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A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Special Edition)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Special Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Most Beautiful Movie I've Ever Seen...
Review: This movie sparkles gorgeously with breath-taking special effects, wonderful performances, and a soundtrack to blow your socks off. It was absolutely the best movie I have ever seen. Haley shined in his role as a remarkably life-like robot child who gets attached to his "mother" after she reads the magic words which are only to be spoken when you plan to keep your child forever. Packed full of priceless childhood wonder, like a winding fairy-tale with a joyful reunion as the ending. Perfect in every way, complete. The soft background music, composed by John Williams adds a wonderful delicate frosting to the cake. If you want a movie that will keep you watching it again and again, falling in love with it every time, or even one to let out a tear or two, this movie would be the greatest addition to any collection. I whole-heartedly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A misunderstood film?
Review: Your enjoyment of this film will probably rely on two things: A) What preconceptions about the film you have and B) How you interpret the epilogue like ending.

If you are expecting a pulse pounding, relentless action film or a happy-go-lucky feel good adventure you will be disappointed. Likewise, if you are expecting the film to kick up hitherto un-addressed questions and answer them with solid clarity, you will be disappointed. As others here have wisely stated, this is neither a typical Spielberg or Kubrick film. It is an interesting, if slightly flawed, mixture of the two.

The film's endings(s) are what seem to encourage the most debate, though. Many have complained that the film should have ended a half hour or so earlier than it did, or that the film does not resolve clearly. Admittedly, there is a point in the film where it could have ended and still been enjoyable... leaving us with a dark resolution and a few questions. Instead, we are offered an epilogue of sorts that attempts to clarify little David's (Pinocchio's) true nature. The sequence has a tender, touching sentiment to it that implies a "Spielbergian", facile cop-out on what could have been a more distressing statement. But was this really the "happy-ending" that everybody seems to think destroyed the integrity of the film? Personally, I think many viewers got a little too emotionally attached to the little robot boy and as a result completely missed the point. Without spoiling it, I would say what I saw was a disturbing sequence of calculated and intentional storytelling made even more ironic by Spielberg's well-known knack for tugging at our heartstrings. Basically, I am saying that I do not perceive this to be the happy ending that so many others seem to believe it is (whether they liked it or not). You must see it to and judge for yourself, though.

The acting is good and the FX are great... so no worries there. DVD is the perfect format for this well produced and moody fantasy. You may want to rent this film first and decide for yourself whether you like it enough to buy it or not. However, one thing is clear. As long as you are an aware viewer, this film will challenge, question and engage you, and you will form ideas and opinions about what you are viewing. Just look at the disparate array of opinions right here!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A bizarre, disturbing, and stunning version of Pinocchio!
Review: Hayley Joel Osment plays David, a robot child, the first designed to have emotions, taken in by a couple who's own son is in a coma and may never awaken. But when that child surprisingly revives, David is no longer wanted! David, and his only companion, an adorable robot Teddy Bear who is basically the Jiminy Cricket character of the picture, are abandoned by the "mother" they had come to love. David becomes obsessed with the story of Pinocchio, and the idea that if he finds the Blue Fairy of the story, she can make him into a real boy. He then embarks on a quest to do just that, with no discerning between fairytale and reality. In his search he experiences things quite similar to those Pinocchio experienced in his adventures, only in A.I. they are giving a much darker, downright sadder interpretation.
The film moves rather slowly, and it is pretty darn depressing most of the time, but it is nonetheless fascinating to behold! The ending is possibly supposed to be happy, bittersweet more likely, but overall one might find it rather disturbing. I would not call this a film for kids, but definitely everyone who is old enough to handle the dark concepts should experience it. That's exactly what it is, an experience. This is NOT Disney's Pinocchio folks!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If Kubrick would be able to see this...
Review: This is a movie that goes by the future. Human beings and robots coexist in this new world. The last ones are called Mechas (mechanic) and live to serve normal people. But one day, an idea crosses human's mind: they will programme a creature that is able to love, since is the only ability Mechas do not have. This presents an important ethical question: should he be loved, too, and how could someone love a Mecha?
A married couple have a son, but he's been unconscious for a long time and rests now in a frozen capsule till he is able to wake up. Meanwhile, it occurs to the father to adopt and look after a Mecha boy. The boy (Haley Joel Osment) results to be a perfect son: he is handsome and obedient, and he seems so real for everyone. However, the couple start to feel uncomfortable with his presence, because he neither eat anything nor sleep, since he is a robot, and he's always his eyes fixed in them, without blinking.
They finally decide to make him being able to love. For the moment, their own son finally wakes up and comes back home. This will bring many problems; the two kids are different. The real one treats the Mecha boy badly, like a toy, because that's what he really is for him. This conflict established between them force their parents to abandon him in the forest. He's miserable, but now he tries to find the blue fairy in order to ask her to be transformed into a real boy. He goes with another Mecha (Jude Law) who helps him in his search.
I liked this movie because of many things. This moving story is the same as the Pinocchio tale set in the future and, at the same time, it deals the struggle between human beings and robots. I had seen some action movies in which robots always are bad and want to destroy the humanity. However, in this movie the robots are the ones who are controlled by real people, and this shows a different view of seeing this conflict. Here we have a Mecha boy being able to love and the incapacity of his adoptive parents to love him in return. Besides, in some scenes we can see the sport of killing Mechas like a way to amuse people, and this makes robots seem good, because they don't harm anybody.
Steven Spielberg's work in this movie is really good, because of the places on which he puts the camera. Again, Osment shines in his portrayal of this Mecha boy, because it is quite well-depicted and he manages to not blinking in any moment, which must be something hard, I think, and the same for Jude Law.
This movie also has some beautiful scenes, for example, in which we see Osment falling silently to the sea. However, there is too much feeling inside, too much love which sometimes can be ridiculous and childish. The real end is when he gets frozen,the rest with the aliens is stupid and boring

