::READERS REVIEWS::

Absolute garbage - I wrote my college paper about Steven Speilberg. I am an ardent fan and love his work, even parts of "1941." However, I squirmed along with several other filmgoers at the premiere of this film. Finally, several people around me could no longer take it. They started to walk out. These were not disgruntled teens. The people who walked out were disgusted. I can't say that I've ever been as disappointed by Steven's work as I am with this film. It isn't just bad, it's insultingly bad. Watching it again would be pointless. Don't waste your time. You've been warned. I spent three months on another website debating with a film critic why I hated this film so much (abusing children for one... it's tasteless!).

Heart clenching - This movie made me cry so much toward the end. I loved it, I've never seen a movie quite like this one.

A.I., is a great ride, with philosophical questions... - Few sci-fi movies invite as much thought and consideration as 'A.I.' Large philosophical questions are put before the viewer to engage the heart and mind, while we're dazzled by some of the most imaginative scenes ever put on film. We live in an age when true artificial intelligence no longer seems far fetched, and the real horizon brings relevance to issues, such as our responsibility to the entities we might one day create.

Speilberg's design team created amazing worlds that range from sunny up-scale suburbs, to haunting techno garbage dumps, where abandoned mechas (mechanicals) go in search of spare parts...a replacement jaw, an arm or leg. Or Rouge City, a Las Vegas-like town where anything can be had for a price. And New York City, decayed and submerged in some future decade. In a world where many humans (orgas, or organics) feel disenfranchised, they hold Flesh Fairs, assemblies of frenzied hatred where mechas are destroyed in the most violent ways possible.

Haley Joel Osment ('The Sixth Sense') is the child-mecha, designed to know and feel love. He is imprinted, bonded to a childless couple who, though well-meaning, abandon him due a turn of events. The imprint is deep, and will haunt him through a vast journey to regain the love he knew from his adopted mother. Jude Law, in a memorable role as Gigolo Joe, is a "lover-mecha" created with an illicit purpose. A. I., is a song of the spirit, an eternal search by an innocent created mind to regain a love interrupted by hard dealings in a hard world. As Gigolo Joe says, "They created us too smart, too quickly, and in too large numbers".

There is a yearning edge that leans toward sentimentality, but if we can't occasionally connect with such stories, we may as well pull the plug on everything else. Though a couple of aspects were mildly disappointing, 'A.I.' is storytelling and film production on steroids, and the sum of its parts are too good to ignore.

Great photography, dull story - 2 of 5 stars for the sci-fi movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Frankly, I'd give this movie a 1 of 5 stars, however, it is really well made with great photography and clean special effects, so it gets a 2 of 5. Set in the future where a company made a mechanical boy. The kid who played the robot did a good job. The story is insanely dull and excessively long at 2h25min. If they cut about 1h from the movie it would be OK and get a higher rating. Sorry, I do not recommend this movie; BTW, I lasted 1h30 before quitting for something else.

Mr. know as a simile of Library - I like very much the scene where it appears Mr. know as a simile of a Library of the future where we can see that even in the form of holograms, the disambiguation continue through the basic principles of categorization in classes in order to find the information we need.

Supertoys Last All Summer Long - Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

The first part of the movie is important because it sets up the second part, but I didn't think it was very good (2 or 3 stars). The philosophical aspects and subtle pairings of real life and its artificial imitations are just ok. I don't really need a robot Pinocchio parody to understand or explore human nature. Childhood attachment and "imprinting" were undoubtedly apparent to most people long before the development of enlightened civilizations with colleges full of social scientists. More specifically, William Hurt's character, Professor Hobby, is poorly drawn. He seems almost robotic himself. I also thought that the family dynamics between David, his new parents, and their biological son, Martin, are not played out very well. The abandonment in the forest was meant to be... what exactly... a tear jerker, a case of mixed emotions, or just clunky plot development. Although necessary for the storyline, it comes off as fairly abrupt and rather stiff. Then there's the Flesh Fair. It's basically an evangelical demolition variety show for rednecks. This part was probably intended to drive home some of our innate humanity, but it comes off as too contrived and somewhat hokey.

