A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen) [2 Discs]

A.I. puts the blame on the humans, who are abusing the "mecha," humanized robots, that they have created. Although the premise is worthy, A.I. leaches all hope out of the viewer and replaces it with utter bleakness. The scene of the toy teddy bear lumbering after his abandoned robot boy master (Haley Joel Osment) in the dark forest is almost as unbearable as the endless scene of the same boy robot's open, staring eyes as he has been trapped at the bottom of the ocean for many years. The scenes of innocent Mecha being systematically destroyed for human entertainment, including a gentle nanny robot, are a kind of robot Schindler's List.

The film is too long. Jude Law gives the best performance as a robot gigolo who befriends the boy. The special effects are flawless, but in this case they just serve to make your depression more realistic. A.I. fails in its mission to be thought-provoking, which is very unfortunate, because this could have been a masterpiece.

Although the film goes on longer than it had to, this Spielberg/Kubrick effort is simply wonderous in its tale of how an uneasy humanity confronts ever-increasingly human-like robots. Throughout the film one can sense the approach-avoidance emotions that the actors have with the machines that take over more and more of our lives. The machines clean our houses, make our products, and even satisfy our more elementary needs. And, perhaps, they begin to do all of this too well. Could it be that humans have manufactured their own replacements? And that unease only deepens when mechanical children enter the picture. Can one love a robot? Can one love back?

The plot has been relayed in depth here, so I won't repeat it, but suffice it to say that the plot is solid, makes sense in the confines of the film, and doesn't strike too many false notes. I did think the film was going to end several times before it finally did.

This is a good film to buy, because one's appreciation of the film will only deepen upon repeated viewings.

And I can't say enough about the special effects, nor Jude Law's performance. It's frightening and heart-warming at the same time. And Haley Joel Osment is as good here as in 'The Sixth Sense'; the perfectly lovable, er, robot.

Highly recommended.

The film's two big stars are Haley Joel Osment, who is still in his Sixth Sense little cutie role, and Jude Law, who looks very strange in this. Very plastic, but intentionally so. To begin with, Haley's character, David, was so annoying; I wanted to slap him. And then I wanted to slap his 'brother' Martin even more. Both very annoying sounding and looking children. But if you're the kind of person (like me) who can't stand the annoying little brats, then don't worry. Martin doesn't appear that much in the movie, and I really grew to like David after a while - although it took until he was left at the bottom of the swimming pool, and then made to survive for himself. I was nearly in tears at those bits, and couldn't understand why his 'mommy' left him outside in the big, bad world to fend for himself. She, after all, was the one who 'activated' him, to make him love her or something like that. And she couldn't put him back to the company who made him, as he'd get destroyed. The whole section where she tries to leave him in the middle of god-knows-where, is very heartwrenching, as David desperately clings to her. David seems to do a lot of "clinging" in this movie, whether it's following the mother around, trying to protect himself, or attaching himself to Jude Law, which provides a hilarious line from Jude: "Well, it's certainly my good fortune running into you!"

Jude Law isn't one of my favourite actors, and seems to appear more in the press than in relatively good movies. He was great in this though, whether it was playing a robot that would give women lots of "pleasure", or the connection he had with David. Despite not wanting to be taken where David was going, he couldn't get David to let go of his hand, and they ended up becoming the most unlikely friends. Even "Gigolo Joe" helped David in the end. I thought his 'story' was never resolved, although it's most likely he ended up in a flesh fair. So not fair.

I found this film to be rather jumpy, and it jumped almost abruptly, skipping periods of time. I was left unsatisfied at the end of the movie, although I'm glad that the relationship between David and his 'mommy' was resolved at the end. It's a very sad ending.

This movie had big similarities to Bicentennial Man, and also The Wizard Of Oz - the whole going to see Doctor Know, to find the Blue Fairy, is similar to going to find the "wonderful wizard of oz". And obviously, Pinocchio. There's even some parallels with Blade Runner where the robots are ostracised.

The star of this movie? In my opinion, it isn't Jude Law or even the adorable (yet bratty to begin with) Haley Joel Osment. Instead, it's the absolutely gorgeous, the number one Supertoy, Teddy! (I want one!!) I thought he was adorable, and was the star of this movie. I can't tell you how many times I watched the scene where Martin & David are trying to get Teddy to come to one of them. And as soon as he sees the mother, he's off shouting "Mommy! Mommy!" It's also so cute how he runs. Or when he get separated from David at the flesh fair, he keeps asking "Where's David? Can you help me find David? Are you taking me to David?" Or when that device is scanning him at the flesh fair and he puts on this little growly face! Awww! The end scene featuring him, is the saddest ever. What happened to him?

I'm not sure what to think of this movie. I enjoyed it, but I found myself not being able to understand what was going on a lot of the time. It's not a film I would watch again, and it's also an incredibly long film, feels a lot longer than the 2 hours 20 minutes it actually is.

And my final thought for this review is: "Mommy! Mommy!"