From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 23 09:43:29 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Harvey S. Karten" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 22 Jun 2001 16:37:22 GMT Organization: None Lines: 161 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9gvs82$md6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 993227842 22950 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28515 Keywords: author=karten X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26676 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2845 A.I. Artificial Intelligence Reviewed by Harvey Karten Warner Bros/Amblin-Stanley Kubrick productions Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: Ian Watson, Brian Aldiss (short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson, Jake Thomas, William Hurt, Daveigh Chase We all know how automation--a form of robotics, if you will--can make a difference in our lives. The I.B.M. tech-help phone line tells us that our call is important to them and proves it by playing a half hour of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" while we wait for the attention of a mere mortal. We wheel our S.U.V. into the car wash and watch as large arms reach out to apply soap, water and wax to our vehicle and brush up our advanced transportation without the need for people to do much more than push some buttons. An invisible hand reaches out to pick out the pins in the local bowling alley which we have maliciously knocked down as we pitch strike after strike. Even the very car that we get polished up without the need for the intervention of people is put together by robots. What can we expect robotics to do in the decades that lie ahead in our new century? In a sci-fi film which marries the detached, epic vision of Stanley Kubrick to the sentimental child-centered themes of Steven Spielberg, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," shows us in an awe-inspiring way how robots can be used to help us emotionally as well as physically. In a world that finds love in short supply, it was only a matter of time before some scientific genius would transcend the current rage of cloning by creating a mechanical child equipped without the strength needed to assemble a car but with the more important vitality of love. As that scientist, Professor Hobby (William Hurt) tells an assemblage of his peers at the corporation of which he is the creative director about the importance of receiving affection: "God made Adam to love Him." In the brief opening moments of this fairly long film, anyone in the audience with the slightest grasp of literature or of sentimental filmmaking will realize that the a child-robot created with the ability to give love will change not only the mother who craves this affection but the boy himself (or itself). "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" was the final project conceived by Stanley Kubrick to be screened some time after what became the late, great director's swan song, "Eyes Wide Shut." Kubrick had taken his good friend Steven Spielberg into his confidence to discuss a story about an advanced technology, one which would blend science (the creation of robots to do jobs that human beings would prefer not to do) and humanity (the creation of robots to furnish emotional warmth to those who choose to buy them). After Kubrick's death, Spielberg took over the project which one producer calls an attempt by him to "embrace and pay homage to Stanley." To those in the audience who are familiar with works such as "E.T." and "Jurassic Park"--the latter focusing on the grandchildren of paleontologists who tag along with the scientists to inspect an island amusement park not realizing that anything can go wrong--the picture that now emerges looks mostly like Spielberg's, but not without the insistent entrace of Kubrick's motifs. A fifty-minute sequence takes place largely within the comfortable suburban home of a young couple, Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife Monica (Frances O'Connor). Since their only son, a fatally ill Martin (Jake Thomas) has been cryogenically frozen pending such time as a cure can be found for his disease, they long for another boy to love. Their dream comes true as Henry surprises his wife by buying an android named David (Haley Joel Osment) from the scientist Dr. Hobby (William Hurt) during a period of declining resources and limited land space causing the government to restrict the growth of human population. Like Pinocchio--which is one among many fables that are called upon to inform the movie's motifs--David decides that in return for the love he is giving, he wants love in return. The only way to get this affection is to become a real boy himself. He will ultimately devote quite a bit of time to this quest. This initial segment in what is obviously a sci-fi tale is surprisingly the most compelling despite its sappiness, perhaps because after David is introduced to his new owners, and later to a now-recovered "brother" Martin, Mr. Spielberg appears to take a long break, handing the movie over to the Kubrick touch. The middle segment of what is really a trilogy, all centered on David, is cold, detached, unemotional, as we are introduced to two locations that are futuristic but not representing the sort of prospect that most of us would welcome. (Some spoilers follow.) After David is tearfully abandoned by Monica together with a cuddly robotic bear named Teddy (voice of Jack Angel) which steals every scene in which he appears, he is transported to a couple of ticky-tacky locations that only Mad Max could love. He meets with and ultimately saves the life of Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a robot designed to give massages to the ladies and then some, an automaton who tells his customers that after a session with him they will never again want a real man. He does not even need a CD player to help seduce the women. He merely shakes his head to one side and out comes romantic music. When a robot-hating Luddite named Lord Johnson-Johnson (Brendan Gleeson) emcees a killing field within a stadium that could have been the arena for "Gladiator"--shooting the trapped robots out from cannons into fiery deaths (which could give the kiddies attending the movie nightmares)--David leads Joe to safety and continues his odyssey in search of the Blue Fairy, who like the Wizard of Oz is said to be able to fulfill his dream and turn him into other than he now is. There are numerous references to fables in addition to The Wizard of Oz and Pinocchio, some self-referential, as Spielberg winks at the audience challenging us to catch them. One place is called "Strangelove's" while the mayhem in Lord Johnson- Johnson's emporium reminds us of "A Clockwork Orange." The execution of the obsolete robots calls to mind the termination of people over 30 years old in "Logan's Run," while the general concept often recalls "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is photographed by Janusz Kaminski for the most realistically, showing a future that aside from the robots is not so much more advanced than our own era and, in fact, given the research and results of cloning experiments is hardly beyond the grasp of audience imagination. The car which Monica uses to take David away, to dump him into the countryside like an unwanted pet but with a warning to avoid corporate employees who are instructed to destroy trashed toys, is a cool vehicle but in no way one that cannot now be designed if the powers-that-be wanted to take a leap forward by a decade of so. Even the scene of New York, now submerged because of melting ice caps, is recognizable by the Chrysler building which majestically keeps its head out of the water defying the elements, and considerable attention has been given to produce a digitalized milieu inhabited by a citizenry alternately brutalized by the spectacle of robots being malicious destroyed while some, like the scientist Dr. Hobby, remain and compassionate. Haley Joel Osment, twelve years old at the time of the filming, has lost some of the cuteness that made him a compelling figure in "The Sixth Sense," and in fact the movie was put on the fast track to be complete in twenty weeks instead of the full year that was originally planned because this wonderful young man is quickly showing signs of physical maturity. He remains an effective center for the story, showing more depth than even the Australian actress Frances O'Connor in the role of the mother-- whose emotional depth consisted of being either teary-eyed or ambivalent. By the time we are taken to the final scene, which brings us to a civilization two millennia ahead inhabited by figures looking as though they could be at home on Venus, we may not be blamed for wondering whether this craggy but generally imaginative and visually splendid and mature picture has a single, all-embracing motif. John Williams's music is annoyingly ubiquitous if varied but does not provide a clue to the Kubrick-Spielberg design. Nonetheless "A.I." is not a picture to ignore or pass up. This is sci-fi in the seasoned, deliberately-paced spirit of "Contact" rather than the absurdly childish productions such as the "Alien" series, featuring a varied range of set designs, musical compositions, situations, and moods. Rated . Running time: 143 minutes. (C) 2001 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 23 09:43:29 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!chcgil2-snh1.gtei.net!chcgil2-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newspump.sol.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Robin Clifford" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Jun 2001 02:32:07 GMT Organization: None Lines: 109 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9h0v37$h10$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 993263527 17440 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28517 Keywords: author=clifford X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26691 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2846 "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" It's the time of mankind's distant future and all the worries and concerns over global warming have come to a disastrous head. Much of Earth is underwater and the governments have restricted the allowed human birthrate. Robotics has taken a quantum leap in development and man has created a replicant that can love. But, has man gone too far playing God? Find out in Steven Spielberg's long awaited "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence." There has been a hush, for months, over details about Spielberg's involvement in what had been a longtime Stanley Kubrick project. The reclusive Kubrick was taken by the concepts introduced in the 1969 sci-fi short story by Brian Aldiss, Super Toys Last All Summer Long, and had been developing his film treatment for some time prior to his death last year. Friend and colleague Spielberg took over the mantle of the production, developing the screenplay (from the screen story by Ian Watson) and directing the effort. What we get is a mix of intents as the helmer tries to be true to Kubrick's vision while deriving many parts of the film from his own (Spielberg's) body of work. A little boy, the son of Monica and Henry Swinton (Frances O'Connor and Sam Robards), is in a coma and there is little hope that he'll awaken. Monica is despondent and growing increasingly withdrawn, forcing Henry to act quickly and decisively. A brilliant robotics professor, Allen Hobby, has developed his theory that robots, or Mechas, can be made to love and Henry gets the first model, named David (Halley Joel Osment). When David is brought into the Swinton household, Monica greats him with a scared reluctance. As she grows used to the robo-boy, she invokes the imprint that triggers his program to love. A semblance of normalcy comes back to their home and all is well - for a while. The miracle of modern science eventually finds a cure for the Swinton's son, Martin (Jake Thomas), and he returns as the family alpha boy. While Monica treats David as a real child, Martin understands that the Mecha is little more than a super toy. The wily Martin soon figures out how to confuse David into doing things he shouldn't, making his parents think that the little robot is a danger to the family. Monica, instead of returning David to the factory for destruction, decides the best course is to abandon the boy in a spooky forest to fend for himself. Part two of the tale shifts from family life to survival as David searches for the one thing that he real wants - to be a real boy. This "Pinocchio" theme drives David into the scrap heap world of discarded robots. He meets Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a pleasure Mecha that can be anything a woman (and, presumably, a man) wants him to be. Joe is very cool and takes David under his wing. This part turns into a world straight out of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" where robots, instead of men, are ravaged for public entertainment. The final leg of David's journey takes on religious overtones of resurrection and spiritual freedom as the little boy 'bot finds "himself." "A.I." is a complex film that strives to say a great deal. Messages of love, loyalty, friendship and more are coupled with David's relentless search, after his abandonment, for the Blue Fairy, who will change him into a flesh and blood boy. Joining him in his quest is a present given by his mom, a robotic bear named Teddy, as the stand-in for Jiminy Cricket. The constant "Pinocchio" references and David's continued pleas to be a real boy gives the film a derivative, rather than original, feel. The F/X that animate Teddy and the rest of the robots (by Stan Winston Studios) are very slick, as one can only expect in a Steven Spielberg movie. But, as with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "A.I." gets too full of itself and meaningfully meanders along, first in one direction, then another until the until we get to the spiritually satisfying (for Spielberg) end. For me, by the time the film was over, I had simply had enough. Robot movies have been around since "Metropolis" and the robot-with-feelings concept has been with us from as far back as "Pinocchio" - if you take that fairytale as a kind of low-tech robot story. The idea also spawned such flicks as "Short Circuit," "Terminator 2" and, one of my favorites, "Android," with Klaus Kinski chewing the scenery with gusto. "A.I." represents a highbrow entry into the genre, with Spielberg's typical rank sentimentality at its core. On the acting front, the film belongs to young Osment, who is the single point of focus throughout this unnecessarily long flick. Haley Joel is a talented kid and does his best, building on the emotions that David develops over time, but there is little arc to the development of the character. Jude Law, in his limited time on screen, steals the show as the sexy, pleasure-oriented Joe. With a hint of plasticity to his makeup, giving him an artificial look, and his hip dance moves, the robotic gigolo seems to be having a grand time. Brendan Gleeson offers little to his character, Lord Johnson-Johnson, a kind of robotic gladiator owner/manager. O'Connor, as the confused mom, is fine, but the rest of the cast, including Robards and Hurt, are filling space and marking time. Production values are commensurate with the obviously large budget that Spielberg and company had to play with. Frequent Spielberg cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski provides his deft camera talents effectively to the challenging variety of film moods. John Williams does not, for once, intrude his musical interpretations on the film, but you don't get anything like the "Jaws" theme song either. Production design, by Rick Carter, comes out of Spielberg's own body of work and others with direct takes from "E.T.," "Close Encounters" and "Jaws," as well as the aforementioned "Mad Max 3" and, frequently, "The Wizard of Oz." "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is an anticipated event film that fails to meet expectations. It's too long, by 20 minutes or more, and the story meanders far too much to keep the viewer's interest. I give it a B-. For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 23 09:43:30 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.kth.se!uio.no!