Rating: 
Summary: Not Spielberg's Best Work
Review: A.I. offers the dubious premise that only robots are capable of real love. I don't know that Stanley Kubrick would necessarily have disagreed (he was pretty misanthropic himself), but I don't think he would have appreciated Spielberg turning the story he'd developed as a film into a 2 1â„2 hour live action remake of Disney's Pinocchio. The film is simply about a robot boy who searches for the Blue Fairy (I'm not kidding!) to turn him into a real boy so his human mother will love him. He's even got a robot Teddy Bear sidekick as a Jiminy Cricket enema. The film doesn't begin that way, however. The first section of the film is devoted to exploring how a robot boy programmed to love would fit in with a human family. When the family's real son is released from a cryogenic chamber and rejoins the family, serious problems develop. These issues should have formed the core of the film, but it never deals with the implications of the fact that the robot boy, because of flaws in his programming, comes to represent a very real physical danger to the human family. Instead, the film takes a left turn into cartoon fairy tale nonsense when the boy begins his quest for the Blue Fairy and it just gets more and more ridiculous as it progresses. Granted, there's a huge audience who will be taken in by Haley Joel Osment's performance and find themselves identifying with this robot boy searching for love. (He's onscreen for nearly every scene.) He's a very good actor, but I couldn't identify with his robot character. The human parents are not very admirable characters and their real son is presented as a jealous brat, so the audience is manipulated into siding with the robot boy, even when he inadvertently almost kills the real son. The film seems to support the notion that humans are generally morally inferior to robots. I'm a human being and I object to the anti-human sentiments that underscore the entire film. There's a scene where humans attend a live show; a Flesh Fair, where robots are destroyed for the entertainment of cheering masses, clearly modeled on redneck Monster Rally type events. It's not presented with any context, so we don't know the social circumstances that fuel such events, but it's clear Spielberg wants us to look down on this kind of thing because of the cruelty meted out to robots. The question for me is how I would react in a future where humans felt threatened by robots. If the film had explored these issues and actually bothered to air legitimate anti-robot arguments, it would have been a much more interesting film to me. Instead, the film diverts at that point and focuses exclusively on the robot boy and his adventures, mostly with another robot, played by Jude Law, in an increasingly overblown, cartoonish future landscape (reminiscent of lots of other movies, but closest in tone to the theme park production design of Never-Never Land in Spielberg's HOOK). This could have been a good, serious science fiction movie, one of the rare examples of real sci-fi from Hollywood. Instead, it's just the latest manifestation of Spielberg's fixation with Disney. A.I. is a MOVIE, not a reflection of reality, and it is a mediocre film based on a 32-year-old story, no less. Aspects of the film are certainly interesting (I particularly liked the Bladerunner-esque mech sequences), but the movie as a whole simply didn't mesh. It seems like four films in one, with insufficient segueways. And with Spielberg doing Kubrick, the dialogue is excessively stilted and the direction emotionally distant (a technique which sometimes works, but at many points in this film simply annoyed me). Just my opinion: Catch it on video. And don't even think of making the mistake of thinking that it contains any new ideas. - Louis
Rating:
Summary: A Sci-fi Fairy Tale of Weird Sorts!
Review: Well, I wasn't really sure what to expect when I went to see this movie, but I won't be seeing it again anytime soon. After the movie ended, I thought that maybe I just didn't get it and that it had some deep hidden meaning that I didn't understand. But, after discussion with others who have seen this movie, I really haven't been able to reach that deep meaning. Haley Joel Osment was terrific as always. The futuristic scenery and cars were interesting also. I thought that this movie dragged on and on and could have ended many times. I was at first intrigued by the beginning of the story where the humans make a young boy robot with human emotions and the ability to love. He is given to a family whose son is in a cryogenetics lab frozen for an unknown reason, but soon he is unthawed and is brought back into the home. There were so many unexplained things that really made me see it as inconsistent. This part of the movie could have comprised the entire thing if certain questions had been explored more. After this part, we see all kinds of mecas (machines) and a particular disturbing scene to me where they are rounded up to torture and destroy. If I was forced to write something that could bring this movie some greater sense of purpose or meaning, it would probably be that by the end he was a real boy because he had not only learned to love, but been loved in return and had all human emotions through his journey. Unfortunately, I was not sympathetic to any of the characters created in this movie, so I really did not understand the reviewers who stated that people cried. (although my brother told me he cried through the entire movie and it was the saddest thing he had ever seen...I'll have to ask him why cause I didn't understand) Anyways, if you want an uplifting movie, this isn't it. If you want to laugh, this isn't it. If you want to be entertained, I don't think this is it. If you are not into sci-fi, please stay away. But if you want to think through the movie and try to find the inner meanings of this fairy tale, please be my guest. As long as you can explain it to me later.