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Slow Story
Review: This is the first movie that I have ever walked out on. After the second hour past I couldn't believe that the movie was still continuing with what seemed to be another subplot. The movie moved very slow and didn't fit together very well. It was a very disappointing night at the movies for me.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Senseless Waste Of Two Hours
Review: I'm sorry, but this movie tops my list of time and money wasting movies. This was a movie that lacked that "certain something". Haley Joel Osment did a pretty good job, but that was about it. The plot was thin, and after a while you have no sympathy for any of the family members. It was so bad that I just had to walk out. I think that the best part of the movie was the little mechanical teddy bear that the boy toted around wherever he went. All in all I think that Steven Speilberg was trying to make a modern day ET, but it horribly backfired into a plain, boring, and flat out bad mish-mosh of lines simply composed. I love Steven Speilberg but this movie just fell terribly short of my expectations. Think twice before buying it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I thought this movie was brilliant. Haley Joel Osment just amazed me with his performance. He's got to be the best child actor of all time. There's no doubt he'll be winning Oscar after Oscar when he's older. I think the story of A.I. is the best I've seen in a long time. This movie is completely unpredictable. One sad note is their portrayal of New York City over 2000 years from now. The World Trade Center is still standing. Sadly that wont be the case 2000 years from now.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Bicentennial Man tells the same story better
Review: Though the acting, score, effects, lighting & photography and the basic underlying story are fantastic, the story drags, and (as so many others have commented in much more detail) the mishmash of Kubrickian and Spielbergian sensibilities doesn't play well. The Azimov-based Bicentennial Man (which came out earlier and is less visually amazing - and was probably launched to compete with and pre-empt A.I., which took much longer to make), shares A.I.'s sappiness in parts, and is not as convincing in its effects or the acting of the central, robot character, yet somehow manages to tell almost the same story, in its most meaningful parts, much more effectively. A.I. suffers from far too much "wonder" (heartstring-pulling fairy tale hooey plays really well in a movie like Edward Scissorhands, but just plain fails, dismally, in a non-comedy sci fi film that is intending to make a serious point.) In the end, neither A.I. nor Bicentennial Man make any point we didn't already understand intuitively, yet somehow they both make you understand the nature of "humanity" and "personhood" a little better all the same, and both are worth at least one viewing. I cannot give A.I. a one- or two-star rating, for all its flaws, for that reason and because the effects, design and art direction are so very, very well done (in some cases breaking entirely new ground).

PS: The odd thing about Bicentennial Man is that, although it is a "dramedy", with a lot of comedic elements (some of them clearly intended for the child audience, with the overall theme of the film being much more mature), the humans, especially the central family, in A.I. are much less real-seeming and believable than those in B.M. A.I.'s organic people seem cut-out and one-dimensional; despite the length of the film and its themes of defining humanity and discovery of self, only the two non-organic main characters (played impeccably by Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law) show any real character development (mostly in the former).