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Ssg722@aol.com (SSG Syndicate) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Jun 2001 02:32:53 GMT Organization: None Lines: 34 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9h0v4l$d2c$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 993263573 13388 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28525 Keywords: author=granger X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26694 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2847 http://www.susangranger.com/ Susan Granger's review of "A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE" (Warner Bros.) Steven Spielberg is a cinematic genius. So was Stanley Kubrick. But this unconventional, collaborative effort may mystify movie-goers. Some will be beguiled, as I was. Others may be frustrated and/or disappointed. Told as a sci-fi fairy tale for adults, the story revolves around a perfect robotic child named David (Haley Joel Osment), adopted by a Cybertronics employee (Sam Robards) and his wife (Frances O'Connor) whose own seriously ill child (Jake Thomas) has been cryogenically frozen. David is programmed to love, but those around him aren't - because he's 'mecha' (mechanical), not 'orga' (organic) - and, therein, lies his dilemma. Like Pinocchio, he yearns to be a real boy. But how? When he's abandoned with only his supertoy Teddy bear as a companion, he's sets off in search of a dream. Steeped in romanticism, the plot is divided into three segments: the domestic drama, the quest or odyssey, and then the futuristic underwater/ice sequences, a consequence of global warming. This fragmentation breeds problems. In the darkly disturbing road trip, for example, David meets up with Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a 'love mecha,' who takes him to the Flesh Fair, a nightmarish carnival, filled with robot torture devices. Then the eerie, sentimental third segment evokes "E.T." and "Close Encounters of a Third Kind," moving grandly, yet tediously. There's a lack of cohesion, a feeling of schizophrenia. Hayley Joel Osment is truly amazing and Jude Law is charismatic. The rich visuals - sets, costumes and creature/make-up effects - are stunning. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is an unpredictable, intriguing 10. Love it or hate it, it's a triumph of innovative film-making, a blend of science and humanity, and a brilliant collaboration of two acknowledged masters. -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:15 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Laura Clifford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:41:16 GMT Organization: None Lines: 98 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60cs$opq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477276 25402 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28529 Keywords: author=clifford X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26699 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2849 A.I. ---- For over twenty years, the late Stanley Kubrick worked on developing "A.I." Initally based on the short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" about a child robot yearning for the love of his human mother, Kubrick extended the tale as a sci-fi retelling of 'Pinocchio.' Having once been told by Kubrick that the project was better suited to his sensibilities, Steven Spielberg took over the reins after Kubrick's death. Haley Joel Osment stars as the boy robot who wants to be real in "A.I." Anticipation for "A.I." began with a web campaign built around a murder mystery beginning with fictious researcher Jeanine Salla. The film, which doesn't touch on these elements, begins with Professor Hobby (William Hurt) explaining the next robotic advancement - a child substitute that can be programmed to 'love' human parents in a society where natural birth is largely restricted. His prototype, David (Haley Joel Osment), is brought home to Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor, "Mansfield Park") by her husband Henry (Sam Robards, "American Beauty"), hoping to snap her out of the despair she's been in since their natural child, Martin (Jake Thomas, "The Cell") fell into a coma. Monica's resistent at first, but her need for a child's love soon has her making the irreversible 'imprint' that will bind David to her (after imprinting, these 'mechas' must stay with their owner or be returned to Cybertronics for destruction). David's given Martin's supertoy Teddy (his Jiminy Cricket) and all is well until Martin makes a surprise reversal and is brought home. Martin's competitiveness combined with misunderstandings result in Monica abandoning David (with Teddy), who begins his search for the Blue Fairy which will make him a real boy, regaining his mother's love. His journey has him cross paths with other, zombie-like, abandoned robots trying to keep clear of the Flesh Fair, where cheering fans watch their like be tortured and destroyed. David's picked up and meets Gigolo Joe (Jude Law, "Enemy at the Gate" - this film's version of Honest John). They escape and travel to Rouge City (evoking both Pinocchio's Pleasure Island and "The Wizard of Oz") where Dr. Know gives advise that lead theme to a submerged Manhattan and David's dreams. "A.I." is a hybrid that suffers from not being fully Kubrick or Spielberg. The film plays in three parts. The first hour establishes David and his life with the Swinton's and plays very much like Kubrick, slowly paced and quiet, with a slightly ominous score. Reflections are significant, making us question what makes us human when we see David's reflection on the glass over a Swinton family portrait. Futuristic cars travelling through forests recall "A Clockwork Orange." This part of the film is wholly satisfying. Spielberg begins to peak through in the second segment. While Gigilo Joe and his backstory are Kubrickian (by way of "Blade Runner"), the Flesh Fair's flying mercenaries (Brendan Gleeson, wasted) and their spotlights begin the parade of "Close Encounters" visuals (a film where Spielberg featured Pinochhio's theme of 'When You Wish Upon a Star'). The Flesh Fair itself is a half-baked concept, a colliseum for the destruction of broken, fleshless mechas which has more in common with a monster truck rally. A political subtext is hinted at by Gleeson's character, but not enough to make the sequence work. Rouge City provides visuals which seem inspired by everything from "Metropolis" to "Roger Rabbit." Spielberg links religion to fairy tale when David mistakes a neon Lady of the Immaculate Heart for his blue fairy. When the duo arrive in Manhattan, Gigolo Joe departs and the film's final third begins. It's here where Spielberg loses his grip with apparent indecision. Not content to leave his film at a natural ending point, Spielberg unsuccessfully plays with multiple concepts involving alien-like evolved mechas, memory and resurrection. "A.I." represents Spielberg's second screenwriting credit after "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." While his faithfulness to the Italian fairy tale mostly serves him well, clearly he had difficulty resolving the tale. In fact, in this film which recalls so many others, a bit of "Child's Play" would have had Teddy kill off Martin, making for a more economical route to a Spielbergian happy ending. Several nonsensical pieces of plotting had me scratching my head as well - why did Monica drive David out towards Cybertronics, then tell him not to go there? Why did Professor Hobby tell David he'd meet his makers, only to vanish from the story? Haley Joel Osment once again turns in a performance which belies his years, although a tentativeness keeps him from hitting this one out of the ball park. O'Connor does well portraying Monica's confusion and wrings real emotion in the abandonment scene, but Spielberg betrays her in the film's finale. Jude Law gives a witty reading of sexbot Joe, but the character never feels fully intrigrated into the story. "A.I." is certainly more thought provoking than any summer blockbuster we've been presented with yet this season, but it leaves us wishing Spielberg had applied more of Kubrick's obssessive fine tuning. B- For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:15 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Christopher Null Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:44:13 GMT Organization: filmcritic.com Lines: 112 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60id$131c$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477453 35884 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28566 Keywords: author=null X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26774 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2855 A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com I remember sitting in a movie theater at the tender age of 14, watching a little film called D.A.R.Y.L., about a boy with a computer brain trying to cope with modern society and questions of emotion and identity. D.A.R.Y.L. was not some overblown, 2 1/2-hour ordeal. It was 99 breezy minutes of fun fun fun! A.I. Artificial Intelligence is, too my deep dismay, neither breezy nor particularly fun. The level of anticipation of the film, of course, would be impossible to effectively sate, but A.I. just doesn't cut it. It doesn't even come close. The mystery-enshrouded story is told obliquely, in fleeting glances of half-explained scenes. Presumably we are meant to absorb the rich, rich atmosphere of the film, and for a long while, this works. But as a result, much of A.I. is cryptic at best, so you'll have to forgive any wandering plot descriptions. In the future, the icecaps have melted, population controls are rampant, and of course people turn to machines for love. A.I. is the story of a boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), not a real boy, of course, but an artificially intelligent robot who has been programmed to love -- the first of his kind. "Mecha" robots coexist with "Orga" humans in a crowded dystopia, so when Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) brings the first David model home to his wife Monica (Frances O'Connor), who is grieving over a mysteriously ill son, she freaks out but eventually develops a guarded affection for David. When the son in question returns to them (equally unexplained), things come to a head, and the robot boy finds himself a bit of an outcast, a machine that loves people but is not loved in return. Without giving away too many plot points, suffice it to say that David ends up on an adventure throughout the greater New Jersey area, encountering such characters as the megalomaniacal Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a "love robot" with all the attendant baggage, and Professor Hobby (William Hurt), David's creator and a scientist with a bad God complex. As David wanders from the safety of home to the wilds of the big city and eventually, an underwater Manhattan, his journey is inspired by that of the original robot boy, Pinocchio. But Pinocchio is more than an inspiration for the film, it quickly becomes the entire plot, as David searches for the story's "blue fairy" to turn him into a real boy. His robotic teddy bear is a latter-day Jiminy Cricket. He encounters villains and even a theme park, much like our animated hero. Sadly, this becomes an enormous crutch for Spielberg, as the search for the blue fairy saves him from having to write a real movie. Spielberg earnestly apes Kubrick to a fault (he even credits the film to him in part, a dubious honor I doubt the late genius would have appreciated). A Clockwork Orange and, of course, 2001 are strong influences, particularly in set design. Later in the picture, Blade Runner is an obvious reference point. By the end, Spielberg is ripping off his own E.T. and Close Encounters, and the jumble of stolen plots, sets, and characters becomes so daunting the film degenerates into utter nonsense. The Kubrick connection is worth a little extra ink, because A.I., we should all remember, is Spielberg's resurrection of a film that Kubrick had essentially abandoned years ago. Why he didn't make it we'll never know, but if the scraps of story Spielberg has woven together in this movie are any indication of where he was headed, Kubrick was wise to drop the thing. As for Spielberg, the sole writer credited for the film, it is also worth noting that he hasn't even worked on a movie screenplay since collaborating on The Goonies in 1985. I don't want to knock A.I. down completely. Law is a fantastic supporting player, giving A.I. the levity it needs during Act 2. The effects are groundbreaking and phenomenal, and while the science of A.I. is dubious, its dystopic future is believable and spooky. But it's the three mini-movies within A.I. that make it so hard to sit through. The first (David at home) is excellent. The second (David in the big city) is fair. The third (David's quest for infinity and beyond) is unwatchable. By the end, the audience is practically being spat upon with nonsensical, 2001-wannabe metaphysics and general weirdness that goes on and on without end. For what it's worth, the entire movie evoked laughter and snickering from the audience, but only the last act brought out the real hecklers. Mr. Spielberg, your love is real. Your movie, sadly, is not. RATING: *** |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| MPAA Rating: PG-13 Director: Steven Spielberg Producer: Bonnie Curtis, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg Writer: Steven Spielberg Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas, Brendan Gleeson, Daveigh Chase, William Hurt, Jack Angel http://aimovie.warnerbros.com/ --- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=filmcriticcom&path=subst/video/sellers/amazon-top-100-dvd.html Movie Fiends: Check out Amazon.com's Top 100 Hot DVDs! Visit filmcritic.com on the Web at http://www.filmcritic.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:15 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!zapata.tvd.be!news.tvd.be!newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Bob Bloom Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:44:27 GMT Organization: None Lines: 107 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60ir$opk$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: bobbloom@iquest.net NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477467 25396 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28569 Keywords: author=bloom X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26722 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2851 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) 3 stars out of 4. Starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Brendan Gleeson, William Hurt, Sam Robards and Frances O'Connor. Music by John Williams. Based on a short story by Brian Aldiss. Based on a screenplay by Ian Watson. Screenplay by Steven Spielberg. Directed by Spielberg. Rated PG-13 It is easy to see why the late Stanley Kubrick believed Steven Spielberg would be the perfect director for his A.I. Artificial Intelligence, just as it is understandable why Spielberg was attracted to the material. For here we have another lost boy trying to find his way home, an outcast seeking family, themes very familiar from most of Spielbergís body of work from Sugarland Express to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Empire of the Sun to Hook to Saving Private Ryan, naming just a few examples. A.I. is set in an undefined near future in which giant technological advances have led to the creation of robots who serve every purpose from housekeeping to fulfilling sexual fantasies. It is an era when robots are treated merely as sophisticated appliances. The last great leap in robotic evolution is the addition of emotions, and with the number of births limited by the government, many couples are yearning for children. And Professor Hobby (William Hurt) has the solution. A robotic boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), who is programmed to love. As a test, David is placed with Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife, Monica (Frances OíConnor). Their natural-born son has been cryogenically frozen until a cure can be found for his illness. The first third of A.I. deals with Davidís life with the Swintons and how that is changed by the recovery and return of their son, Martin. Circumstances force David to be cut off from the Swintons. He is abandoned and alone. David, highly influenced by the fairy tale, Pinocchio, feels that if he becomes a real boy he can rekindle Monicaís love for him. The filmís second act follows Davidís search for The Blue Fairy, whom he believes will be able to fulfill his wish. During these adventures he meets and is helped by Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a robot who specializes in sex. Spielberg is at his top form in this sequence, offering a brutal ìFlesh Fairî where robots are destroyed via sadistic methods for the amusement of paying customers. Here, is where Kubrickís influence is strongly felt, as the movie explores the fear and distrust humans have for robots. The savagery conjures up images from the late directorís A Clockwork Orange. At about two hours and 30 minutes, the film begins to falter during the last 20 minutes, a sequence that seems most Spielbergian with images that appear to be borrowed from Close Encounters. It is all very anti-climatic and jarring. These scenes seem almost superfluous, as if from a different film. A.I. is a dark fairy tale that deserves its PG-13 rating. It is a story combining hope and intolerance, sacrifice and bigotry, and while it does not coalesce perfectly, the movie does offer some disturbing images. But A.I. is really a showcase for the acting talents of the amazing young Osment. If ever an actor deserved an Academy Award nomination, it is this lad, who brings a sense of joy and wonder to the role of David, a being created for the express purpose of loving. He beams when with Monica, beaming with love, as eager as a puppy to please. After being left in the woods, he is confused, lost, hurt, focusing on one objective: To become a real boy and find his way home so he can redeem himself in his motherís eyes. Law is pleasant as the care-free robot who really doesnít understand Davidís quest, but is nonetheless happy to help him on his journey. Probably the toughest role is OíConnorís Monica. Playing an emotional fragile woman who sees David as a substitute for her lost Martin, she grows conflicted after her boy returns and she begins to perceive David not as a second chance, but as a threat to her family. She gives her character enough emotional chaos that you cannot fault her for her course of action. Many of A.I.