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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: Warning: You must possess a brain to watch this movie
Review: Unlike many of the movies out there, that are nothing but an hour and a half of mindless action with a stupid plot and ridiculous dialogue (Tomb Raider), A. I. is a truly genius film that really makes you actually THINK. Many people seem to complain that this film was too much Speilberg and too little Kubrik. However, Stanley Kubrik knew that this movie was softer than his other movies, which is WHY he left it for Speilberg, because he knew that it would be more fitting for Speilberg. And yes this is clearly a Speilberg movie, he also blends in Stanley Kubrik's dark nightmarish moviemaking skills. Parts like the "celebration of life", and every part involving Gigolo Jo were very dark and bleak. The acting was about as good as it could get. Osment is an amazing actor, and he will probably get nominated for best actor after this one. Jude Law also gives a solid performance. As for the ending, many people think it shouldn't have happened, and the movie should have ended thirty minutes beforehand. I could not disagree more. This ending isn't "happy" like many of the people here claim. There is nothing happy about it. In fact it is very sad and bleak. But also, with this ending Speilberg really shows to us the everlasting love that this robot really had, spanning over 2000 years despite how much humans hated him and despite his mother casting him out. Without this ending the movie would not have had a solid conclusion. This movie really makes us think about a lot of different ideas and themes. For example, can a robot really have a soul? This question comes up especially during the scene where the humans are ruthlessly torturing and destroying all the robots. It makes you ask yourself, what exactly is a soul? David's love was stronger and more real than any love than a human could possibly experience, he feared, he desired, his emotions were even more real than that of a real person, yet he was a robot. Overall, this movie seriously was one of the greatest movies I can ever remember seeing, it was moviemaking at its best. Deep, moving, sad, and thought-provoking, this movie will continue to haunt me for a long time. This movie is not meant for kids, it will go way over their heads. Do not expect to sit down through this movie to be cheaply entertained like other movies. This movie requires you to sit, think, and it requires you to have an actual attention span, quite a rarity in movies nowadays.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A mishmash of Spielberg and Kubrick
Review: By now, most of us are familiar with the plot of "A.I."--which has been plummeting down the box-office charts since its release a few weeks ago.

Haley Joel Osment plays a boy--or, rather a robot that looks exactly like a human boy--who is capable of love after an "imprinting protocol" takes place that allows him to focus his love on particular adults. He is adopted by the Swintons, who at first are skeptical (their own biological son has been cryogenically frozen, waiting for a cure to his own illness). It is a tense moment when Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor, "Mansfield Park") does imprint and become his mother, for you know that nothing good can come of it.

This is the first third of the movie, and I was with the movie through this section. Much criticism has been leveled at O'Connor for not being particularly maternal, but I think that the acting and scripting is relatively sound in this section. In the second third of the movie, the boy/robot is dumped in the woods and forced to fend for himself. He narrowly avoids torture at a "flesh fair", where humans take out their aggression toward robots by torturing and "killing" them. He also meets "Gigolo Joe", a robot gigolo played with utter conviction and suaveness by Jude Law. Throughout this section, the boy tries to figure out how to become human so Monica can truly love him and take him back in.

About 45 minutes before the end of this 2 1/2 hour movie, the film comes to a good conclusion--the boy/robot finds out that he never actually CAN become human, and his illusions seem shattered. It is a fitting, Kubrickian ending.

And here's where the film goes very wrong--it goes on for yet another 45 minutes, ending with a jarring and false (and very Spielberg) happy ending.

THis is an intriguing film in some ways. There was much to enjoy in the first two sections of it, but the ending brings the rating way down. Although Spielberg is undeniably talented, I very much doubt that this was the film that Kubrick intended. If you are not expecting a dark, Kubrickian film, however, you will likely enjoy it more than I did.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Science Fiction or Fantasy? AI can't decide...
Review: As a fan of Stanley Kubrick's, science fiction movies, and science fantasy movies, I was interested in seeing A.I. In the beginning I was not disappointed. It began with so much potential. A robot programmed to generate a nurturing response in humans, and pontentially how this could go wrong. The first "act", which was so evidently written by Kubrick was very well constructed and set up all kinds of possiblities and plot twists.

