"A.I: Artifical Intelligence" Rated PG-13
****.5/*****
15-20 years ago, Stanley Kubrick, the genius director of such films as 2001 and A Clockwork Orange who died last year came up with an idea for a movie about the first robot programmed to love. He had been communicating with Steven Spielberg, sharing ideas and concepts. When Kubrick died, Spielberg decided to continue where Kubrick left off, and to write and direct one of his most ambitious movies yet.
However, dispite what you may think, A.I. is not very Kubrick-ian in nature. Spielberg used his own writing and directing styles to make his vision of what Kubrick had talked to him about. It's much more E.T. than it is Clockwork Orange. Jude Law, who plays Gigolo Joe in the movie said that Kubrick's ideas were "much more extreme. More overtly sexual. Huge phallic skyscrapers, buildings with their legs wide open." He also said that the character of Gigolo Joe was" much more aggressive and sinister" in Kubrick’s ideas. What all this means is that A.I. is much more a Spielberg movie than a Kubrick movie.
This is only good or bad depending on which director you like more. I happen to like Kubrick more, however, I still think that this is a great movie. It is about the first robot programmed to love. His name is David (Haley Joel Osment). David is adopted by a family who's biological son is frozen awaiting a cure for his disease. When David is thought to be attempting to sabotage the family because of jealousy (a la HAL in 2001), his mother is forced to leave him in the woods and have him go his own way. The resulting scene is the best in the movie. It makes you completely forget that David is not a real boy and send a tingle up my spine.
David, influenced by his favorite bedtime story Pinocchio, attempts to find the blue fairy who will turn him into a real boy so that his mother will love him. Along the way he meets Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), the "love mecha" who was captured and sent to the "Flesh Fair" along with David. In a scene clearly the idea of Kubrick, the Flesh Fair is a neo- WWF where mechas (robots) or tortured for the enjoyment of the audience. After a close escape, Gigolo Joe agrees to help David follow his dream and win the love of his mother.
A.I. is truly a great movie. Terrifically written and even more terrifically directed by Spielberg, this film is very powerful in effectively carries its message on human nature (like many Kubrick films). Also, this film further establishes Haley Joel Osment as one of the best actors today. David is by no means the same character as in the Sixth Sense, and Osment doesn't play him that way. He plays David for who he is and genuinely wins our sympathy for him. A.I. may not be your kind of movie, but if you like either Close Encounters, E.T, Clockwork Orange, or 2001, see it.
