Movie Review: 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence'

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

(AKA A.I.)

Written and Directed by: Steven Spielberg, based on Brian Aldiss’ short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long and a story treatment by Ian Wilson)

Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Frances O’Connor, Sam Robards, William Hurt, Jude Law, Jake Thomas, Jack Angel, Robin Williams, Meryl Streep, Ben Kingsley

On June 29, 2001, Warner Bros. Pictures released A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg’s 20^th feature film as a director. Originally conceived as a project for and by Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket) in the early 1970s but handed over to Spielberg after spending years in what Hollywood calls “Development Hell,” A.I. is a bittersweet meditation about our relationship with technology, the nature of love, and the perplexing question – can a programmed artificial intelligence become self-aware and experience emotion?

Narrator: [narrating, with ocean waves crashing together] Those were the years after the ice caps had melted... because of the greenhouse gases, and the oceans had risen drown so many cities... along all the shorelines of the world. Amsterdam, Venice, New York - Forever lost. Millions of people were displaced. Climates became chaotic. Hundreds of millions of people starved in poorer countries. Elsewhere a high degree of prosperity survived... when most governments in the developed world... introduced legal sanctions to strictly license pregnancies, which was why robots, who were never hungry and did not consume resources beyond those of their first manufacture, were so essential an economic link... in the chain mail of society.

A.I. is a science fiction drama (as opposed to science fiction action-adventure) set late in the 22^nd Century. Unlike the usually utopian future seen in Star Trek, humanity has not solved all of Earth’s problems and encountered “strange new worlds…new life and new civilizations” in outer space. Instead, global warming melted much of the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs and caused the seas to rise. Coastal metropolises, including Amsterdam, New York City, and Venice, are now underwater. Millions of human beings have died.

In this sad new world, humanity endures, but just barely. To prevent wars and other issues caused by limited land and even more limited resources, draconian laws now limit pregnancies. To survive, humans create androids called Mechas, and eventually our species becomes progressively more dependent on robots and technology.

Eventually, the ambitious Professor Hobby (William Hurt) decides to invent an android that can be programmed to love. Hobby knows that there are many childless couples out there; to meet their needs, the cybernetics expert sets out to create a child Mecha programmed to give its parents unconditional love.

As with most things technological, the professor’s concept needs to be tested before the new Mechas go into full production. Consequently, several months after Hobby first makes his proposal, the professor chooses a company employee, Harry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife Monica (Frances O’Connor) for this trial run. The Swintons already have one child, Martin (Jake Thomas), but he is in cryogenic suspension because of an unspecified illness. Legally, the Swintons can’t have another real child, but Harry doesn’t believe Martin can be cured, so when Hobby chooses him to be the “parent” of a new Mecha named David (Haley Joel Osment), he agrees.

At first, Monica is not thrilled with the idea. She has faith that Martin will recover, and she thinks that “replacing” her flesh-and-blood son with a robot is disrespectful. Eventually, Monica develops maternal feelings and warms up to David enough to activate the imprinting code provided by Hobby when he sent the Mecha to the Swintons’ house:

[Monica reads the words that will imprint herself on David, and give David the feelings to love]

Monica: Now, I'm gonna read some words. And, uh, they won't make any sense, but I want you to listen to them anyway... and look at me all the time. Can you do that?

David: Yes, Monica.

Monica: [Monica puts her finger tips to the back of David's neck] Can you feel my hand on the back of your neck?

David: Yes.

Monica: [David remains to sit while smiling] Does any of this hurt?

David: No.

Monica: Okay, now, look at me. Ready? Cirrus. Socrates. Particle. Decibel. Hurricane. Dolphin. Tulip. Monica. David. Monica.

Monica: [David's expression goes silent] All right. I wonder if I did that right. I don't...

David: What were those words for, Mommy?

Monica: [Monica closes and opens her eyes] What did you call me?

David: Mommy.

Monica: [Monica smiles rolling her hand onto David's neck] Who am I, David?