ís futuristic sets are breathtaking, especially a mostly submerged New York, lost to the world by the melting of the polar ice caps. A.I. is a flawed film, and you cannot get through the entire feature without pondering ó even subconsciously ó how it would have turned out with Kubrick instead of Spielberg behind the camera. Would it have been darker? More cynical? We will never know. We can only judge what is before us on the screen, a collaboration of two cinematic giants. A.I. is a most interesting and thought-provoking examination of a future that is quickly gaining on us. Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on golafayette. Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Data Moviebase site: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:16 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!isdnet!194.72.9.40.MISMATCH!btnet-peer1!btnet-peer0!btnet!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Jon Popick" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:44:51 GMT Organization: Planet Sick-Boy Lines: 105 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60jj$7qg$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477491 8016 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28574 Keywords: author=popick X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26767 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2853 Planet Sick-Boy: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema" © Copyright 2001 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved. The summer of 2001 has been pretty disappointing so far, at least cinematically (although that story about the monster who drowned her kids should satisfy our tabloid cravings for several months). Sure, the box office numbers are at an all-time high, but each blockbuster has been as empty as the Bush administration's commitment to the environment. How strange it is that the season's best (and most cerebral) film is about a world in which Bush and his cronies have melted the polar icecaps and buried most coastal cities under hundreds of feet of water. And that this world restricts its citizens when it comes to pregnancy because there just isn't enough food to feed everybody. And that the leading scientific minds are able to create robotic "child substitutes" who can actually be programmed to love parents that are unable to have kids of their own. It makes you wonder how many years you get for drowning five robo-kids. The film, of course, is A.I. (for Artificial Intelligence), the long-awaited collaboration between Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan) and the late Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut), who have a combined 22 Oscar nominations (but just three trophies) between them. Kubrick bought the rights to Brian Aldiss' 1969 short story Supertoys Last All Summer, the inspiration for A.I., about 20 years ago but lacked both the technology and the pace to direct the film himself (think about it - the young actor playing Kubrick's robo-boy would be 28 when he finally finished filming) He tapped Spielberg to direct, gave him thousands of storyboards, and had planned to stay on as a producer before his untimely demise. So what is a collaboration between Kubrick and Spielberg like? Well, it's very dark and probably isn't suitable for young kids (the Kubrick part), but still manages to be cute and button-pushing (the Spielberg part) A.I.'s first section (there are three) is defiantly the most Kubrickian. It focuses on a young couple (Bedazzled's Frances O'Connor and Bounce's Sam Robards) whose young son, Martin (Jake Thomas, The Cell), is dying from a fatal illness. Henry, the father, is an employee of Cybertronics, one of the world's leading robot manufacturers. The company makes their money with lifelike sexbots, robo-butlers and the like, but their leader (William Hurt, Sunshine) wants to try something new - making a robotic child capable of loving its parents. After all, "Didn't God create Adam to love Him?" The first model, named David (Haley Joel Osment, Pay It Forward), is given to Henry, who brings it home to his horrified wife, still grieving over the potential loss of her only son. She eventually grows to love David, but when Martin miraculously recovers, the faux son falls out of favor with his parents. The film's two biggest themes - jealousy and aspiration - come into play when David hears the story of Pinocchio and longs to become a real boy so that his mommy will love him as much as Martin. His desire to become flesh begins to cloud his mind, leading him to believe he is real and nothing like the robot supertoy Teddy, a walking, talking bear that serves as David's sidekick (and sounds a whole lot like Douglas Rain's HAL 9000). Without giving too much of the story away (they did well to keep much of it under wraps), David and Teddy go on an incredible journey in which they encounter people who hate robots (led by The Tailor of Panama's Brendan Gleeson), a gigolo (Jude Law, Enemy at the Gates), and a Ministry concert (!?) in their search for The Blue Fairy that David believes will make him a real boy. Parts of the film get Phantom-Menaced down a bit, especially in one scene that features the voice of Robin Williams, but for the most part, it's all good. Best of all is the chirpy Osment, who not only proves the whole Sixth Sense thing wasn't a fluke, but logs in the year's best acting performance to date. A.I. also features a handful of surprising cameo voices, like Chris Rock, Meryl Streep and Ben Kingsley, who narrates the opening and closing scenes. Spielberg, who has won Oscars for direction each of the last two times he's tackled dramas (Ryan, Schindler's List), penned the script himself (his first since Close Encounters of the Third Kind). His band of merry men do a great job with the technical stuff, highlighted by creepy production design courtesy of Rick Carter (What Lies Beneath) and Ryan/Schindler's Oscar winners Janusz Kaminski (cinematography) and Michael Kahn (editing). And the John Williams score, which lately have been nauseatingly repetitious, is warm, effective and bolstered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. 2:21 - PG-13 for some sexual content and violent images -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:16 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!surfnet.nl!news2.kpn.net!news.kpn.net!nslave.kpnqwest.net!nmaster.kpnqwest.net!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newsfeed.kpnqwest.at!nautilus.eusc.inter.net!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!news.tele.dk!195.54.122.107!newsfeed1.bredband.com!bredband!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "JoBlo" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:45:34 GMT Organization: None Lines: 108 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60ku$pc4$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477534 25988 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28584 Keywords: author=garabedian X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26760 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2852 A.I. RATING: 8/10 For more reviews and movie trailers, visit http://www.joblo.com/ PLOT: Can human beings create robots that will be able to love? That is the question that besieges this entire film. A young robot-child is given to a real human family. The family attempts to love the child as their own, but when their real-life son returns, the jealousy of the real child eventually leads the parents to get rid of the robot-child. Left alone and in the woods, the young robot sets out on a journey to find a way to become real. CRITIQUE: In one of the most ambitious films of the year, Steven Spielberg has managed to successfully wrestle several key elements together, including a great story, amazing visuals, a futuristic landscape, solid acting, and emerge with a picture that entertains, touches the heart and digs below the surface. It's funny because we tend to take Mr. Spielberg for granted from time to time, seeing him more for the movie "businessman" that he has become over the past few years, but leave it to him to take such a sprawling project, begun by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and then continued by him (they used to fax each other notes and stuff), and create an amazing vision to drive the imagination. But Spielberg's grown up, too. He tackles big issues in this film. What is love? What is emotion? Why does it suck to be lonely? Emotions and queries that we can all relate to in one way or another. And even though this film is essentially about a "robot", you can't help but draw comparisons and connections to moments from your own life, moments in which you felt lonely or hurt or let down or misguided. The truth behind this film is that it's really about humans...not robots. The cruelty of some humans. The love and kindness of others. The world has become a harsh place for many people to inhabit, and sometimes our own ability to shut down our emotional core enables us to survive from day to day. But doesn't that negate what being a human being is all about? Living, feeling, loving and even getting hurt? I don't know. I'm philosophizing out of my ass here, but I think that the power of this film, its greater strength, other than its engaging narrative and visual delights, is its capacity to harness that deep-rooted fear in all humans. That fear of being alone. That fear of not having anybody love you. That fear of not mattering in someone else's life. The journey of the robot-child in this film is the journey of which many of us are presently a part. Will we be happy in our lives? Will we be loved? Will our own love be returned by those whom we cherish? Questions that reside in our subconscious, and questions that have suddenly imprinted themselves in the mind of the robot-child in this film. And will his journey end on a happy note? A sad note? Well, being that this film is indeed a collaboration between one of the most optimistic moviemakers of our time, Steven Spielberg, and one of the most pessimistic in Stanley Kubrick, I'll let you figure that one out yourself. I will say this much though, I personally would've liked to have seen the movie end right after the robot-child went underwater in the heli-sub and hovered before the blue fairy (if you haven't seen the movie, this may not mean anything to you, but to all those who have, you know what I'm talking about). I would definitely have preferred that type of resolution to the film, but then again, I'm not necessarily the most "happy-go-lucky" person in the world. Also, I felt like the final 15-20 minutes of the film, ran it all a little longer than it needed to be. Emotionally, this film also delivers with two of the three members of my own "movie watching crew" bawling their goggles out (sorry, I tinkered with my own tears, but didn't go balls-out on them). It's to note that this emotional touch could not have been attained as poignantly had it not been for the inspired thespianism (that a word?) displayed here by Haley Joel Osment, who has seriously impressed me at this point of his young career. A superb, loving, real performance which drives the film's significance that much deeper. Add Jude Law to that mix, as well as one of the coolest toys to ever have been invented named Teddy (give this damn bear his own movie!), and you've got a serious recipe for greatness. Yes, I thought the film was a little long, it didn't touch me as deeply as I thought it might and I would have preferred another ending, but those are all very small flaws in an overall sturdier picture that definitely needs to be considered for addition to the great sci-fi films from both Spielberg and Kubrick's pasts (it was also nice to see the many hommages which Spielberg tossed in here, including to his own E.T., CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, Lucas' STAR WARS and Kubrick's CLOCKWORK ORANGE). In the end, the film strives for so much more than most movies coming out these days, that you just can't help but sit up and take notice. And once you do sit up and pay attention, you will be enthralled by the imagination of it all, the strength of its narrative, its emotional spirit and its unique ability to combine great visuals, great acting and great insight into the human condition. Where's JoBlo coming from? Bicentennial Man (6/10) - Dark City (9/10) - Existenz (8/10) - Eyes Wide Shut (6/10) The Fly (8/10) - Mission to Mars (3/10) - The Sixth Sense (8/10) Review Date: June 29, 2001 Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: Steven Spielberg Producers: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Bonnie Curtis Actors: Haley Joel Osment as David Swinton Jude Law as Gigolo Joe Frances O'Connor as Monica Swinton Genre: Sci-Fi Year of Release: 2001 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2001 Berge Garabedian -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:16 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!195.54.122.107!newsfeed1.bredband.com!bredband!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: FilmFan16@aol.com (Dustin Putman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:45:55 GMT Organization: None Lines: 116 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60lj$pcc$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477555 25996 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28588 Keywords: author=putman X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26769 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2854 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence * * * * (out of * * * * ) Directed by Steven Spielberg. Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, William Hurt, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas, Brendan Gleeson, April Grace. 2001 - 145 minutes Rated PG-13 (for profanity and sexual situations). Reviewed by Dustin Putman, June 30, 2001. Loosely based on the story, "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," by Brian Aldiss, and the late Stanley Kubrick's dream project up until his death in 1999, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is as accomplished a motion picture as anything director Steven Spielberg has ever made. Following Kubrick's unfortunate passing, Spielberg, who had prior been collaborating ideas with him concerning "A.I.," decided to make it his next directorial effort, both as a movie that he was passionate and excited about, and as a loving tribute to one of the great masters of the cinema. The end result of the long, arduous, 25-year journey of "A.I." is a science-fiction film filled with endless imagination and wonder; a mature, almost devastating fairy tale; and a thought-provoking rumination on the importance of love, and determined hope, in one's life. The movie is, indeed, a Spielberg production, although it does feature an icy, somehow bleak, emotional core that is certainly Kubrickian in spirit, and undoubtedly intentional. Using the approach of differing styles of moviemaking (with Spielberg more of a wide-eyed optimist) turns out to work extraordinarily well in this film's case, as the picture is deeply touching and effective without being maudlin, and occasionally sterile without coming off as cold-hearted. Set in a futuristic setting, following the melting of the ice caps which has drowned entire U.S. cities (including Manhattan), Professor Hobby (William Hurt) has created a string of mechas--robots with the physical appearance of humans--to live in the world. With all mechas having been made into adults up until this point, Hobby introduces his most life-like creation yet: an 11-year-old boy named David (Haley Joel Osment). Programmed to be able to love (the first of his kind to be able to do such a thing), David is taken in by Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor) and her husband, Henry (Sam Robards), as a child "substitute" for their own young son, Martin (Jake Thomas), who has been cryogenically frozen while they await a cure for the disease he has. At first creeped out by David, Henry and Monica quickly warm up to him, and in Monica's case, falls in love with what is now her new son. Aside from not being able to eat or sleep, David is exactly like a regular boy, delighting in mimicking and picking up new information, as well as being able to play games. When Martin suddenly awakes from his comatose state and begins to get better, he rejoins his parents' lives, and in the process, David progressively loses the attention and, through a series of circumstances out of his control, made to look potentially dangerous. Forced to get rid of him, but not wanting him destroyed by the company for returning him, Monica drives David into the forest one day, and leaves him there alone, with only a mechanical, talking teddy bear as company. Leading up to its release, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" was purposefully advertised in an obscure manner that didn't give away much of its premise, or hardly any scenes from the film itself. This was the wisest choice anyone could have made, as "A.I." is a gloriously creative film that prospers from its sheer unpredictability, and constant reminder that it is not just another "dumb sci-fi movie," but