The second act of the movie rapidly deteriorate into ones of the typical Spielberg type adventure movies, complete with Chris Rock and Robin Williams cameos (not that I am not a fan of these actors, but in the the context of the first act, their presence is completely inappropriate). This second act tries to be funny, scary, endearing, and altogether misses the entire point aboout what the movie is supposed to be about - a character study of Haley Joel Osmet's character (David) and his desire to be loved by his "mother."

The third act (the distant future) sequence was the most troublingly inconsistent of all. The movie had, up to that point protrayed itself as science fiction - based somewhat on fact, but when stating the reason for why the ending unfolds the way it does (I'm trying not to give anything away), Spielberg hits one of his all time lowest points in movie making. For anyone who has any knowledge of science (by that I mean knows what cloning is, what artificial insemination is, knows anything about anything remotely biological), the film falls completely apart. Spielberg (yes, he is the ONLY one who gets writing credit for this movie even though several of the early scenes were written by Kubrick) pulls the most convenient scientific conclusion to any experiment ever conducted and brings to the movie to a final neatly wrapped conclusion. This is coupled by an equally poor resolution to David's situation. If he was a really "human", as Spielberg was trying to assert, he would NOT have done what he did in the end of the story.

The film is beautifully shot as is expected from a Spielberg movie and the performances by Osmet and Law are outstanding. ....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: transendental: the constant desire to better yourself.
Review: For the past year I have been wringing my hands in anticipation for A.I., knowing that with Spielberg at the helm of a Kubrick project would atleast prove to be a noble experience. I am a hardcore spielberg fan, make or brake, win or loose. A.I., is such a beautiful film.

The graphics are seamless, in both the computer and real world. You see a new vision of Earth after the melting of the Polar Ice caps, due to Global warming...what else. (see Waterworld for a butchered-dirty version of this idea).

I enjoyed it. And I think Spielberg did too. But what happens when you get two great, but entirely different visions of the same project: an immediate shortcoming. Two visions means two beginnings, middles, and ends, and there lies the problem. Haley Joel Osment, doesn't blink the entire film. That alone shows his committment to character. A.I. has its own pace and rightly so, because there are many characters and ideas in the mix. I just don't know...I am debating as I type. What was missing?