David: [David softly whispers while hugging onto Monica] You are my Mommy.   

Monica then introduces David to Teddy (voice of Jack Angel), a “Supertoy” or “Mecha teddy bear.”

And, for a while, David becomes a bona fide member of the Swinton family. Until, that is, Harry and Monica get unexpected news: doctors have cured Martin’s rare disease and his parents can bring him back home.

A.I. then takes the first in a series of dark turns as Harry and Monica reunite with their flesh-and-blood son. Martin doesn’t like David and seeks to sabotage the bond between his mother and his robotic “brother.” It’s a case of classic sibling rivalry gone amok – and the jealous Martin will stop at nothing to get his parents to rid the family of the now rather redundant David.

After Martin convinces his trusting “brother” to snip a lock of Monica’s hair, a worried Harry decides that David has become a threat to his wife and son. Mistakenly believing that David was trying to kill Monica, Harry convinces her that it would be best to destroy the Mecha per Hobby’s directives on what to do in a worst-case scenario.

Monica is worried that David will become dangerous, but still can’t bring herself to destroy the cute, naïve android.  In a scene right out of a Brothers Grimm tale, she decides to take David out on a long drive outside of town – to abandon him. 

[Monica arrives in the woods with David, prepared to leave him there alone]

Monica: [David makes the picnic blanket for them both] David, listen. Now... you won't understand the reasons, but... I have - I have to leave you here.

David: Is it a game?

Monica: No.

David: When will you come back for me?

Monica: I'm not, David. You'll have to be here by yourself.

David: Alone?

Monica: [Monica's voice breaks with tears in her eyes] With Teddy.

David: [David begins to uncontrollably cry] No. No, no, no, no, no, no! No, Mommy, please! No, no! Please, Mommy, no!

Monica: Shh. Shh. Shh. They will destroy you, David. Please, David.

David: No! No, Mommy! I'm sorry I broke myself. I'm so sorry I cut your hair off... And I'm sorry I hurt you and I hurt Martin.

Monica: [Monica starts screaming as she begins to cry, holding David away from holding her] I have to go! I have to go! Stop it! Stop it! I have to go now.

David: [Monica stands up as David continues to try and hold her] Mommy, no! Mommy! Mommy, if Pinocchio became a real... and I become a real boy, can I come home?

Monica: That's just a story.

David: But a story tells what happens.

Monica: [Monica runs back to the car where she gets on her knees to talk to David one last time] Stories are not real! You're not real! Now, listen to me. Look. Look! Take this, all right? Take this. Don't let anyone see how much it is, okay? Now, look, don't go that way. Look! Look at me! Look! Don't go that way. Go anywhere but that way or they'll catch you. Don't ever let them catch you! Listen, stay away from Flesh Fairs, away from where there are lots of people. Stay away from all people. Only others like you. Only Mecha are safe!

David: [David cries with his two hands around Monica's neck] Why do you wanna leave me? Why do you wanna leave me? I'm sorry I'm not real. If you let me, I'll be so real for you.

Monica: [Monica tries pulling off David, as she screams, throwing David off her] Let go. Let go, David. Let go!

Monica: [Monica looks at David laying on the ground] I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the world.

 From here on, A.I. – which draws heavily from Pinocchio. The Wizard of Oz, and Stanley Kubrick’s examinations of humanity’s often ambivalence-laden relationship with technology – follows David’s long and perilous quest to find the “Blue Fairy.” The single-minded David is convinced that if the Blue Fairy can turn him into a real boy, he can return home and be loved by his “Mommy.”

Accompanied by Teddy, David goes forth into a dark and dangerous road on which he not only finds a friend in Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a once popular-with-the-ladies sex robot who is now an outcast. But David and Teddy also find themselves in an Oz-like metropolis called Rouge City and in a nightmarish Flesh Fair where humans viciously destroy abandoned and forlorn Mechas.

My Take  

I saw A, I. Artificial Intelligence when it premiered in Miami in June of 2001, along with two close friends. All three of us were familiar with Steven Spielberg’s films; A.I. was his 20^th offering as a director of feature films, and we had seen quite a few of them either in theaters or on home video.

