for failing to make an SK film.

And I'll never forgive SS for that hokey Dr. Know sequence with the Mork from Ork voice. I strongly believe that Kubrick would have taken the subject matter a bit further philosophically. The Flesh Fair, Rouge City, Gigolo Joe all should have been a tad nastier - and SK would've taken us there....

Nonetheless, it was better than most shlock in 2001.

 

[Mark Palermo]

I think people are too used to the future metropolises in Blade Runner and anime. AI offers something far more relevant--Las Vegas as a celebrity theme park where entertainment consists of commercialized lynchings. The Robin Williams and Chris Rock voice cameos reinforce this theme of Disneyfied excess.

The ending is heavily ironic. It's morbid and sad but played in the key of a Hallmark card. I don't think anyone would admit that it would have been a more difficult and challenging section were the emotions played straight.

Mark

 

[wally]

I was impressed by the effects and by Osment's creepy robotic acting, but I found the story lacking in more than just the ending.

Does HJO ever come off as anything but creepy and robotic?
I'll be interested if anyone joins me in the opinion that this movie is just bad. I'll save my $ for Say Anything can't wait for that one.

 

[Richard Kim]

The Flesh Fair, Rouge City, Gigolo Joe all should have been a tad nastier - and SK would've taken us there....

Agreed. Originally Gigolo Joe and the designs for Rouge City were alot more sexually explicit. Funny how Speilberg shied away from that in AI but was not afraid of showing graphic violence in Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.

 

[wally]

Agreed. Originally Gigolo Joe and the designs for Rouge City were alot more sexually explicit. Funny how Speilberg shied away from that in AI but was not afraid of showing graphic violence in Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.

Now we're talkin' Richard. Nothing in this film came close to hooking me.

 

[Patrick Sun]

W/R/T the beings at the end of the film, they are definitely advanced Mecha. The film is peppered with sleek looking robot "sculptures" from the place that created David. That's all the foreshadowing you need. And once you figure out that the narration was done by those advance mecha/robots, it ties together beautifully because A.I. is a tale told, not by humans, but by advance robots who are alway on the lookout for a connection to their creators, man. The shift in storytelling after David sinks to the bottom of the sea is more of a property of intended robotic narrative than a failure in cinematic narrative.



I thought this film was pretty darn good. I had friends who lost their mother within that year, and that film just wrecked them by the time it ended as it did.

 

[Richard Kim]

Also, when we first see David meeting the Swintons, he is shaped just like the Mechas at the end of the film.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

I definitely had several emotional impacts while viewing this film in the theater. The ending. The Blue Fairy quest. The mother leaving "child" alone in the woods she drove off.
The issues of cloning, AI, mother-child and child-mother love, the concept of man's technological creations moving beyond man, and many others.
To suggest that Say Anything is a better film is alarming.

 

[Guy_K]

The opening scene in A.I. is when the viewers get the picture that this is a Spielberg film, not a SK one. (I'm talking about the scene when the woman mecha is undressing)

 

[RobR]

The opening scene in A.I. is when the viewers get the picture that this is a Spielberg film, not a SK one. (I'm talking about the scene when the woman mecha is undressing)

Yeah, as opposed to the opening scene in Eyes Wide Shut when Nicole Kidman was undressing

 

[GregoryP]

This DVD sounds really nice except for one small thing that maybe is there and I've just not seen it mentioned. I really would like to see some focus on how Kubrick's version of AI compared to the version we got. Were his storyboards included on the DVD? What about the treatment?
I'm really not complaining... just mentioning things that as a Kubrick fan I'd have liked to see on there. I'm really looking forward to picking up this DVD!
Ron, I am in complete agreement with you about the ending, which is why it would be interesting to see Kubrick's take on it.
Gregory

 

[Mark Palermo]

The opening scene in A.I. is when the viewers get the picture that this is a Spielberg film, not a SK one. (I'm talking about the scene when the woman mecha is undressing)

For me, it was obvious when the credit came up that said "A Steven Spielberg Film."

Mark

 

[wally]

To suggest that Say Anything is a better film is alarming.

I agree, the issues of cloning, AI, mother-child and child-mother love, the concepts of man's technological creations moving beyond man, and others in the film are very interesting and worthy of exploration. I just think AI did an abysmal job of taking these subjects on.
Would you feel better if I said Dr. Strangelove, 2001, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining were better films than Say Anything