Rating: 
Summary: How could you not appreciate it's value as an art form?
Review: ...{spoiler]This movie is about alot of things. It has great value as a form of art. It's about adoption, asking the question can a parent really love a child they've adopted as if it is their own? There is of course the obvious references to pinnochio. In the Pinnochio story they're about to burn him because he's made of wood. In AI they are about to destroy him at the Flesh Fair. There's the competition of siblings. Child abandonment, a child thinking his mom doesn't love him enough, trying to do nearly anything to gain her love. Humanity's inhumanity for things that are new or different or designed to help us at the Flesh Fair. Humanity's way of looking at children as being greater then adults. Once again this is conveyed at the Flesh Fair when David escapes. David refers to Monica as Mommy and to Henry, who should be his father, just as Henry. Showing children tend to be closer to their mother then their father. It's not only about robots, it's about humans, always looking for our creator, always looking for answers. Joe tells David "Orga believe what c annot be seen or measured. That's what seperates them from us, Meccha." David, like Orga (organic beings) Is believing what he cannot see or measure, giving him that human flaw later talked about in the film. The human flaw of wishing for things that don't exist. Joe says "We are suffering for their mistakes." Humanity once again is suffering from the mistakes of our creator. As humans we think we're something special. And one day we're going to realize we're not, there are billions of other humans in the world just like us, no matter what their race sex etc they are still humans, and we are not unique. This is conveyed when we see David in the room with the hundreds of dolls that look just like them. And all this time he thought he was special. When Joe sees David jump from the building, the reflection on the glass looks like a tear rolling down his cheek. At end when David goes to sleep by his mother after she says she loves him, it seems as if he's finally become human. His mother was the blue fairy. And for all those who didn't like the ending, without the ending it wouldn't have had the same effect it was wanting to have. Even if you didn't like the movie...you still MUST appreciate it as a form of art. Timothy Atkins unclean470@hotmail.com
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I saw this film a few days ago, and think it is one of the better pictures this summer. Go see it if you are a fan of Speilberg, Kubrick, or Aldiss.
Rating: 
Summary: Deep more than entertaining
Review: This movie was great because it really made you think. I am a person who likes a good story. I always say a good movie should make you laugh, cry, and maybe even teach you something about yourself. This movie did all three. Overall I think it was beautiful as far as the scenery special effects etc. But that stuff doesn't become the film. The movie really gets to some deep stuff, the big questions if you will in a dark but very real way! If I had one negative thought it would be that I hated the ending. I felt it was a disconnect from the whole film like oh no they don't know how to end this?
Rating: 
Summary: It's Not E.T., but............
Review: When I heard that A.I. was a "collaboration" between Stanley Kubrick and Steven Speilberg, I was intrigued and forced myself not to hold any preconceptions about the film. After all, these 2 directors have completely different styles. Having seen the film at my local theater, I can now say that it is a good film that could have been much better. True, it could have been shorter (it currently runs at about 2 and 1/2 hours). I also feel that Spielberg wanted to be true to Kubrick's original vision, while incorporating some of his own ideas. The result is a compromise that would not have pleased Mr. Kubrick. The first half of the film works on many levels, up the point where David (the Osment character) is left to fend for himself. The relationship between David and his "mother" brought up some interesting issues regarding the relationship between parent and child, if the "child" happens to be a robot. The Pinnochio analogy was apparent, with William Hurt as the Gepetto character; even though he had very limited screen time, he gave the best performance in my opinion. The second half of the film tries to do and be too much, in terms of plot. I actually thought the film was about to end at one point; it then went on for another 30 minutes. The actual ending seemed poorly thought out and really didn't make any sense to me. Also, the Jude Law character was completely extraneous and had no relationship to the rest of the plot. However, even with all of these flaws, the film was very entertaining and the special effects and robot creations were a definite thumbs up. If Spieberg had curbed his self-indulgence and tightened up the plot a bit, this would have been Oscar material. As it stands, a good flick for those who like the science fiction and fantasy film genre.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite sure what to think..
