A.I.

A Review by

Skizzow

I won't even try to compare this to other Kubrick films for two simple facts: 1) I don't believe this is like any of his other films and 2) I wouldn't dare consider myself an expert on his films. With that said A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) is by far one of the best films I've seen in a long while. This movie takes place about a thousand years in the future and I think Spielberg did an excellent job of making his future world very believable. Natural resources have become very limited and the human race, through advancements in technology, has created robots for almost every need (because they use no resources, except the materials required to construct them). Robots have been built so well that at a glance you can't tell them apart from humans except for one characteristic, they can't feel emotions. That is until Cybertronics Manufacturing creates the first robot that has the full range of emotions.

A.I. is a wonderful story, although not totally original, told in a very original way. From what I hear this was a story that Stanley Kubrick told Spielberg years ago. Spielberg never forgot the story, in fact he was so moved by it that in sort of a tribute to Stanley he decided to tell the story. If you've seen even parts of Kubrick's other films you will definitely see the connection here. Although Kubrick wasn't around to do any of the production of this film, you would never know it. Spielberg throws in many Kubrick-like camera angles and films many scenes as you would think Kubrick would. There are also many underlying themes that you know are from the brain of Kubrick.

A Cybertronics employee (Sam Robards) and his wife (Frances O'Connor) have a terminally ill child who might not live and has been frozen until a cure is found. In the meantime couple needs a child in their life and thus decide to take another option......the robot. Haley Joel Osment plays this new robot and the movie tells a great story of this robot's quest to gain his mother's love. Haley does an excellent job as usual and show's us why he is the best kid actor these days. For his sake, lets hope he doesn't go the way of Macaulay Culkin and fall of the face of the earth when he starts to age.

This movie totally takes the viewer down the Pinocchio path, but Spielberg does this in such a way that the viewer doesn't feel like its a knock off of the prior story. I hope I've given you a taste of this movie without giving you too much, this is truly a movie that you should go see without reading too much about. A total virgin experience is the best. There are some really outstanding visuals in this film, like the depiction of New York after the Polar Caps have thawed from global warming. There are also some very sweet futuristic inventions (Teddy, wait til you see this toy, damn I want one). I'll be the first to admit that this movie isn't really my style and I'm even surprised that I liked it as much as I did. It's probably one of those that you're either going to love it or you're going to hate it. I saw this film with my fiancé and another couple, my buddy and I loved it and the girls weren't liking it one bit, I think they said it was a reach and unrealistic. This might not be the best date movie ever (but then again what movie that Kubrick had anything to do with is), but if you're down with Spielberg and Kubrick, believe me, this will be a must in your DVD collection very soon.

Rating: out of four.

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