Review of A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) by Kai82 — 14 Mar 2021

A great movie that can be describe as a science fiction version of Pinocchio and based on the story “Supertoys last all Summer long” by Brian Aldiss. It deals with a lot of philosophical questions and challenges you to think what it actually means to be a human.

However I still do not know what to make out of the ending. If feels strange and like an addition from another source (It is not). The movie is set in the 22nd century. Global warming had its influence on mankind / earth and the coastal areas from today are flooded with the effect that the population of humanity has decreased.

However technology has still advanced but you would still feel familiar in this world. It is the story of David who is a prototype robot with full human (childlike) emotions in a childlike body. He was given to Henry and Monica Swinton to help them cope with her sons incurable disease which needed him to be placed in suspended animation until a cure is found.

However it goes downward from there for David and I wont spoil more than the set up. The ideas and set up are really good. It is a modern take on a classic story. It is Davids journey to get answers to questions we ourselves fail to get or cant even proper explain.

It is full of philosophical questions and you have the outsiders perspective on humanity in many cases which gives a lot to thing. Only the ending drags this movie down. Even after years I am still puzzled what the intention or message was.

To be fair it is not garbage it just feels out from another script or another person wants to add something that does not fit into the narrative. Currently I am even not sure if it is a happy or downer ending.

In total I say it is an unsatisfying ending and I will rate the movie lower because of it. Again to be fair the source had a dower ending too and used a similar motive. For the cast: Steven Spielberg does a good job as director here and while it is not one of his well recognized works it is still good.

Haley Joel Osment is truly praiseworthy as David. Good child actors are rare and he is one of the best. Jude Law as Gigolo Joe is also great. You see how much effort he put into his role. The Swinton family is believable and deliver with Frances O’Connor, Sam Robards and Jake Thomas.

The rest of the cast is good too and overall there is a great performance. Visually the movie is great. The world looks and feels realistic and believable. Except from the ending the immersion always works well.

If you have Steven Spielberg you also have often the legend John Williams for the score. There is no bad score with John Williams involved should be a statement and like so often he got nominated for the Oscars.

Overall this is tricky to evaluate. Without the ending I would go for a 9/10. However the ending took all of us by surprise and “WTF?” was a frequent comment. It weakens the performance of a great movie.