Review: On one hand, A.I. is a beautifully shot movie, with excellent cinemetography, great use of technology and special effects, and a high caliber of acting on behalf of all of the main characters. On the other hand, I walked out of the movie wondering what exactly the point of all of it was? The plot and details behind the movie were kept secret for so long that the main thing that drew me to the film was the fact that it was a posthumous collaboration between Spielberg and Kubrik, both excellent filmmakers in their own right. But the movie failed on one major point for me (and for the 3 friends who joined me) - I didn't really care about any of the characters because they were not developed. The limited previews for the movie indicated that it was about a mechanical boy who was built to love, but of all the things involved in the story of the movie, there was no love (and hardly any affection) at all. I felt misdirected as to the purpose of the movie from its limited advertising and reviews, so I suppose I felt let down when it failed to meet my expectations. The ending was way too long and drawn out (we actually started to get up at one point in the film when we thought it was over) and by the time it really did end, the movie had lost me and I no longer cared about the resolution of the story. It'd be a nice rental, I suppose, but only when you're in the mood to see a visually impressive but an overall dark and very disturbing movie about the search for love and acceptance in the postmodern world.
Rating:
Summary: As Humen As It Gets!
Review: You know many people keep treating this film as if it were a tragity. And to tell you the truth I thought it COULD be better, but I think people are streching the truth "just" a little bit! Although a little dissapointing make no mistake, "A.I." is a great film! Steven Spielberg did a good enough job to bring what would have been Stanly Kubrick's deepest films to the big screen in an exceptable format! Although there were probibly around three points in the movie where I thought the film should've ended (The ending kinda drags, and leaves much to be desired), it's an original, very humen film with heart and smarts! This is probibly one of the best films of the year if not THE best! On a side note Haley Joel Osment proves he's still one of the best young actors in Hollywood!
Rating: 
Summary: This movie is bad bad bad!
Review: I went in thinking this would be a great movie. Turns out, it is just awful. Pick this up at video rental on the bargain rental night. Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment do some wonderful acting, yet the script and the plot are so bad that their efforts cannot save it. It seems that Spielberg no longer has an original vision for his films, since he rips off his own and Kubrick's prior works with poor results. This highly derivative work also pulls from: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (flesh fair); Star Wars Series (teddy the [wannebe] ewok); The Wizard of Oz (Jude law as the tin man, and the wizard is obvious); Bamboozled; Close Encounters; Michael Jackson's Thriller video; and MS Office Assistant "The Genius" The ending insults the audience's intelligence. Hardly worth a star.
Rating:
Summary: Spielberg puts twist on Kubrick
Review: I thought this movie was an example of great film making. Steven Spielberg shows once again that he is one of Hollywood's great directors. Kubrick worked on this picture before his death and anyone knows from seeing Kubrick's works that he put's a dark swing on things. Spielberg took this idea and added sentimental and uplifting ideas while still keeping Kubrick's ideas in the picture. Haley Joel Osment puts on one of his best preformances in this movie, I would go so far to say that he surpassed his preformance in the Sixth Sense. Jude Law (Kubricks character) also does an excellent job eventhough I sometimes wondered what was the purpose. All together I think it was great even the refrences to the "Wizard of Oz", "E.T.", "Close Encounter's of the Third Kind" added to the storyline. The only flaw of the movie is the uplifting but sad ending that runs way to long. Due to this I would give this movie 4 and 1/2 stars but it is a must see for any lover of the two great directors Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick.
| 