a motion picture overflowing with exciting ideas and relevant themes. Believing that Monica will love him if only he becomes a real boy, David sets off to find the Blue Fairy from the fairy tale, "Pinocchio," whom he earnestly believes is the only one with the power to grant him his wish. On his journey, he meets a fellow mecha named Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), whose name reveals what he has been programmed to do. Joe is a cynic, but forms a bond with David, and consequently, helps him to accomplish his mission, even if it is a lost cause. It is never clear to the viewer if the Blue Fairy does genuinely exist, and this mystery is what fuels the entire second half of the film. Haley Joel Osment (2000's "Pay It Forward") is a revelation as David, even more so than in 1999's box-office smash, "The Sixth Sense," which led him to an Oscar nomination. At only 13-years-old, Osment's ability to convey utter realism and subtlety in each of his performances is remarkable, to say the least. This has never been so apparent as right here, in a difficult and complex role as a sympathetic character who is, nonetheless, not real, but a machine. Osment must carry the whole movie solely on his shoulders, and he hits every note exactly right. Simply no other child actor could have done as refined and impressive of a job. The cast that surrounds Osment is truly fine, as well. Jude Law (1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley") is self-assured and appropriately cocky and cool as Gigolo Joe. Law plausibly paints Joe as a person (read: robot) who is suave, undeniably sexy, and devoted to pleasing women. As the increasingly distraught, yet caring, Monica, Frances O'Connor (2000's "Bedazzled") is heartbreaking, particularly in the bravura sequence in which she takes David on a trip that she knows will only have one of them returning home. Finally, William Hurt (1998's "One True Thing") is emphatically low-key and memorable as David's inventor, Professor Hobby, who may have an ulterior motive behind his creation of a mecha child. The technical credits of "A.I." are awe-inspiring. Spielberg regular Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is both beautiful and understated, as is John Williams' unusually poetic music score. And the production design and visual effects, by Industrial Light & Magic, are a sight to behold. There are images throughout that will stick with you long after the lights in the theater have gone up, especially the depiction of New York City engulfed in an endless sea, as well as the haunting underwater creation of Coney Island. A tragic, if inspiring, motion picture event, there are impassioned issues about humanity that are brought up which will resonate with every viewer. And the imagination and artistry which the film has been made with is second-to-none. To watch "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is to experience a visually astounding and emotionally rewarding triumph that, in time, is sure to go down as one of the all-time brilliant achievements in modern moviemaking. Stanley Kubrick sure would have been proud. - Copyright 2001 by Dustin Putman http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Dustin+Putman * Coming Soon - My Official Movie Review Web Site, themovieboy.com * -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:16 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: leeper@mtgbcs.usae.avaya.com (Mark Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:46:21 GMT Organization: None Lines: 129 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60md$pcq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477581 26010 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28594 Keywords: author=leeper X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26714 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2850 A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper) CAPSULE: A very short story is expanded into a longish but powerful film about time, durability, and purpose of existence by the combined efforts of the late Stanley Kubrick and of Steven Spielberg. There are some very nice sequences in this film, but overall it is stylistically uneven. The story of the robot that wanted to be human is getting a little hackneyed for this film to really work throughout. Though some of the views of the future are very powerful. Rating: 9 (0 to 10), +3 (-4 to +4) Permanence is a major theme of A.I. I am told a glass bottle takes a million years to biodegrade. The purpose of that existence may end after a month--essentially its first moments of life, but the bottle goes on. Its whole reason for existence is just the barest beginning of its journey. This is bad for the environment, but not really for the bottle because it has no feelings. But what if a machine could be given feelings and told to love one person? What happens to a machine that has emotions, but also longevity far greater than that of its reason for existence? And can a machine really have feelings? If not, why not since an accumulation of biological cells, what a human is, can have feelings? These questions are the heart of A.I. A.I. was a project developed by Stanley Kubrick going back to the early 1990s. It used as a springboard the 1969 short story "Super-toys Last All Summer Long," by Brian W. Aldiss. (A copy of the story can currently be found at http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0068.html.) I am not sure I understand why Kubrick saw so much potential in this particular story. It seems to me to be a variation on an episode on "The Lateness of the Hour," an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. (The story in the film seems to lean more toward a different episode, "I Sing the Body Electric.") However, Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sentinel" would also seem an unpromising source and it made one of the classics of cinema 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Much as he had previously done with Clarke for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Kubrick wanted to partner with Brian Aldiss on the project of adapting his story. Together they looked at a lot of variations on the narrative, none of which where suitable to Kubrick. Kubrick then called in Clarke as his partner, but they could not agree where the story should go. Kubrick tried science fiction author Bob Shaw, but Kubrick did not have a film until he brought in Ian Watson. Allegedly when Kubrick thought the time was right he arranged a two-film deal, one film on the subject of sex, one returning to the science fiction field where he had enjoyed working in the past. Those films were, of course, EYES WIDE SHUT and A.I. Unfortunately, Kubrick lived only long enough to complete the former and to get the project moving on the latter. Enter Steven Spielberg to inherit the A.I. project and bring it to completion. Now, of course, it is unclear what is Kubrick's contribution and what is Spielberg's, but the resulting film is very different from either director's previous work. Whatever the truth is on who contributed what, the film is wildly uneven in style like a landscape painted by a committee. That is not necessarily a bad thing, it just makes the future world seem a bit schizophrenic. It uses a variation on the Aldiss story as a core, but abruptly goes off in other directions. There is even some feeling that the story was being held back by spending too much time on the Aldiss themes. One might speculate that Kubrick filmed the first and last sections of the film and Spielberg did only the middle section. Certainly acting styles seem that way. In the first part of the film people appear pensive and insular in their own shells. Not unlike the characters in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, people just do not seem to be connecting with each other. The middle section of the film is set in a frenetic world like from TOTAL RECALL OF BLADERUNNER BEYOND THUNDERDOME. The viewer should be warned that this is a film of about two and a half hours. Parts of the film, particularly toward the end when the pace slows, seem drawn out as it is. If the viewer is expecting the film to wrap up, the final reel may seem interminable. The story follows David (played by Haley Joel Osment), the first and only robot who has been given a capacity to love. David is built for a couple, Monica and Henry Swinton (Francis O'Connor and Sam Robards), whose own son Martin is in a frozen state. At first Monica wants no part of an artificial surrogate son, but that resolve starts to crumble. The story takes off from there. This is a lot like the plot of BICENTENNIAL MAN or Ray Bradbury's "I Sing the Body Electric," but the story goes places that those stories do not. It would be a spoiler to say how, but eventually we are introduced a friend for David, a Gigolobot named Gigolo Joe, programmed to dance through life as he performs his Gigolo function. That programming cannot be dropped even when he is on the run for his life. Like David's, his programming outlives its purpose. Spielberg (or whoever) did a fairly good job of setting the story in some indeterminate future. For once an automobile looks like it might have come from a future world. In the first part the whole world seems subdued. We go from one scene shot with a filter to give a hazy image, then we go to another scene with a lot of fractured pieces coming together. A crisper image is used for the middle section of the film and toward the end the camera returns to a soft focus. David, the main character, has a special makeup that makes his skin look glossy like smooth plastic. Most of the film is shot in cold lifeless colors, though there are some reds and earth tones in the middle section of the film. The middle section also has a faster pace with images suddenly coming very fast at the viewer. It is like going from sensory deprivation to sensory overload. The final part of the film is again slow and introspective. Most Dreamworks films work an image of the moon into the story someplace, more or less as their trademark. A.I. goes a little overboard in giving us a moon image that is hard to miss. Several celebrity voices are used in the film, though frequently they are only subliminally noticeable. I recognized Robin Williams as the voice of a futuristic vending machine, but reading the end-credits I realized I had missed several of the others. It should make for an interesting game for owners of the future DVD to search out the other voices. Steven Spielberg was perhaps a very good choice as a replacement for Kubrick. A director of some stature was needed, but also because few directors could handle the poignancy of the final parts of the story. The film has already been criticized for its sentimentality, but the emotion is precisely the point. Spielberg is one of the few directors of mass audience films who are not afraid to put emotion into a film when it is appropriate. The critics who complain about Spielberg's sentimentality would rob cinema of much of its impact. The final dilemma of this film is an emotional one and that is how the story should be told. I rate A.I. a 9 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale. Mark R. Leeper _mleeper@excite.com Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:17 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Rose 'Bams' Cooper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:47:37 GMT Organization: None Lines: 130 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60op$137s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477657 36092 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28613 Keywords: author=cooper X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26788 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2856 '3BlackChicks Review...' A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (2001) Rated PG-13; running time 150 minutes Genre: Science Fantasy Seen at: Jack Lokes' Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan) Official site: http://www.aimovie.com/ IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0212720 Written by: Steven Spielberg Directed by: Steven Spielberg Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas, William Hurt, Jack Angel, Robin Williams Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2001 Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamsai.html You know, going into a given Spielberg flick, that you'll be manipulated. But there's manipulation, and then there's Manipulation. And damnifi don't feel Used. The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**): Once upon a time, there was a boy who found a pet alien and a phon...uh, no, that's wrong...once upon a time, there was a boy who could hear weird tones and saw the shape of a mountain in nearly everything around him...hmmm. Ok, get this: sometime in the Distant Future (though still supposedly within the 21st century), the Greenhouse Effect will have melted the polar ice caps, causing the oceans to rise, climates to become chaotic, and other global Bad Stuff to happen. Because of this shift in life on earth, people have to get a license to become pregnant [hmmm...not a bad idea...] and robots - the likes of which current technology has no clue - have become essential. But Professor Hobby (William Hurt. My, how the mighty have fallen since THE BIG CHILL. But I digress) pushes the envelope; more than just creating helpers for Man, Hobby feels the need to play God, by creating a robot who can Love. And what purer love exists than the love a child has for his mother? The (robot) child? One David (Haley Joel Osment), created for mother Monica (Frances O'Connor) and father Henry Swinton (Sam Robards), who are in grief over the coma that their birth son Martin (Jake Thomas) is in. David is Special, the first of his kind - and that scares the Swintons, especially when he and Martin interact. David, hoping to become a Real! Live! Boy! so that Mommy will always love him, hooks up with Gigalo Joe (Jude Law), a robot created for those who want to "get they freak on" with no muss and fuss. David and Joe ask The Wizard...uh, Dr. Know (voice of Robin Williams) to help them find the Blue Fairy so that David can click his heel three times and wind up in Kansas, complete with his own Toto in the form of Talking Teddy, The SuperToy (voice of Jack Angel). The Upshot: "Manipulated" is too calm a word. ohickyfrickinpoo, I've been Slimed. A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE wasted no time pulling out all the Tearjerker stops. It was far too obvious, though; not a single tear was jerked from my eyes. In fact, my eyes were screaming out for rest (aided and abetted, no doubt, by the many snorers around me). The two faces of A.I. - slow and plodding on the one side, and excruciatingly cutesy and manipulative on the other - arise from the two directors who've had their hand in this mess: the late Stanley Kubrick, and the ever-repetitious Steven Spielberg. And since Kubrick is no longer with us, the shoulders that must bear the brunt of this pile of feces, are Spielberg's. All the Bad Acting, all the ill-thought out plotting, all the attempts at jerked tears, all the emphasis-on-special-effects-at-the-cost-of-a-sensible-story, all the misguided and terribly unsubtle harkings-back to previous Spielberg Blockbusters, all the snore-inducing hours between the opening credits and the closing credits - all of these and more, are Spielberg's cross to bear. -Yet Another Distant Future where the only things that are significantly different, are cars? Hookay. -"...2000 years later..."? AIEEEE! -Suicidal robots? Yah, right. -"I see dead peo"...uh..."I wuv you Mommy"; "I wuv you too, David; that's why I'm Abandoning you."