PPS: The A.I. DVD edition does have many nice extras (that you'll actually watch - no full script texts or silent "interactive" sequences of boring stills you have to flip through, but lots of behind-the-scenes featurettes on various aspects of the film.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stellar! Absolutely Classic! One of the best
Review: OK, it's not exactly Spielberg and it's not exactly Kubrick. So, it's Spielbrick or Kuberg. That's OK. If you came looking for Spielberg's happy ending or Kubric's hallucenogenic or dystopian ending, prepare to be disappointed. But if you want a blend of the best of these two directors, a bittersweet and aching examination of love, its formation, its endurance and its consequences, you will love AI.

I love absolutely everything about this movie. From the first, Spielberg treats technology as incidental, not forefront in the movie. It's simply there, part of everyday life. Sure, it's more advanced than we have today, but it's so firmly rooted that it doesn't intrude on the viewer like a normal SciFi movie.

The plot, true, is a variation of Pinnochio, but still, the upshot of the story is no so much that David wants to be a real boy so much as it is that he wants to be loved. He loves, and doesn't understand why that love is not returned. He thinks that by becoming a real boy, this will happen.

The music, the direction, the way the film falls neatly into five main parts, the lighting, the acting by Haley Joel Osmont, Jude Law and all the cast is pitch perfect. The ending is so emotional, I defy you to not shed a tear.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beautiful but Deeply Flawed
Review: I finally watched A.I. the other night. It was good, it was bad, and it was ugly, all at the same time.

First the good: Visually, this is one of the most fully realized sci-fi movies in a long time, from the retro-future Swinton house, to the post-apocalyptic landscape of the submerged New York. The robots and the über-robots at the end were all beautifully designed. John Williams score was appropriately ethereal and "small," instead of the usually "big" sound he's done for other Spielberg movies. The acting went from excellent to so-so. The usually wooden William Hurt was excellent in his brief appearance as the arrogant robotics expert Dr. Hobby. I wish he had been much more central to the story. Haley Joel Osment was astonishing. I don't think anyone could have pulled off the transformation from robotic child, to near-human feeling robot with such confidence and aplomb. Jude Law was also just a revelation as Gigolo Joe, and quite possibly the most sympathetic character in the whole movie, apart from the animatronic "supertoy" Teddy, who really stole the movie, as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the cast, from David's "adoptive" mother and father, to the real kids, to the collection of stereotypes at the "Flesh Fair," are just cardboard characters there to service the plot. Which leads me to...

The bad: Actually, there is no plot, only a series of barely related events. A.I. purports to be the story of a robotic child, a "mecha," named David who has been given the ability to love. He is "adopted" by a couple whose real son is cryogenically frozen. After some initial hesitation, the mother, Monica, decides to take the risk, and imprints herself on David, activating his "love" program. Of course, the real son miraculously recovers from his ailment, and things take a bad turn for robot David. An accident at a poolside birthday party causes the family to see David as a threat, and Mom abandons David in the woods, rather than see him destroyed.

At first glance, it looks as though we are being treated to a modern-day retelling of the classic legend of the "changeling." A changeling is a fairy child that is substituted for a human child by the fairy folk, and who eventually returns to them. But this is far too sophisticated and "obscure" for director Steven Spielberg, who instead trots out his own personal obsession, the Pinocchio story, literally! David overhears his "mommy" reading Pinocchio to her real son. So when he finds himself abandoned in the woods, David's literal-minded robot brain decides that if he is to win back his "mommy's" love, he must find the Blue Fairy of the story and ask her to make him a real boy. David's quest to find the Blue Fairy occupies the rest of the movie. In the end, David does find the Blue Fairy, which now leads us to...

The ugly, facile ending, in which Spielberg lays on his patented treacle with a trowel. 2000 years pass after David is trapped underwater in what should have been the movie's more poignant and believeable ending. He is found by highly advanced "super-robots" that are the sole surviving life-forms on earth after what looks like a second Ice Age has wiped out organic life. David's obsessive wish to win his mother's love is fulfilled, in a deux ex machina of cheap, overdone sentimentality. But then, that is Mr. Spielberg's stock in trade.

So, to sum up: This is a beautiful, well photographed, well scored movie, with some truly astonishing special effects and set design. But the story and plot are 15 years too late. Only a little of Stanley Kubrick's and Ian Watson's dark and cynical outline remain, and are eventually overwhelmed by Steven Spielberg's saccharine mentality.


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