I guess just enjoy it. Allow yourself an open mind and realize that you will not leave the theater with a frozen smile on your face. A.I. is just what it is. A story about a creation that can love, and all it desires is love in return. He encounters several odd characters, some helpful, some deadly. I wasn't let down, simply because I knew that there were two terrific director's speaking at the same time, and I was going to see the result. Maybe, the thing that was missing was already there, but there was just too much of it to see.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Possibly the worst movie ever?!
Review: This movie is an insult to filmmaking. The story appears to be 5 or 6 different scripts diced up and put together to make one script(one of the diced scripts was apparently the unfinished ending to Close Encounters). The story-line has no real reason to keep going. It is just a movement from one expected scene to another. I plead with all who have not seen this movie to not see this movie in the theatres (don't pay for it). We do not want to continue this belief that Spielberg should continue to make movies. He was acceptable when he was himself ignorant of what he was doing (E.T. and Close Encounters). Now that he thinks that he knows what he is doing, he is wasting my time.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Starts great but loses credibility
Review: When I started watching A.I. I was completely engaged in the first hour of the film. It starts out with a great idea, with good pacing and very interesting graphics. The idea of a robot boy and a mother who can't love him because he is not real is interesting enough. It was also interesting to see the dilemma of the husband who tries to please his wife with the creation of the boy, and the company that builds the prototypes. However, the robot gets into trouble, and this is where the movie starts to lose its credibility. If a robot can be programmed to love, how come it can't be programmed to not be violent? This is not explained. This could have been a great movie if there was more information about the robots and the company that creates the robots, in addition to more character development. However, the story plot of the mother and child is totally abandoned about an hour into the movie. I kept wondering when we would see the mother again, eager to see what had happened to her and her family. But the film spins in a completely different direction, where bizarre events occur, with images of robots that can self-assemble from a dump of metal, and it is not explained why they were dumped there or how they have the ability to assemble themselves. The film starts to look like a mixture of Close Encounters and 2001 Space Odyssey, and the scenes drag on too long. The rest of the film has interesting visuals, some hilarious one-liners from the robot-boy's teddy bear and new gigolo friend, but suffers from a lack of character development, lack of explanation of ideas that look cool but just don't make any sense and drag on for too long, in addition to dialogue predictability. Most annoyingly, the biggest yawner was hearing the robot-boy’s dialogue, which consisted of three phrases that were repeated incessantly. These consisted of one of three lines: either "I want my mommy"; "I want to be a real boy"; or " I want to meet the blue fairy". .... What I enjoyed the most about this film is the ethics of man creating a robot that can be programmed to look like and act like a human (ie, they can save us money because they do not need to eat) , because it made me think about the potential of the ethics of our inventions. It also made me think about how we treat animals, since we have power and control over them.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ho-hum
Review: Well, I saw A.I yesterday, and I must say I wasn't too impressed. The film was overlong and at times excrusiatingly boring but I got through it...somehow. As many know A.I is about a robot boy who wants to be loved by his "mom." David is the name of the robot, and his love for his "mother" is really quite ridiculous, he's practically obsessed with her, almost in a sexual way. When David's "mom" drops him off in the woods with his teddy bear (who can walk and talk) they get captured by humans and are sent to this weird rock n' roll concert thing where other robots (or mechas) are destroyed as entertainment for the rowdy crowd. This scene in the film was quite disturbing I thought. David meets another mecha, Gigolo Joe, a mecha prostitute (jeez) and they go off looking for the blue fairy, hoping that she will make David into a real boy so that his "mother" will love him. It's a complete knock-off of Pinocchio. The last twenty mins. of the film are sooo weird, I can't even explain it - other than it's really boring and predictable. A.I is a drama/comedy/fantasy/sci-fi/romance...heck it's just about every movie genre imaginable all rolled into one. Give A.I a s.k.i.p.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pinocchio Meets The Future!
Review: I was told this movie was a futuristic Pinocchio, but I had to see for myself. It is! Although, it also seems like a completely different movie mixed into one. Its hard to explain so you should go see it for yourself! It's about two parents whos only son was in an accident and probably wont live. They buy a child droid programed to love named David. Somehow, this droid really feels and everything. When the couple's real son comes back, they are forced to get rid of David. On his own, he must survive the torture humans put robots through. He even looks for the blue fairy. But it is better than Pinocchio. Definately not a movie for kids!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A.I.- Thrilling View of the Future
Review: Truly magical and almost chilling, A.I. takes us into a future world of building mechas to help lifestyles and now, mecha-children to help aid families that can't have their own. The performances of Haley Joel Osment as David, the mecha-child, "living " a Pinocchio nightmare, and Jude Law as the mecha-lover Gigolo Joe were so dead on the mark as they guide us on what is a very thrilling journey.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Should have stayed in Kubrick's trunk
Review: I think A.I suffers from the "it's too bloated" syndrome.

Shave about 1 - 1 1/2 hours off it and it would have had promise, but it's too long as presented and mighty depressing in parts, to boot.

If I hadn't seen Bicentennial Man first I might have enjoyed this somewhat, but it just had this all too familiar ring to it.

It's not all bad, the little teddy was cute and the movie itself posed a few interesting moral questions but I didn't find the ending very satisfying nor plausible (especially the fate of mankind as envisioned). I doubt others will either.

A.I. should have stayed a short story, IMO, because I bet it was excellent. Same can be said for "Trucks" by Stephen King and his dismal movie "Maximum Overdrive".

It's sad that Kubricks last two movies (Eyes Wide Shut and A.I.) and the remnants of this movie he worked on for so long leave a stain on some of his greater works.


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