AI is incredible but I doubt many
people will understand it. Yesss! At last! An
(artificially?) intelligent Hollywood movie!
Based on a short story by Brian Aldiss and directed
by Steven Spielberg (and originally a project
of Stanley Kubrick)
AI is about an android
kid (Haley Joel Osment, acting with remarkable
skill, as does Jude Law later on), permanently
stuck at age 11, whom is given to a grieving
mother (a coldish Frances O'Connor) as a present.
The child is designed to love unconditionally.
This love-based premise of
AI
sounds awful. I saw the trailer and thought,
UGH!
Pass the bloody sick-bag! WARNING:
there are moments of pure syrup in this movie.
No surprise there, this is Spielberg. But, absolutely
against my expectation, I was fascinated and
entertained - and moved - by
AI.
Had I been younger than my 33 years, or perhaps
were I childless, I think I might have mocked
this movie for its mawkishness. But the syrup
was there to enhance a sense of deep tragedy:
how easily love can be a recipe for misery,
not joy. This is not your common and garden,
romantic-comedy style shite. So, for me,
AI
wasn't sentimental in a "feel-good"
way. For a movie about the emotions of love,
AI works on a philosophical and emotional level.
Spielberg isn't good at human nature, but that
hardly matters in this movie. It's about a robot
- perfect Spielberg material!
As a kid, I loved the robot short story, "
The
Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov.
This movie reminded me of much of that story,
and the sense of awe I felt back then. AI's
plot is very different though: the idea of a
robot being forever entombed at the mental age
of eleven is amazing. It couldn't grow up. The
robot has no hope of outgrowing its childlike
view of the world.
The world is set in the future, and it's worth
watching this movie for the astonishing special
effects work, this future world is so convincing
and awe-inspiring! I have to say I was rocked
by the visuals. Incidentally, extremely jarring
was the sight of the World Trade Center. The
sight of those bleak twin towers really did
unsuspend my disbelief. As I write this (25
September 2001), the WTC was destroyed only
two weeks ago to within four hours. Hence
AI contains an unintentionally tragical
ingredient.
AI doesn't fully tackle the philosophical
questions it raises about the nature of love:
can a human truly love a robot, can a robot
truly love a human? Is the human's love genuine
and is the robot's love just mimicry? And I
think that the lack of answers is fine, for
the questions are thought-provoking and entertaining
enough in themselves to hold the movie. To throw
in a quickie answer myself, perhaps nature made
human child-parental love for the same reason
that this child bot was made to love: to gratify
the parent. This film plays on our emotions,
can we feel sorry for a machine?
I doubt that this movie will appeal to everybody.
I'm no Spielberg fan myself. Yet I really enjoyed
this movie. See
AI in a cinema,
I bet this doesn't look or sound so amazing
on the TV.
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spoilers corner
Spoilers!!!!
Warning: this box contains a movie post-mortem
analysis that freely gives away important plot
twists and details. If you have not yet seen this
movie and intend seeing it, avoid this spoilers
box until afterwards. Bookmark the page, see the
movie, see if you agree with my review then write an arsy comment saying I am talking total
b*ll*cks :-)
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2000 years and still operating? This droid
was over-designed! So was the sub! And
that Blue fairy was pretty good at keeping
the barnacles at bay. But none of this
contrivance matters for an allegorical
story.
There is a scene where the robot child
was stuck in the sub facing the statue
of the Blue Fairy, and begging the smiling
icon to make him into a boy. That has
to be the most curious and moving scene
I have watched all year, despite the fact
that in reality the robot would have been
about as bored and emotional as my PC.
Appearances are beguiling: even when I
KNEW the boy was a robot, I found myself
pitying the thing! I have to say, that
child robot urgently beseeching the Blue
Fairy for help was, for me, highly symbolic
of the way I perceive that religious people
pray.
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There are no more spoilers below this
point, except maybe in any user talkback
comments.
End of spoilers corner
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My PC learns to love me, and I get one of those
Teddy things for xmas.
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Knoeier | Subject: | 2001-10-13 12:59:21 |
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On the talkback comments
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When I saw AI, it was after various unsatisfying
summer 2001 blockbusters, and to see something
different and inventive was a novelty,
so I forgave AI its sins. But looking
back, it is way too sentimental, yes.
The ending is the biggest point of contention
of AI.
Spoilers!!!!!!!!!
The ending of AI was for
me was ambiguous: was it really a happy
ending? The child, in effect, gets to
lose its mother again. I haven't
read Aldiss's short story but in it, apparently,
the robot child watches its "mother"
decay. Now *that* would have been a REAL
ending for this movie! Oh well.
It seems to me that the "mother's"
resurrection was virtual - a simulation
created by those androids (along with
their bullshit DNA story) to please the
boy. But in that case, why did they make
her last for a measly single day? And
why would the androids go to all the trouble
of "pleasing" the child robot
that is, in fact, as emotional as a pocket
calculator? Maybe it was a bug in their
operating systems. People are irrational,
and the type of AI that gets our stamp
of approval will probably be irrational
too. Ironically.
End of Spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the talkbacks so far
- Jim
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