? GMAFB! And if I ever see Talking Teddy on screen again, I swear I'll do Damage. I was >this< close to triple-redding A.I.; save for Jude Law's quirky performance as Gigalo Joe (before Emoting David sucked the lifeforce out of him), and Haley Joel Osment's all-too-brief fun turn as the pre-lovestruck David in the first act, A.I. would rest in the dungheap alongside "Stupornova". and "Monkeyboned". The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]: Not that it matters a whole helluva lot, but I loved my husband's prediction that the Black Scientist Chick from the first scene, would be the only Black person in this movie. Too bad he was proved wrong - by the Black Comic Relief robot. The one quickly offed at Flesh Fair. And the beat goes on... Bammer's Bottom Line Don't be fooled by the hype: A.I. is nothing more than a rambling, pointless, godawful boring paean to Spielberg's Neverneverland fixation. Almost makes me wish I'd given in and seen POOTIE TANG instead. Uh, almost. A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (rating: redlight): ET, would you take your butt home already? gotDAM, I'm sicka you. Rose "Bams" Cooper Webchick and Editor, 3BlackChicks Review Entertainment Reviews With Flava! Copyright Rose Cooper, 2001 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com http://www.3blackchicks.com/ -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:17 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Mark O'Hara" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:47:54 GMT Organization: None Lines: 95 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60pa$p86$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477674 25862 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28617 Keywords: author=o'hara X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26805 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2858 AI (2001) The tone of Steven Spielberg’s AI is uneven because of his collaboration with the late director Stanley Kubrick – but a mediocre work from either of these masters is still superior to fare offered by most other filmmakers. Apparently Mr. Kubrick had been developing the project for years, and requested Mr. Spielberg to take it over. Based on a short story by Brian Aldiss, as well as the screen story by Ian Watson, AI is the first screenplay written by Speilberg since his CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The piece opens with a speech by Dr. Hobby (William Hurt) to his colleagues, a proclamation that even more human-like robots should be developed and marketed by his company. Switch to the home of one of the company’s employees, Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife Monica (Frances O’Connor), whose son Martin is in cryogenic suspension because of a disease beyond current science. Dr. Hobby and the company place a prototype of a robot designed to mimic a human child – David, played by Haley Joel Osment, with the Swintons. For several sequences we are treated to mildly creepy scenes, but the real rub begins when Monica commences the ritualistic activation of David’s special programming – he is designed to love the one on whom he imprints, and even more intensely, to seek love from him or her. What engaging questions Spielberg is raising here. First (and I heard this idea recently on a radio interview unrelated to the movie), why should humans strive to create machines in their own images? Why not make them functional in the ways an auto manufacturer engineers a welding robot, without legs or a minutely mimetic face? Just because we might at some time have the technology to make a completely plausible copy of a human, does that mean we should? Most importantly – and this idea hearkens back to many other films, such as WESTWORLD or the less well-known ZPG (ZERO POPULATION GROWTH) – should we interact with these super toys just as we interact with other humans – as objects and sources of passion and love? Can a “mecha” (the mechanistic versus the organic, or “orga,” by the way) assume the full role of homo sapien? The grist of the film is the social hierarchy you would expect from Stanley Kubrick. The “mechas” are the quite literally disposable underclass, the target of the hatred of the “orgas,” and a marginalized and easily persecuted subculture. In some of the most gripping scenes, the robots are rounded up and finally held in a cage. Reminding us of ancient Christians awaiting slaughter by lions, the various generations of personified machines are destroyed by different perverse methods, the center of a spectacle known as the “Flesh Fair.” After some very powerful scenes in the upset lives of the Swinton family, David is discarded, and falls in with another mecha on the run, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a love-slave robot framed for murder. In this central section of the film, David and Joe become both fugitives and adventurers, as David pursues his quest of finding the Blue Fairy, the character with whom he has become obsessed since hearing that she turned Pinocchio into a real boy; David reasons, of course, that after he becomes human, his mother would love him more than ever, and accept him back into her life. Haley Joel Osment pulls off his robot act extremely well. His David is supposed to be seamless in his movements – and that’s probably not hard to act out. But Osment excels with the emotional infancy that David must suffer through. He’s a boy of eleven or so and suddenly must bond closely with his “Mommy,” a woman whom he called Monica just seconds before his activation. What a young age to be capable of such consistently strong performances! Spielberg certainly deserves credit for surrounding his main player with such capable supporting actors. The parents, Robards and O’Connor, turn in fine performances, and Jude Law is strangely accurate in his portrayal of this empathetic yet egotistical automaton. There’s a certain likable cheesiness about his personality, especially when he cocks his head and early twentieth-century romantic tunes come from his body. A great make-up job too. The special effects are wonderful, as one would expect from a science fiction film with Steven Spielberg at the helm. Animatronic effects are done by the master himself, Stan Winston. I especially like the little bear named Teddy, voiced by the veteran of many animated outings, Jack Angel. He is at once gruff and cute. I have heard that AI differs from anything Spielberg has done so far. I would agree, though many scenes inevitably evoke memories of portions of his work. There’s the confusion of Shanghai streets in EMPIRE OF THE SUN; there are the intimate familial relationships (and the moon) from ET; there are several images straight from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. It is when the story returns to David’s quest for the Fairy – and for the all-important mother love – that the momentum slows. It is fair to say that the third and final act is effective enough, though it does not seem to realize its parentage. What comes before it is not exactly adequate foreshadowing for a brutally realistic Kubrickian climax; nor is it the comfy Spielbergian rising action. Nevertheless, the film takes big risks, and even though they are not all successful, we come away with amazement and thoughts to keep us busy for several hours and conversations. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 9 09:33:17 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gblx.net!newsfeed1.cidera.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!news.u.washington.edu!140.142.17.34.MISMATCH!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "JONATHAN RICHARDS" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. (2001) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:48:01 GMT Organization: None Lines: 83 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <9i60ph$7oa$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 994477681 7946 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #28619 Keywords: author=richards X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26796 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2857 IN THE DARK/Jonathan Richards A.I. (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE) Written and Directed by Steven Spielberg With Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law UA North, De Vargas PG-13 145 min The first warning signal flashes on the screen with the opening credit: "an Amblin/Stanley Kubrick production." Amblin, of course, means Steven Spielberg, and the promise of this collaboration is about as reassuring as a duet between Perry Como and Yoko Ono. Spielberg is about sentiment, Kubrick was about detachment. When you combine those two approaches, what do you get? A robot with emotions. A machine ingeniously constructed and programmed to simulate the responses associated with human feelings. You get David (Haley Joel Osment), a mechanical device with the look of an eleven-year-old boy and a capacity to love and yearn for love in return. This project, based on a Brian Aldiss short story called "Supertoys Last All Summer Long", lay on Kubrick's drawing board for years, and he had conferred at length with Spielberg about it. After Kubrick's sudden death in 1999, his friend picked up the baton. His desire to create an homage to Kubrick is understandable, but the movie that came out of it is often labored, schizophrenic, self-indulgent, derivative, hackneyed, and long. The story begins against rolling ocean and a Ben Kingsley voice-over informing us that this is the time after global warming has melted the polar caps and submerged much of the world. Livable land is now at a premium, most of the world's poorer population has been drowned, there is strict governmental control over reproduction, and robots have taken over the menial work. The scene shifts to the lab of Dr. Hobby (William Hurt), who explains the history of robots to his colleagues in a painfully expository lecture. When he broaches his plan to build a mecha (mechanical device) that can love, he's interrupted for a Meaningful Question: "If we create a mecha that can love, can we get humans to love it in return?" This is the central issue of A.I., and it's a straw man. Humans can love anything, animate or inanimate. We love our cars, we love stuffed animals, we love all sorts of things that have neither a heart, nor a brain, nor courage. Stripped down, A.I.'s premise amounts to this: love is the most essential of emotions, it is mechanically reproducible, and the computerized version is purer and more dependable than the human kind. After a number of years (leapt, thankfully, at a single bound) Hobby creates his prototype loving mecha, and it is brought home unannounced by Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) to his wife Monica (Frances O'Connor) as a replacement for their son Martin (Jake Thomas), who lies frozen in a very Kubrick-like cryogenics chamber with an incurable disease for which a cure will probably never (hah!) be found. Spielberg's screenplay dresses story in logic with the grace of an ugly stepsister's foot being crammed into a glass slipper. For reasons passing understanding David is accepted in the Swinton home, programmed to love Monica (but not Henry), and provided with a best friend, the comatose Martin's Supertoy Teddy bear (voiced by Jack Angel) who presumably comes from the shelves of some futuristic Toys R Us but is smarter than the cutting-edge David, and wiser indeed than anybody else in the movie. In a cool Kubrickian land of banked emotions, Teddy is pure essence of Spielberg, with his rolling gait and his gruff voice and his cuddly fur. And when malevolent circumstances conspire to get David thrown out of paradise (if the chilly Swinton household can be so described), Teddy goes with him, a steadfast Jiminy Cricket to his lost Pinocchio, comforting and guiding him in his quest to find the Blue Fairy and be turned into a real live boy so he can go back home to Mommy and bask in her love. The most interesting character in the movie is Jude Law as Gigolo Joe, a robotic sex toy who befriends David and accompanies him on his search for the Blue Fairy. "She will make you a real boy," he promises leeringly, "for I will make her a real woman!" But the performance the movie depends on is Osment's; and while there's no denying this kid's acting talent, we've seen his trademark scrunched-up face and manic intensity before and it's beginning to suffer from exposure and advancing age. A.I.'s 2 hour saga winds through three acts: home, the quest, and a resolution two millennia in the future. Along the way it dazzles us with special effects and technical accomplishments, but they perform their wonders in the service of a story that is so full of shallow trickery, and so cluttered with elements hijacked wantonly from other movies ranging from The Wizard of Oz to Planet of the Apes with side trips through most of the Kubrick and Spielberg canons, that it abuses our patience and betrays the promise of true intelligence that made it the most anticipated movie of the summer. -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 10 09:06:35 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dustin Putman Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 06:10:32 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RT-AuthorID: 1388 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: 4/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28682 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 123 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26850 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2862 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence * * * * (out of * * * * ) Directed by Steven Spielberg. Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, William Hurt, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas, Brendan Gleeson, April Grace. 2001 - 145 minutes Rated PG-13 (for profanity and sexual situations). Reviewed by Dustin Putman, June 30, 2001. Loosely based on the story, "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," by Brian Aldiss, and the late Stanley Kubrick's dream project up until his death in 1999, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is as accomplished a motion picture as anything director Steven Spielberg has ever made. Following Kubrick's unfortunate passing, Spielberg, who had prior been collaborating ideas with him concerning "A.I.," decided to make it his next directorial effort, both as a movie that he was passionate and excited about, and as a loving tribute to one of the great masters of the cinema. The end result of the long, arduous, 25-year journey of "A.I." is a science-fiction film filled with endless imagination and wonder; a mature, almost devastating fairy tale; and a thought-provoking rumination on the importance of love, and determined hope, in one's life. The movie is, indeed, a Spielberg production, although it does feature an icy, somehow bleak, emotional core that is certainly Kubrickian in spirit, and undoubtedly intentional. Using the approach of differing styles of moviemaking (with Spielberg more of a wide-eyed optimist) turns out to work extraordinarily well in this film's case, as the picture is deeply touching and effective without being maudlin, and occasionally sterile without coming off as cold-hearted. Set in a futuristic setting, following the melting of the ice caps which has drowned entire U.S. cities (including Manhattan), Professor Hobby (William Hurt) has created a string of mechas--robots with the physical appearance of humans--to live in the world. With all mechas having been made into adults up until this point, Hobby introduces his most life-like creation yet: an 11-year-old boy named David (Haley Joel Osment). Programmed to be able to love (the first of his kind to be able to do such a thing), David is taken in by Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor) and her husband, Henry (Sam Robards), as a child "substitute" for their own young son, Martin (Jake Thomas), who has been cryogenically frozen while they await a cure for the disease he has. At first creeped out by David, Henry and Monica quickly warm up to him, and in Monica's case, falls in love with what is now her new son. Aside from not being able to eat or sleep, David is exactly like a regular boy, delighting in mimicking and picking up new information, as well as being able to play games. When Martin suddenly awakes from his comatose state and begins to get better, he rejoins his parents' lives, and in the process, David progressively loses the attention and, through a series of circumstances out of his control, made to look potentially dangerous. Forced to get rid of him, but not wanting him destroyed by the company for returning him, Monica drives David into the forest one day, and leaves him there alone, with only a mechanical, talking teddy bear as company. Leading up to its release, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" was purposefully advertised in an obscure manner that didn't give away much of its premise, or hardly any scenes from the film itself. This was the wisest choice anyone could have made, as "A.I." is a gloriously creative film that prospers from its sheer unpredictability, and constant reminder that it is not just another "dumb sci-fi movie," but a motion picture overflowing with exciting ideas and relevant themes. Believing that Monica will love him if only he becomes a real boy, David sets off to find the Blue Fairy from the fairy tale, "Pinocchio," whom he earnestly believes is the only one with the power to grant him his wish. On his journey, he meets a fellow mecha named Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), whose name reveals what he has been programmed to do. Joe is a cynic, but forms a bond with David, and consequently, helps him to accomplish his mission, even if it is a lost cause. It is never clear to the viewer if the Blue Fairy does genuinely exist, and this mystery is what fuels the entire second half of the film. Haley Joel Osment (2000's "Pay It Forward") is a revelation as David, even more so than in 1999's box-office smash, "The Sixth Sense," which led him to an Oscar nomination. At only 13-years-old, Osment's ability to convey utter realism and subtlety in each of his performances is remarkable, to say the least. This has never been so apparent as right here, in a difficult and complex role as a sympathetic character who is, nonetheless, not real, but a machine. Osment must carry the whole movie solely on his shoulders, and he hits every note exactly right. Simply no other child actor could have done as refined and impressive of a job. The cast that surrounds Osment is truly fine, as well. Jude Law (1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley") is self-assured and appropriately cocky and cool as Gigolo Joe. Law plausibly paints Joe as a person (read: robot) who is suave, undeniably sexy, and devoted to pleasing women. As the increasingly distraught, yet caring, Monica, Frances O'Connor (2000's "Bedazzled") is heartbreaking, particularly in the bravura sequence in which she takes David on a trip that she knows will only have one of them returning home. Finally, William Hurt (1998's "One True Thing") is emphatically low-key and memorable as David's inventor, Professor Hobby, who may have an ulterior motive behind his creation of a mecha child. The technical credits of "A.I." are awe-inspiring. Spielberg regular Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is both beautiful and understated, as is John Williams' unusually poetic music score. And the production design and visual effects, by Industrial Light & Magic, are a sight to behold. There are images throughout that will stick with you long after the lights in the theater have gone up, especially the depiction of New York City engulfed in an endless sea, as well as the haunting underwater creation of Coney Island. A tragic, if inspiring, motion picture event, there are impassioned issues about humanity that are brought up which will resonate with every viewer. And the imagination and artistry which the film has been made with is second-to-none. To watch "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is to experience a visually astounding and emotionally rewarding triumph that, in time, is sure to go down as one of the all-time brilliant achievements in modern moviemaking. Stanley Kubrick sure would have been proud. - Copyright 2001 by Dustin Putman http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Dustin+Putman * Coming Soon - My Official Movie Review Web Site, themovieboy.com * ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28682 X-RT-AuthorID: 1388 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: 4/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 13 11:33:13 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!isdnet!