We also knew – thanks to media coverage that focused on the movie’s development process – that A.I. had begun life as a project that Stanley Kubrick had spent at least 15 years on but, convinced that there was no way to create David via computer generated imagery, handed it off to his friend Steven Spielberg in 1995.

Kubrick’s original plan was to produce the film while Spielberg – who was famous for making Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.- directed it. At first, Spielberg demurred and offered to reverse the roles – he would produce, and Kubrick would direct. The project was put in hold while Spielberg focused on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad, and Saving Private Ryan, and Kubrick went off to finish Eyes Wide Shot, with A.I. slated to be his next movie.

Kubrick died in 1999, but his widow Christiane convinced Spielberg to take on the movie that her late husband always referred to as Pinocchio. This time, he accepted the job as a last tribute to his departed colleague and friend. 

So, when my friends and I went to see A.I. on that summer day in 2001, we knew that this wasn’t going to be a typical Spielberg movie.

When we left the theater two and a half hours later, our reaction was mixed.

My two friends were divided in their reaction. One loved A.I.; she liked the performances, especially that of Haley Joel Osment, who played David so convincingly that she almost forgot that Mechas don’t exist in our reality. She thought the story was a bit too dark and that some of the sequences were either overly long or confusing. But overall, she liked the movie.

My other friend said he liked the film’s visuals but thought the stylistic mix of Kubrick and Spielberg felt a little forced. He also opined that the ending was too typically Spielbergian – technically well-done but overly sentimental.

I had not seen too many of Kubrick’s films before I watched A.I., so I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the movie. Yes, the acting was great, as were the visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic and John Williams’ beautiful score. But the overall effect the movie had on me was…confusing. Was the ending a happy one? Or was it sad?

I promised myself that I’d watch the movie again before it ended its run, but for various reasons I did not. Something always seemed to come up – a client needed work to be done, or another movie was out. And after the events of September 11, a certain scene in A.I. was bound to be too hard to watch. I eventually convinced myself that A.I. wasn’t even worth getting on DVD, so I didn’t bother to add it to my video collection when Warner Home Video released it on home media in 2002.

Now that I have the Blu-ray (which was released in the U.S. by Paramount Home Media Distribution in 2011), I have viewed A.I. Artificial Intelligence several times over the past year and can give a more nuanced opinion.

Okay, let me be up front about this. A.I. is not likely to knock Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jaws off their tied-for-first-place pedestal in my list of favorite Steven Spielberg movies of all time. It’s too much of a Stanley Kubrick film – despite what the film’s detractors say about the Spielberg-style oversentimental ending – for it to be a movie that I’d be happy to be stuck with on Gilligan’s Island. I love Kubrick’s style, but not enough to watch his movies on a regular basis.

Even so, I still have to say that A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a testament to Spielberg’s talents as a filmmaker. He was able to take a project that had been dear to another cinematic genius, write a screenplay that was faithful to the treatment Kubrick had developed and invested time and money on, and make a film that is wholly Spielberg’s – yet also reflects and respects Kubrick’s original vision.

Female Colleague: You know, it occurs to me... with all this animus existing against Mechas today, it isn't simply a question of creating a robot who can love. But isn't the real conundrum, can you get a human to love them back?

Professor Hobby: Ours will be a perfect child caught in a freeze-frame... always loving, never ill, never changing. With all the childless couples yearning in vain for a license, our Mecha will not only open a completely new market but will fill a great human need.

Female Colleague: But you haven't answered my question. If a robot could genuinely love a person, what responsibility does that person hold toward that Mecha in return? It's a moral question, isn't it?

Professor Hobby: The oldest one of all. But in the beginning, didn't God create Adam to love him?  

A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a beautifully made film that will dazzle the eye, enrich the soul, and – in the end – touch the heart and mind. It’s one of Spielberg’s true masterpieces, albeit one that is underappreciated and underrated.