The movie really gets going with the trip to Rouge City and subsequently Manhattan. (The movie was released in June 2001, so the Twin Towers are still standing.) David, the robot boy, really is on Pinocchio's quest to be a real boy so he can have the genuine love of his adoptive mother. He's accompanied along his journey by Teddy, the supertoy, and Gigolo Joe, a rather savvy android played by Jude Law (there's some 5 star stuff here). First the robot fellowship finds Professor Hobby, David's creator, in his well maintained facility above a partially submerged Manhattan. Here the movie also reveals the unfortunate circumstances behind the creation of David the mecha. Then, just like in Pinocchio, David actually finds the Blue Fairy. She's beautiful, but not quite as helpful as he would like. This could have been the end of the movie, but there's another chapter. It's set in the future after the extinction of human beings. A narrator provides the background information, and the story slows down with the arrival of alien anthropologists. In part, they fulfill David's quest, relieve his pain, and, at least for one day, make him abundantly happy. 2,000 years is a long time to be without your mom.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence - In a futuristic world where humans and robots coexist in a shaky relationship, a robot named David (Haley Joel Osment) is taught to love and is given to a family. Being the first of his kind he is sorely misunderstood and a series of unfortunate events leads to David being on the run. All David wants is to be a real boy, though, and be loved by his mommy Monica (Frances O'Conner). So with his new found friend, Love Bot Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), David travels out to find the Blue Fairy of Pinochio fame to make him a real boy so his mother will love him.

AI was originally the brain child of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, but as he was working on it he felt that the sensibilities of the film better suited a filmmaker such as Steven Spielberg. Stanley Kubrick approached Spielberg with the idea that Kubrick would produce the film, and Spielberg would direct. Of course, Spielberg was excited at the chance, but also reticent at the fact that this was the brainchild of the great Stanley Kubrick. They worked and worked on the project, Kubrick even had voices recorded that eventually appeared in the finished product (including those recorded by Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Meryl Streep, Ben Kingsley, and even Jack Angel who performed the voice of Teddy) until Kubrick had much of the concept art and even the complete treatment. Eventually Spielberg pushed back and asked Kubrick to direct and he would produce, and Kubrick relented but was unable to film the movie prior to his death in March of '99. Out of respect for his friend for the project he was originally asked to do, Spielberg picked up the work on AI and finished the film that Kubrick spent more than 12 years visualizing.

AI is a flawed masterpiece. Combining the strengths of two very different filmmakers is definitely the way to create an interesting work, and bringing out the sentimentality of Spielberg and the cynicism of Kubrick makes for great interplay and a certain tension between the two different sensibilities. On the one side you have the power and endurance of love, and on the other side you have the moral dilemma of man playing god and than dehumanizing it's creation. When juggling these two images of modern society Spielberg is at his best, and most of the movie is as good, if not better than anything else the director has ever commited to film.

The acting in this film is superb. Most of the movie revolves around Haley Joel Osment who was in his prime at the time (an unfortunate thing to say for a talent so young at the time and so good), and does he shine. Playing the first of his kind to feel love (or is it obsession) you truly feel for a robots plight, one of the few movies to actually grab you in that way. As his companion through most of his plight, you can tell Jude Law as Gigolo Joe is having a blast giving his "Love Bot" (read: sex toy) a bit of the smooth edge of Fred Astair. All of the performances in this movie truly shine though.

The problem, and what makes this movie flawed, is Spielberg's recent obsession with overindulgence and the need to place pieces from his older movies in his newer movies where they don't belong. First off, the ending of the movie should have been cut off. I'm not typically the type of person who will hold anything against a long movie, and it's not that this movie is long, it's that the last half hour is completely unneeded and somewhat ridiculous. Some of the acting choices make the last 30 minutes really feel more like outtakes than an integral part of the film. To add to that though, and secondly, Spielberg felt the need to inject scenes that he had planned for Close Encounters of the Third Kind into the end of the movie, confusing audiences as to what's going on in the end with the alien like robots.

Over all, I have to say that I did enjoy this movie, and it could have very well been a masterpiece and in ways it is, only if Spielberg hadn't followed his need to overindulge this movie wouldn't have lost steam. I do recommend it though, it's a movie that works well on multiple levels, for either just entertainment, or for further exploration into it's deeper meanings.