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 20:37:08 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: A- Summary: r.a.m.r. #28687 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 175 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26858 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2863 A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (director/writer: Steven Spielberg ; screenwriters: Ian Watson (screen story)/Brian Aldiss--based on his short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long'' by Brian Aldiss; cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski; editor: Michael Kahn; cast: Haley Joel Osment (David), Jude Law (Gigolo Joe), Frances O'Connor (Monica Swinton), Sam Robards (Henry Swinton), Jake Thomas (Martin Swinton), Brendan Gleeson (Lord Johnson-Johnson), William Hurt (Professor Hobby), Jack Angel (Voice of Teddy), Robin Williams (Voice of Dr. Know), Ben Kingsley (Narrator); Runtime: 145; Warner Bros./DreamWorks; 2001) Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz Stanley Kubrick until his untimely death was working on a project that weighed for a long time on his mind -- the subject of artificial intelligence. He worked on a treatment he prepared with Ian Watson based on the 1969 Brian Aldiss short story and the many drawings he'd done with Chris Baker, which were both handed over to Steven Spielberg. He also hired an engineer to live on his English estate and build the perfect child robot, waiting all these years for technology to advance before he made his film. Steven Spielberg is given the blessing by the Kubrick estate to take over that project, and he brings his great craftsmanship skill as a visual story teller to the film while paying homage to Kubrick's intentions and themes he wanted developed. He succeeds for most of the film in keeping it tight while presenting an occasional riveting psychological moment or two, as he tells a fairy tale for adults; it's a version which will go way over the heads of children and many of the adults. What he does is put the Pinocchio fairy tale, the Frankenstein story, and the Oedipus myth in his warm-hearted blender and gives them a good mixing up. He also takes full credit for the script and does not include Kubrick as co-screenwriter; he only credits him with the film's idea. What Spielberg fails to do is tell the fairy tale ending in the same artistic way a Kubrick would have displayed his mastery of telling a good mystery story. He does turn the climax into one which should have critics wondering about his intentions for a long-time to come, as in his use of the academic voiceover lecture to end the film on. It was a thoughtful climactic touch but what the film demanded for it to be considered as a masterpiece, is a more lyrical note to end it on; which is the most glaring fault of the film. What Spielberg delivers is a film that leaves you thinking about what the end of human civilization means and how close to artificial intelligence can the world be as its reality, and about how love is something that can't be programmed without something being amiss about it. It also does not have Spielberg's usual dosage of sentimentality, which has played havoc with most of his previous films. It's a splendid film that pays homage to both himself and Kubrick for their noteworthy films. Spielberg for his Close Encounters of a Third Kind/E. T.. Kubrick for his 2001: A Space Odyssey/Eyes Wide Shut. It's a Hollywood film that defies what a Hollywood film is about, while in essence still being a Hollywood film of excesses and special effects. This is one of the best films Spielberg has ever made, and his most thought-provoking one. It has much of both giant filmmakers locked into this story, though it's a Spielberg film and not a Kubrick one. A.I. is set in the near-future, mid-21st century, as narrator Ben Kingsley explains that the melted ice caps are a common sight. The sight of NYC submerged under the ocean is both bleak and visually satisfying. Most of civilization is submerged in destruction of their land mass, and it's common for families to have robots to do their work out of necessity because of the labor shortage. These robots are created to function as humanoids and are known as "mechas." The film opens when the optimistically brilliant NYC robot designer, Dr. Hobby (William Hurt), in the middle of lecturing his colleagues about his latest revolutionary creation -- "a robot child with a love that will never end." The robot can dream, has an unconscious state and can feel both pain and love. Hobby fields all question and with the self-satisfied air of a true believer in the prevailing biblical myth, mentions to his doubters: "Didn't God create Adam so that he might love Him?" What is hinted at, is that we are just beginning to see what the possibilities there are in A.I.. Until now all the robots have to be programmed by us but, perhaps, in 50 years these robots will be able to not only program themselves and surpass their creators, but give us eternal life if we can feed into their system and give up our human life (after all the mind is what makes us human and not our body parts). But in order for the robots to have a live intelligence and not merely a programmed one, they will have to be created like nature creates its plants and animals. It is this possibility that will always leave them flawed, but with the potential to push evolution to new levels. In that time, possibly by the middle of this century, the robots will become real creatures. Hobby's creation is the angelic blond named David (Haley Joel Osment), and he's awarded twenty months later for adoption to a couple, Henry (Sam Robards) and Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor), whose six year old, Martin (Jake Thomas), has been frozen the last five years with a critical illness. David, the cybertronic simulation of a boy, is Henry's surprise gift to his wife, hoping that the child's programmed unswerving love for her will make her forget her real son's debilitation. David's initial programmed response to Monica is: "Mommy, will you die?" For the first hour or so, the story takes place in the couple's suburban upscale home and the action is limited to how they adjust to each other. When Martin suddenly recovers and returns home, a jealous Cain and Abel sibling rivalry for their mother's attention ensues. Into the mix is thrown a robotic Teddy bear, Martin's supertoy, who can walk and talk, and he now becomes a constant companion of David's. In the meantime Martin replaces his Teddy by making David his new supertoy. What results is that the family has many misgivings about David and what his love means to them. After a few questionable incidents they decide to dump the robot. In one incident David sneaks into mom's bedroom while she's asleep to clip a lock of her hair because of Martin goading him to do it. When mom awakens to see the scissors in his hand, she instinctively feels more love for her flawed real son than her programmed loving one. There's also an alarming swimming pool incident where David almost drowns the sneaky Martin, and there's a spinach eating incident that Martin goads David into (robots can't eat and if they do it messes up their inside circuitry). They decide to return David to the cybertronic lab in New Jersey, in the same way a disheartened pet owner might do when taking their unwanted pet to an animal shelter. In this case it means destruction and a trip to the scrap heap (which is like a junkyard for autos). But mom can't bear to have her artificial son destroyed, so she sends it out into the woods with Teddy Bear as a companion and tells the boy to learn how to survive and not to trust humans -- but to never come home again. David is touched by human feelings and only wishes he could be created again as a real boy (the film's main theme), and once again be with Monica. Having absorbed the Pinocchio story read to him by Monica at bedtime (even though he has no need to sleep), he believes if he can find the "Blue Fairy" he can get his only wish in life and be once again reunited with Monica as a real boy through her making him real, just like she made the wooden Pinocchio real. The second half of the story becomes layered with more complex themes and harder to answer questions. It's a spiritual odyssey about creation that David takes in the hardened nocturnal world of what remains of urban civilization, which is a reflection of a literary hell. It's here that Spielberg asks questions about humanity that he has never asked before in his more lightweight films: he questions family values and wonders about scientific and religious definitions of creation, and he most of all wonders if humanity is only one link in evolution that raises consciousness and that if it becomes obsolete what will be the other ways to evolve. In these scenes to find the Blue Fairy, David and Teddy team up with an agile mecha gigolo named Joe (Law). But they must escape from "antirobot human bounty hunters on motor bikes'' and their mean leader (Gleeson), who captures these stray mechas for Roman gladiator-like entertainment events and takes them to a place called Flesh Fair. Here the amusement park operators find gruesome novel ways to kill the mechas off to entertain their thrill-seeking audience. The trio escapes to a neon-lit Rouge City, a seedy place where the animated stud, Joe, had previously pleasured his women clientele and claims to know all that there's to know about women. It's here that the trio encounter a wizard answer man called Dr. Know (voice of Robin Williams). He sends them on their way to the "End of the World" to meet the Blue Fairy, in the submerged New York. It takes David a mere 2000 years to reach his destination, but once there he has the entrancing showdown with what life means and finds out that the best you can do is return to the dream world. It's an imaginative film, that has a lot going for it except exciting dialogue. I couldn't ask for anything more from Spielberg; he has taken on Kubrick's depth and artistic integrity in filmmaking, at least, for this film; he has paid homage to Kubrick, and has made a highly personal film. This might disappoint many in the mass market audience that are attracted to Spielberg for other reasons and might expect to see another kiddie pic like E. T.. But the film will also attract a more sophisticated sci-fi film crowd, that should connect this film with a "2001" cyberspace experience. The acting accolades go to Haley Joel Osment -- who carries the film as an innocent, albeit, unreal child, left alone and vulnerable in a very cruel world; he only wants to return to the only home he has ever known; and, to Jude Law, who is refreshingly daffy as a gigolo and friend to David. REVIEWED ON 7/6/2001 GRADE: A - Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" http://www.sover.net/~ozus ozus@sover.net © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28687 X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: A- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 13 11:33:19 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Homer Yen Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 21:21:39 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RT-AuthorID: 1370 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: B- Summary: r.a.m.r. #28710 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 101 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26880 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2868 "A.I." -- Ambitious Yet Ambiguous by Homer Yen (c) 2001 In a movie season when most audiences show a propensity to see light-hearted or action-packed fare, a film like "A.I." is a puzzling offering. The Steven Spielberg/Stanley Kubrick collaboration about a sophisticated robot boy programmed to love is an intellectually demanding film that requires far more brain power than most summer moviegoers want to muster. Stately paced, it is an incredibly ambitious effort that inspires discussion over its message, contemplation over its perplexities, and debate over its cryptic ending. "A.I." is a triptych of curiosity, wonderment, and ultimately, ambiguity. It is a futuristic story about a 'mecha' named David (Haley Joel Osment who impressively strikes a balance between robotic woodenness and human neediness). Mechas are highly sophisticated androids that resemble humans in both appearance and emotion. However, none had ever been programmed to love -- until now. The production of David creates a fascinating quandary. For, even if he could love a family, would the family love him back? And would this technology somehow threaten the frail structure upon which humanity currently sits? This intriguing question, however, is only explored to a certain degree. "A.I." veers during its second act, becoming an adventure film. David is ultimately rejected by his family. However, the adoptive mother (Frances O'Connor) does not return David to his creators for destruction, but instead sets him free. David, who still loves and may now even dream, sets off on a personal quest that borrows elements from Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz. The journey is absolutely wondrous. He meets boon friend, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a sleek-looking mecha (thanks to aggressive makeup) that oozes with lusty optimism. He possesses a sultry charm and his performance is balletic and memorable. And the places they travel to are jaw-droppingly stunning from the carnal Rouge City and its festive air of hedonism to the post-apocalyptic landscape of a now-submerged Manhattan in which skyscrapers jut up like reeds in a swamp. In the final act, however, the audience may feel as confused as they are awed by the spectacular visualizations of the future. It is in this final segment that David tries to find that elusive bridge between machine and humanity. But the film doesn't offer any concrete resolutions. Perhaps this is because in science fiction, much of what's seen is a product of the filmmaker's imagination, and so too are we left to conjure an interpretation of the final scenes. What any of us eventually come up with will surely be debatable. Yet, a sense of wonderment may have been the entire purpose of this film. There are dozens of scenes that emphasize hand-holding. This may remind you of when you were young and your parent took you for a walk to the zoo or some other exotic location (at least by a 10-year old's standards). You would look around in amazement although you frequently didn't understand where you were. But your parent would continue to point things out to your delight. And it seems that the filmmaker's are perhaps doing something similar but on a much grander scale. It challenges you to look at the incredible sights, to look and try to see the meaning of it all, and to look and formulate your own thoughts. After emerging from this film, you'll feel the fuzzy sensation that you had seen something thought-provoking. "A.I." is undeniably audacious and technically brilliant. Yet, it should have engaged us more meaningfully, given us more answers, and been more moving. What it did was to only spark our curiosity, burden us with unanswered questions, and leave us in a trance. Grade: B- S: 1 out of 3 L: 0 out of 3 V: 2 out of 3 ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28710 X-RT-AuthorID: 1370 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: B- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 13 11:33:23 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!isdnet!