Artificial Intelligence

[Jimmy the Saint]

Just watched this at my local and thought the film was surprisingly good. I was expecting it to be overly sentimental, but found the film quite dark in nature. Other than the last twenty minutes of this film (memories of 'Mission to Mars'), this has to rate as one of my favourite films of the year. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[Beek1]

While I respect your opinion, I'm going to have to completely disagree with you here. A.I: Artificial intelligence was in my mind one of the biggest disappointments of the year. This was yet another example of a major Hollywood movie coming up with some very interesting themes, and then not having the faintest idea of how to play them out. The plot meandered from set-piece to set-piece with no more reason than to introduce throw-away characters (Jude Law's Gigolo Joe, yeah like he had anything to do) and hammer home the 'message' time and again. Admittedly the acting was top notch, but was completely drown out by Spielberg's trademark syrupy sentiment and over-use of back lighting to inform audiences of the arrival of an emotional moment. The only part of the film which really works are the earlier scenes with David's growing alientation from his adoptive family (that shot of him lying at the bottom of the pool is simply superb), but these are soon thrown by the wayside in order to remake Pinocchio in Spielberg's image.<br />And what can you say about the ending? Having a film seemingly finish at a perfect point only to then be forced to watch a further 30mins of tedious exposition and cheap resolutions really doesn't work for me. The only real saving grace was Teddy, who probably deserves a film of his very own.<br />A.I. may have been an interesting experiment, but it's a failed one nonetheless.

[lechacal]

Yep. What he just said.

I wanted to like it, I really did. And if it had ended at the right place I could have gone home saying "Well that wasn't *too* bad...", but the last half-hour was cringe inducing to the extreme.

The Pinocchio comparisons were all very well, but they were really about David and how he was relating to the world. Where the film could really have scored would have been if it had properly explored themes like 'What is the nature of consciousness', 'What are our responsibilities to what we create' and 'Do human beings have the moral, and emotional responsibility to match their techinal ingenuity'. I feel that this opportunity was lost in the films focussing to tightly on David's search once exiled.

I can't help thinking that's how Kubrik would have done things.

[lechacal]

PS But Teddy was great. Forget the Gamecube - I want one of those!

Agree with the majority on this! A.I.was for me the worst film Iv`e seen for ages.
The first 20 mins were o.k.-but after that...cringe.....
I was talking to my wife afterwards,and she made a good point;-When was the last time you saw a GREAT Spielberg film?
(..well I don`t think he has ever made a great film anyway,but she loved E.T.).
DISSAPOINTED,
Doug