The After Life - This movie is so touching and it dives in to the issue of the afterlife. Humans tend to want to live forever. We don't say why should I do such and such if I will die tomorrow. In our minds, we live for today and tomorrow. I love it!

Supertoys Last All Summer Long - Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

The first part of the movie is important because it sets up the second part, but I didn't think it was very good (2 or 3 stars). The philosophical aspects and subtle pairings of real life and its artificial imitations are just ok. I don't really need a robot Pinocchio parody to understand or explore human nature. Childhood attachment and "imprinting" were undoubtedly apparent to most people long before the development of enlightened civilizations with colleges full of social scientists. More specifically, William Hurt's character, Professor Hobby, is poorly drawn. He seems almost robotic himself. I also thought that the family dynamics between David, his new parents, and their biological son, Martin, are not played out very well. The abandonment in the forest was meant to be... what exactly... a tear jerker, a case of mixed emotions, or just clunky plot development. Although necessary for the storyline, it comes off as fairly abrupt and rather stiff. Then there's the Flesh Fair. It's basically an evangelical demolition variety show for rednecks. This part of the film was probably intended to drive home some of our innate humanity, but it comes off as too contrived and somewhat hokey.

The movie really gets going with the trip to Rouge City and subsequently Manhattan. (The movie was released in June 2001, so the Twin Towers are still standing.) David, the robot boy, really is on Pinocchio's quest to be a real boy so that he can receive the genuine love of his adoptive mother. He's accompanied along his journey by Teddy, the supertoy, and Gigolo Joe, a rather savvy android played by Jude Law (there's some 5 star stuff here). First the robot fellowship finds Professor Hobby, David's creator, in his well maintained facility above a partially submerged Manhattan. Here the movie also reveals the unfortunate circumstances behind the creation of David the mecha. Then, just like in Pinocchio, David actually finds the Blue Fairy. She's beautiful, but not quite as helpful as he would like. This could have been the end of the movie, but there's another chapter. It's set in the future after the extinction of human beings. A narrator provides the background information, and the story slows down with the arrival of alien anthropologists. In part, they fulfill David's quest, relieve his pain, and, at least for one day, make him abundantly happy. 2,000 years is a long time to be without your mom.

A FLAWED GEM - I love both Kubrick and Spielberg, but this film should have been one, or the other. The gadgetry, and CGI visuals are superb, and Osment, and Law are simply outstanding as David, and Gigolo Joe respectively, but the plot was over-burdened, and tedious at times. I loved PINNOCHIO too- when I was eight, but I think fairy tales for people beyond that age either need to not take themselves too seriously, or have to have the edge that say Scott's BLADE RUNNER did. Unfortunately, this movie didn't retain Kubrick's darkness, and I personally think it needed that. This said, Osment imbued his robotic character with such heartbreaking warmth, and yearning that one couldn't help but be fascinated ( or possibly 'repelled' ) by him.

Despite the lapses in logic this movie still entertains, and not because it's uplifting. It's far from upbeat. It does make one think a tad, and feel, and perhaps yearn just a bit oneself- for what could have been.

Not As Described - Although the description stated (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) only 1 disc was sent and the disc sent was not the Movie but the 2nd disc that shows screenshots and how the movie was made and all that other junk that shows behind the scene shots etc. which i really was not interested in. Tried to contact shipper but got no response.

Polarizing, but Very Though Provoking and Unfairly Judged - I used to dislike most of Spielberg's movies, but after re-watching his movies, approaching each one differently, and not overreacting the emotional scenes in many of his movies, I have to say that his work has grown on me a lot and I like his work quite a bit. Sure, some of his films are pretty mediocre to bad (Hook, the incredibly overrated ET which unfairly beat out The Thing. 1941, Always, The Terminal, the disappointing Munich) and others are pretty much average pop-corn munchers (War of the Worlds, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Crystal Skull). However, he has brought us some incredibly entertaining action thrillers (Raiders, Jaws), some thoughtful sci-fi (Minority Report, Close Encounters of The Third Kind), powerful dramas (The Color Purple, Schindler's List), and the best damn war film ever made (Saving Private Ryan). Even with that, I still have to say that A.I. is easily one of the most polarizing of his films, and the duality of two visions (Kubrick/Spielberg) collide into a flawed, but unique and engrossing, often breathtaking work.