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Steve Rhodes Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 23:02:32 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28787 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 106 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26942 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2869 A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2 Steven Spielberg’s A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is a captivating, science fiction story about the quest for motherly love. A Pinocchio-like tale, it features another astonishing, guileless and certainly Oscar caliber performance by Haley Joel Osment as a robot (“mecha”) named David. Frances O'Connor (MANSFIELD PARK) plays his human “mother,” Monica Swinton. Originally the creative baby of Stanley Kubrick (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and EYES WIDE SHUT), this joint collaboration of Spielberg and the late Kubrick shows more of Kubrick than Spielberg. Divided into 3 sections, the movie is two and one-half parts brilliance and one-half part unnecessary, feel-good ending. Reportedly, it is this last part that is uniquely a Spielberg touch. Kubrick, who wasn’t involved after the development stage, is given only a concept credit. The film is also dedicated to his honor. Set in a time in the future after an ecological disaster has caused Manhattan and other coastal cities to be under a few hundred feet of water, the movie features a lot of wealthy people who are coping with the help of human-like mechas. These mechanical wonders look exactly like humans unless you penetrate their skins with knives or X-rays. What mechas can't do is have genuine human emotions. They are, however, great at faking everything, including love. Professor Hobby (William Hurt) makes a truly radical proposal. He and his team will build mechas who can truly love “with love that will never end.” David is serial number one in this new line. The professor believes that he has found an ideal couple to bond with David in the Swintons. Mother Monica is racked with grief over the "death" of her “real” son, Martin (Jake Thomas, THE CELL), who has been cryogenically frozen until a cure is found for his disease. Her husband, Henry (Sam Robards), is a remarkably unimportant character whose only contribution is to attempt to get his wife some happiness by bringing David home. The story raises intriguing moral questions at every turn with the greatest of these being: what does it mean to love, what responsibilities do we have as humans and what does it mean to be real? It also poses such eternal questions of childhood as David's of, “Mommy, will you die?” His question takes on extra poignance since it seems that he will live indefinitely while she is mortal and therefore quite perishable. What David wants most of all is to be a real boy so that his mother will love him. A computerized teddy bear (voiced by Jack Angel), who asserts “I am not a toy,” is the film’s most endearing character, calling to mind Spielberg's famous and loveable E.T. David is the film’s most tragic character. The intricate script recalls parts of many movies, including Sid’s toy chest from TOY STORY and the bar scene from the original STAR WARS. Stan Winston's robotic special effects are amazing, as always. His pièce de résistance comes in something called the Flesh Fairs. These garish and ghoulish spectacles are gladiator bouts as the World Wrestling Federation would stage them. Mechas are chopped up, blown up, melted and otherwise slaughtered to delight a cheering crowd. “Let he who is without sim cast the first stone,” Lord Johnson-Johnson (Brendan Gleeson) asks the crowd. Humans, who have an organic brain and therefore no need for a simulator ("sim"), are deemed superior and therefore permitted to crush those inhuman bits of fake flesh known as mechas. Jude Law, as Gigolo Joe, is a lovable mecha who befriends and is befriended by David. With a snap of his head, Joe can play music to soothe the ladies before he beds them. And with a flick of his hand, he can change his hair color. He’s a love doll, who does not really love, but can only “make love.” Robin Williams -- who else? -- does a nice turn as the humorous Dr. Know, a franchised, electronic knowledge dispenser, to whom David turns for advice. Content providers who have had trouble figuring out ways to make a profit from the Internet might look to Dr. Know as a model of possible salvation. Adopting a mecha into the family has some frightening consequences that aren’t easily guessed. John Williams’s music with its creepy undercurrents reminds us to always be on our guard. Filmed in a beautiful haze by Janusz Kaminski (SHINDLER’S LIST), the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat as you are sweep into its mysteries and its characters. After reaching an absolutely perfect concluding spot, the last act tacks on a long feel good ending that is more likely to infuriate than to please. The result is less than a masterpiece but much, much more than the typical movie fare. And it is, thankfully, a summer movie with something on its mind. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE runs 2:20. It is rated PG-13 for some sexual content and violent images and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up. My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave it ** 1/2. He thought it was interesting and had impressive images. He was troubled by what he thought were many logical holes. He also complained that it ended at the wrong place, saying, “not all fairy tales have to end perfectly in happy endings.” He, independently, wished that the film would have ended in exactly the same spot that I did. The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC and the Century theaters. Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com *********************************************************************** Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email? Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28787 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 20 13:30:15 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Jerry Saravia Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 03:31:23 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28895 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 236865 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28895 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 111 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27062 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2894 A.I. - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Reviewed by Jerry Saravia July 19th, 2001 The safest way to approach "A.I." is to understand it is a Steven Spielberg film of a Stanley Kubrick production. Kubrick himself decided to not direct the film while he was alive, thus handing the reins to Spielberg. A noble and satisfying choice. "A.I." is Spielberg's best and most uncompromising film since "Schindler's List," deserving of any and all accolades. It is brave, risky, emotional, disturbing, complex and entrancing. Haley Joel Osment plays a mecha named David, a child robot of the future. He is adopted by two kind, loving, troubled people, Monica and Henry Swinton (Frances O'Connor and Sam Robards). Their own real son is barely kept alive in a coma. Henry Swinton sees this as an opportunity to alleviate his and his wife's pain by having a mecha in their house as a replacement until their own son gets better (Henry happens to work for a cybertronic company that specializes in mecha technology). Monica is initially angry and hesistant but eventually gives in to the idea. She ignores David, hides from him and he only thinks it is a game - David cannot sense or reason that Monica is suffering. Eventually Monica "imprints" David by turning on his switch to learn and to love. David does learn to love but does not know how to use it - he loves Monica, whom he refers to as his "mommy," unconditionally. But regret begins to figure in the situation when Monica's real son starts to come out of his c! oma. There is a clash of sorts b etween David and the real son unfolding in a series of eerie scenes where David is seen as a threat, a hindrance to the Swinton's sense of serenity. Monica eventually abandons David in the woods due to his innocently destructive nature. Thus begins David's quest to become a real boy since he feels that if he becomes real, his mommy will take him back. Along the way, David lands in a decadent, sinful city called Rogue City where he meets Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a male prostitute mecha who has the ability to conjure the appropriate romantic mood by twiching with his head which automatically plays Astaire or Sinatra tunes. Gigolo and David are eventually captured by anti-mecha rebels who destroy mechas for sport in a stadium of cheering denizens. David gets away in the nick of time since he is deemed too human to be a mecha and his search continues for the Blue Fairy (a character right out of "Pinocchio") whom he feels can make him into a real boy. "A.I." was shrouded in secrecy for years before being unveiled in theatres, a rare event in this day and age of Harry Knowles and the overhype machine. Kubrick was known for utmost secrecy, particularly for the misunderstood "Eyes Wide Shut" which was erroneously advertised as a sexual thriller. It is a pleasure for once to see a film and not have a clue as to how it will turn out. "A.I." is unpredictable in a way Spielberg has not been since "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The mood and atmosphere do not shift as much as one expects, though it is a structure comprised of two acts and an extended epilogue. Strange structuring indeed but you only need to look back to Spielberg's "The Lost World," which had a fitting climax only to begin again with the setting changed to San Diego where the T-Rex runs rampant in the city. "A.I." has a deliberate point where it could have ended with David pleading and pleading to become a real boy. I will not give away much except to say tha! t it ends instead with one of th e most spiritually moving and saddest climaxes I've seen in a long while. The performances are all pleasurable to watch. Osment shakes his cutesy persona for a more subtle twisting of moods and facial expressions from an impersonal mecha to a mecha with an emotional side that threatens to explode with pure love and violence. Jude Law is damn near perfection with his cockiness and sexual allure, though I would loved to learn more about him. Frances O'Connor blends sensitivity with despair flawlessly as the conflicted Monica. And William Hurt also displays curiously similar fragmented emotions as Professor Hobby, who is as close to David as one can expect - only the reasons never seem clear. "A.I." begins as a Kubrick film with a chilly air of doom throughout the first half of the film. The second half veers into Spielberg territory as does the epilogue (this explains why Kubrick chose Spielberg to make the film since its Pinocchio antecedents coincide with the latter's sensitivity). But something strange occurs - Spielberg has told a tale of sentiment without manipulating the audience's emotions. He is not overtly sentimental, as he has been in later films. It is a return to Spielberg's confidence and assuredness with the unsentimentality and harshness of "Duel," "Jaws," and "Close Encounters" - he chooses to detach somewhat from the main characters so that we can see how the emotional crescendos in the film affects them. Thankfully the musical score by John Williams is not syrupy but rather enthralling in its minimalist tone and style comprised of what sounds variations on a slow murmur. So what does "A.I." finally have to say about a mecha like David? Do we have a responsibility to love a robot even though it is not real? What is Monica's responsbility since her husband only bought the damn robot which could be easily disposed or discarded like an older computer model? Is David any closer to understanding a human's emotions since he has his own, or are his emotions fabricated based on an imprint in his design? If he can love, can he rationalize that love? Does he not see that his "mommy" did not love him as he thought she had? Such moral questions invite lots of answers but can mostly result in ambiguity, as it should be. Kubrick revelled in disorder, pessimism and ambiguity. Spielberg revels in order, optimism and clear resolutions. That Spielberg remained faithful to Kubrick's original plans and storyboards shows a certain maturity on his part. "A.I." is as intelligent a film as one can expect - a marvel to witness, and a feast for the eyes and the ears. Br! avo Spielberg! For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at faustus_08520@yahoo.com or at Faust668@aol.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28895 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 236865 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:27 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Bob Bloom Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 02:32:22 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28907 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237105 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 872 X-RT-AuthorID: 1363 X-RT-RatingText: 3/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28907 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 109 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27114 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2900 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) 3 stars out of 4. Starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Brendan Gleeson, William Hurt, Sam Robards and Frances O'Connor. Music by John Williams. Based on a short story by Brian Aldiss. Based on a screenplay by Ian Watson. Screenplay by Steven Spielberg. Directed by Spielberg. Rated PG-13 It is easy to see why the late Stanley Kubrick believed Steven Spielberg would be the perfect director for his A.I. Artificial Intelligence, just as it is understandable why Spielberg was attracted to the material. For here we have another lost boy trying to find his way home, an outcast seeking family, themes very familiar from most of Spielberg's body of work from Sugarland Express to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T. to Empire of the Sun to Hook to Saving Private Ryan, naming just a few examples. A.I. is set in an undefined near future in which giant technological advances have led to the creation of robots who serve every purpose from housekeeping to fulfilling sexual fantasies. It is an era when robots are treated merely as sophisticated appliances. The last great leap in robotic evolution is the addition of emotions, and with the number of births limited by the government, many couples are yearning for children. And Professor Hobby (William Hurt) has the solution. A robotic boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), who is programmed to love. As a test, David is placed with Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife, Monica (Frances O'Connor). Their natural-born son has been cryogenically frozen until a cure can be found for his illness. The first third of A.I. deals with David's life with the Swintons and how that is changed by the recovery and return of their son, Martin. Circumstances force David to be cut off from the Swintons. He is abandoned and alone. David, highly influenced by the fairy tale, Pinocchio, feels that if he becomes a real boy he can rekindle Monica's love for him. The film's second act follows David's search for The Blue Fairy, whom he believes will be able to fulfill his wish. During these adventures he meets and is helped by Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a robot who specializes in sex. Spielberg is at his top form in this sequence, offering a brutal "Flesh Fair" where robots are destroyed via sadistic methods for the amusement of paying customers. Here, is where Kubrick's influence is strongly felt, as the movie explores the fear and distrust humans have for robots. The savagery conjures up images from the late director's A Clockwork Orange. At about two hours and 30 minutes, the film begins to falter during the last 20 minutes, a sequence that seems most Spielbergian with images that appear to be borrowed from Close Encounters. It is all very anti-climatic and jarring. These scenes seem almost superfluous, as if from a different film. A.I. is a dark fairy tale that deserves its PG-13 rating. It is a story combining hope and intolerance, sacrifice and bigotry, and while it does not coalesce perfectly, the movie does offer some disturbing images. But A.I. is really a showcase for the acting talents of the amazing young Osment. If ever an actor deserved an Academy Award nomination, it is this lad, who brings a sense of joy and wonder to the role of David, a being created for the express purpose of loving. He shines when with Monica, beaming with love, as eager as a puppy to please. After being left in the woods, he is confused, lost, hurt, focusing on one objective: To become a real boy and find his way home so he can redeem himself in his mother's eyes. Law is pleasant as the care-free robot who really doesn't understand David's quest, but is nonetheless happy to help him on his journey. Probably the toughest role is O'Connor's Monica. Playing an emotional fragile woman who sees David as a substitute for her lost Martin, she grows conflicted after her boy returns and she begins to perceive David not as a second chance, but as a threat to her family. She gives her character enough emotional chaos that you cannot fault her for her course of action. Many of A.I.'s futuristic sets are breathtaking, especially a mostly submerged New York, lost to the world by the melting of the polar ice caps. A.I. is a flawed film, and you cannot get through the entire feature without pondering - even subconsciously - how it would have turned out with Kubrick instead of Spielberg behind the camera. Would it have been darker? More cynical? We will never know. We can only judge what is before us on the screen, a collaboration of two cinematic giants. A.I. is a most interesting and thought-provoking examination of a future that is quickly gaining on us. Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on golafayette. Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28907 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237105 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 872 X-RT-AuthorID: 1363 X-RT-RatingText: 3/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:28 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Eugene Novikov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 23:55:15 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28964 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237385 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 610 X-RT-AuthorID: 1577 X-RT-RatingText: A Summary: r.a.m.r. #28964 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 196 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27135 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2903 "The real conundrum isn't to create a robot that can love. It's getting a human to love it back." Starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards, William Hurt, Jack Thomas, Brendan Gleeson and the voice of Jack Angel. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Rated PG-13. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Everyone is talking about A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and everyone wants to talk about it as a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and the late Stanley Kubrick. Though there are some interesting points to be made on the subject, they have by now been made elsewhere, and I'm not interested in discussing it. The bizarre, upsetting, wonderful movie stands on its own as a provocative masterpiece, that rare piece of work with the courage to bewilder, be misinterpreted and start arguments. Like many, it took me two viewings to realize this. I knew right away that I had seen something special, but the film disturbed me so deeply that I looked for flaws, and I found them. The second time, it was more apparent that this is easily Spielberg's most mature, most meticulous movie to date; what I perceived as flaws were choices, not errors, and damn good ones in retrospect. A.I. begins with the familiar sight of crashing ocean waves and narration by Ben Kingsley, who describes the world after the melting of the polar ice caps. Major cities, including New York, were drowned; thousands of people starved to death. Strict population controls were imposed by surviving governments. Humans became increasingly dependant on mechas, robots that simulate human appearance and behavior. By now, Spielberg has already set the mood for at least the first section of the film: chilling, foreboding, the darkness of the subject matter clashing with the sterile comfort of the futuristic society it depicts; those expecting another E.T. should already be disappointed. We fade to a conference room, where Dr. Allen Hobby (William Hurt) gives a speech on the prospects of building a robot who can feel real human emotions, a robot child who can love. Someone poses a question that Dr. Hobby is unable to answer, one of the film's central themes: if the robot genuinely loves its owner, what responsibility does the human have towards the machine? The answer isn't, as Roger Ebert thoughtlessly wrote, "none." If we are responsible for what we create, are we also responsible for the emotions of a robot boy? After all, his feelings are hardly more "simulated" than ours; they're all electrical signals traveling through a network of neurons. Cybertronics, Inc. creates a prototype named David, played here by Haley Joel Osment, and gives it to Henry Swinton (Sam Robards), an employee, to try out. He and his wife Monica (Frances O'Connor) already have a son who is in a coma after an accident, evidently beyond science's reach. Monica, understandably, has trouble accepting a mecha replacement, and Henry doesn't push her. David looks and acts like a real boy, but not quite; there's something subtly off about his behavior (for one thing, he never blinks). This part of the film is icy and ominous, though you can't put your finger on exactly why; this is the closest Spielberg comes to channeling Kubrick. David comes with an imprinting protocol, a sequence of words that must be said to him that will seal his love to his owner forever. If, after imprinting, the owner decides not to keep the mecha, it must be returned to its manufacturer for destruction. At first, Monica doesn't like the idea; David creeps her out by suddenly appearing everywhere she turns, and the idea that this is a machine seems always to be in the back of her mind. Then, almost impulsively, she imprints, and, in an amazing scene, David calls her "mommy" for the first time. Martin regains consciousness. He's Henry and Monica's "real son," and David isn't spared this information. Martin sees him as just a cool toy to play with, but when he sees that his mom is infatuated with this fancy new "mecha," he sets out to make David seem like a threat. After being taunted by kids at Martin's birthday party, David appeals to Martin for protection and, in the midst of the chaos, drags him into the pool and almost drowns him. The next day, under the guise of an intimate drive through the country, Monica takes David back to Cybertronics. Only she can't bear to destroy this mecha that seems so lifelike. So she decides to leave him in the woods with his talking teddy bear and let him fend for himself. This is where my emotions started to run amok. The scene in the forest is so heartbreaking, so genuine in its despair that were I a few decades older I may have had to be wheeled away; I would have cried if I wasn't so shellshocked both times I watched it. But the scene is even more powerful when you ask why it was so affecting. After all, David isn't a real boy, but a machine. So isn't it like leaving a toaster in the woods, or a microwave? This is the genius of Spielberg's work here. He isn't going for pure manipulation; he plays with your emotions and then prods you to consider why you felt the way you did. A.I. then shifts in tone completely, as David is caught by a local "Flesh Fair," a "celebration of life" in which robots are flamboyantly destroyed on stage, under the guise of "destroying artificiality." The head of the fair, played by Brendan Gleeson, shouts that these mechas were made to replace humans, and the film's ending proves him right. David spends the rest of the movie searching for the Blue Fairy, a character from Pinnochio, which he overheard when Monica read it to Martin. He wants to become a real boy so that his mommy will love him again. His companions are Teddy and Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a single-minded, runaway lover robot. Joe was Kubrick's idea, considerably toned down by Spielberg. The film is insanely ambitious and brave. It dares to regard the human race as a petty distraction in the grand scheme of things, and to view existence as a state of mind rather than flesh and blood. Why do we claim to have a monopoly on consciousness and emotion? If we make a computer program that learns, feels and reasons, how do you distinguish it from the structure of our brain which is similarly programmed by instinct and genetics? In his third act, Spielberg fearlessly jumps 2000 years into the future, with a denoument that combines unabashed sentimentality with an undercurrent of darkness. Critics who gripe that Spielberg compromised Kubrick's vision with a trademark happy ending couldn't be farther off the mark; the conclusion is chilling, recalling Kubrick's own cryptic last act of 2001: A Space Oddyssey. No matter how you interpret A.I.'s last few seconds, they are the result -- or the continuation -- of a robot boy's dream, a dream that could never have come true in the world that created David. A.I. is anchored by an amazing Haley Joel Osment, who again brings with him the emotional maturity most "adult" actors can only wish for. Jude Law, in his showiest role to date, is by turns hilarious and devastating as the troubled sexbot, and Frances O'Connor gives a courageous performance in what's likely to be one of the year's most despised roles. I suppose it's not hard to see why American audiences have resisted and rejected A.I., though it is disheartening. It's Spielberg's most serious, most profound, most adult film; it's also his strangest. Moviegoers were confused by the daffy third act, and hard-pressed to see the point of it all. If you had that reaction, I think you should see it again; it's amazing how much becomes clear on second viewing. This is the kind of movie that stays with you. Weeks after seeing it, I can't shake it. The image that has haunted me the most isn't the shockingly cruel scene in the woods, or the powerful conclusion, but Gigolo Joe's simple, stunning statement of existence. "I am. I was." Grade: A Up Next: Kiss of the Dragon ©2001 Eugene Novikov ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28964 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237385 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 610 X-RT-AuthorID: 1577 X-RT-RatingText: A From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 8 16:01:04 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Ram Samudrala Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 20:39:42 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29108 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242555 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29108 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 84 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27284 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2921 A.I. Artificial Intelligence http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/ai_artificial_intelligence.html /A.I. Artificial Intelligence/ has little to do with artificial intelligence, but it is an interesting modern-day fairy tale to watch. It would've been better to leave as is the title of the book the film is based on: /Supertoys Last All Summer Long/ by Brian Aldiss. I would not go as far as to say that movie completely ignores interesting issues regarding artificial intelligence, but the primary focus is mimicking the story of Pinochio and his quest for humanity. Here, Pinochio is represented by David (Haley Joel Osmond), a robot ("mecha") who is capable of love. David lives in the future where the polar ice caps have melted, resulting in the submerging of world's coastal cities. To preserve resources, a strong birth control regimen is adopted and robots are used to perform functions that humans aren't available to do. This ultimately ends up including the functions of sex and love. Like with Stanley Kubrick's /2001: A Space Odyssey/, the movie (one of his inspirations, with director Steven Speilberg) is structured into four different phases: the part where David is adopted into a human family; the part where he is rejected by the family; his search for a sense of identity (to become "real"); and his eventual reconciliation with his identity. Monica (Frances O'Connor) and Henry (Sam Robards) are a couple who have adopted David to substitute for their real son, Martin (Jake Thomas), who is in a coma. Everything is going well until Martin wakes up. Martin and David don't get along and a string of incidents leads to David being abandoned by Monica. This begins the second phase of the film. David wanders around a rain forest-like New Jersey and is captured by a bunch of mecha-haters who like to destroy robots for entertainment. He befriends Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a robot who is also on the run. They are about to be destroyed when they escape, thanks to David's human-like nature. The third phase is David's desperate attempt to become real by finding the blue fairy, which leads him to his creator (who has created him to replace his own son). In contrast to his expectations, David finds hundreds of replicas of himself which leads him to a catatonic state for a thousand years. Then, archaeologists (either from another planet or evolved robots who survived humanity's eventual destruction), revive David and help him realise his dream with their amazing technologies. There's a lot going on in the film, but it is a mediocre effort. For someone who is capable of intelligence and emotion, David is incapable of doing trivial things like ingesting food. Contrived situations like this don't appeal to me. It is also incongruous to think that an emotion like "love" can be dissected and reproduced ignoring all the other emotions we observe. The movie's insights into artificial vs. real are not something I think very much of, since it simply anthropomorphises the human condition. This is the biggest flaw of movies that deal with this ~subject: there's no reason to expect that humans are any more special than bacteria in this universe and AI to me just represents a natural advance of human evolution. /The Matrix/, which also ended up being sentimental, was far more rigourous in its portrayal. In my view, artificial human-like intelligence cannot be achieved using a top-down approach. Molecular or atomic level simulation of the brain must be performed to replicate intelligence, consciousness and emotion. This is because I believe traits like intelligence and consciousness and emotions are simply a logical consequence of having a complex (i.e., non-linear) adaptive set of interactions (which evolutionarily arose to propagate the information in our genes). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29108 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242555 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 11 11:20:00 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Shannon Patrick Sullivan Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 18:59:56 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29379 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 247027 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29379 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 57 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27550 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2932 A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (2001) / *** 1/2 Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Spielberg, from a story by Ian Watson, based on the short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss. Starring Haley Joel Osment, Frances O'Connor, Jude Law. Running time: 146 minutes. Rated PG by the MFCB. Reviewed on August 22nd, 2001. By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN Synopsis: David (Osment), a child-like robot programmed to express love, is given to a family whose son was placed in suspended animation because he suffers from an incurable disease. But when the son unexpectedly returns, David is no longer needed. His "mother" (O'Connor) abandons him rather than let him be destroyed. Finding friendship with another robot, Gigolo Joe (Law), David sets off on a quest to find the Blue Fairy, who he believes will help him regain his mother's love. Review: How do we define a person? Where does "artificial" end and "intelligence" begin? Is there a difference between someone who loves us, and something programmed to do so? These are the questions raised by "A.I.", a film directed by Spielberg but so reminiscent of its originator, Kubrick, that his ghost haunts almost every frame. "A.I." wraps these conundrums in a quest, but at the end of the quest lie more questions. The answers are left to the viewers, who are pulled en route in every direction. Is David's longing for his mother proof of his humanity? Perhaps, but still, David is undeniably not human, as we are periodically reminded. Whatever one concludes, "A.I." is certainly one of the most thought-provoking films in recent memory. It is abetted by spectacular performances, with Osment proving he is perhaps the best child actor working today. David is endearing, but a persistent awkward edge reminds us of his artificiality. And Spielberg's visuals are stunning, perfectly complementing "A.I."'s central contradiction. His humans live in a stark world of clinical coldness; the robots inhabit a chaotic, colourful universe. The humans are passive and remote; the robots cling desperately to life. And although "A.I." does suffer from an extended coda that never quite works, it remains a fine tribute to the genius that was Kubrick. Copyright © 2001 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | Shannon Patrick Sullivan | shannon@mun.ca | +---------------------------------+---------------------------------+ / Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) go.to/drwho-history \ \__ We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars __/ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29379 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 247027 X-RT-TitleID: 1108184 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4