A.I. in my opinion is quite a different breed. It's a polarizing film, and it's one of those movies that many people seem to love or hate. It's also a very thoughtful and question raising film, something I would almost put akin to Blade Runner, not as cryptic and dark. A.I. is a thought provoking and challenging look at robots, cloning and the way humans use Artificial Intelligence. What is love? How far can you emotionally go with a robot? How does a robot have feelings even though it's been artificially made? What happens when robots get so advanced that they become as humane as us, even when they are deformed? How much of a human are these robots? All of these questions and more are raised in the film on display, and instead of giving your answers, it leaves you with some through provoking things regarding the subject of Artificial Intelligence.

It also has a heart. Very much like his other works, there's a lot of humanism. Sure, there are some of the infamous sentimentalism known in his work on display here (my only criticism as a matter of fact), but I didn't find it as prevalant here than I do in something like ET, and The Terminal, and even Jurassic Park. There are emotional "sweet" (why do I make faces every time I say that word?), moments, but I found many (NOT ALL THOUGH) of those moments to be quite natural, actually, despite the music in the background trying to ham it up. Haley Joel Osment gave a completely convincing robotic yet humanistic performance, he never blinks and his skin is almost robotic and artificial looking. After all, David is supposed to be a child, so it's much easier to buy and be moved by a child. Most children aren't as wised up and cynical as many of us adults, so I found his innocence, and wholesome childlike personality to be quite natural. It makes the movie much more easy to stomach and is much more involving. Of course, if you are disgusted by the wholesomeness of a robot child programmed to love, you shouldn't be watching A.I. anyway, but that's another kettle of fish all together.

However, despite all that, there's plenty of icy Kubrick bleakness, and even Spielberg himself adds to it (The ending of the film was actually Kubrick's, not Spielberg's), such as the Flesh Flair scene, which was his idea entirely. Speaking of that scene, that's my favorite scene in the movie. With Ministry playing in the background, robots being destroyed by a cheering crowd, and an industrial freak show type of feeling to it, I've never seen such bleakness in a Spielberg film before, especially since he cooked up something like that. The film also has a somewhat cold feeling in it's atmosphere, and when humanity is frozen, there's a very chilly and bleakness to it, which should be there. In addition, the contraction between the two make me like the movie even more, as it alternatives and sometimes blends into each other. I found that both tones were welcome in the movie, and gave the film a much wider vision than it would have it just Stanley directed it.

Another great thing about AI is that's is dazzling filmmaking. The future that Spielberg presents to us is just dazzling, as he once again uses his technical poweress and special effects wizardry to make a convincing breathtaking look at the future, similar to Minority Report. The aforementioned flesh flair makes the nihilistic freak show come to life, and Hue City is beautiful. It's neon splattered, Vegas like future is gorgeous to look at. The future depicted is mesmerizing, while sometimes empty, feels peaceful, like nothing matters because time doesn't matter anyway. The robots themselves are dazzling of special effects, as well as many of the futuristic equipment, such as the bikers that capture robots for their flesh fairs. Janusz's dazzling cinematography is a wonder to behold, and he once again shows why Spielberg chooses him for every movie he does. John Williams's score radiates with wonder, icy futuristic music. OH sure there's some sappy piano, and it's not among his best works, but he once again that he knows the word subtely, much moreso than other well known composers (James Horner, I'm looking at you).

I have to say I highly recommend AI, even though I can't you will like it or not. Some say this may be the next Blade Runner someday , and while I don't find that to be exactly true (that one was agressively panned by some critics during that day), I do think this artistic work will rightfully gain some acclaim like 2001 did. With the advent of AI technology advancing, who knows what could happen. While AI doesn't fully explore all of cloning/AI and issues surrouding it, it still is a very emotional, very entertaining, and often thought provoking piece of science fiction. Check it out.

complete misfire - This mess has no idea what it wants to be. Spielberg at his cutesiest and most annoying (yes, this includes the horrible Color Purple and ridiculous War of the Worlds). What WAS he thinking? And the cockatootie teddy bear. Give me a break.