Review of A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) by Eric M — 09 Sep 2013

What a fascinating slice of cinema. A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a wonderfully conceived and highly thought-provoking film with the execution to match, at least in the first act and, at times, the third.

The story examines what happens when humanity tries to remove itself from the equation; that the end result of that endeavor that lacks humanity only wants to find its one missing element is a wonderfully engaging premise.

The film explores the search for life where it does not and cannot exist, but it also suggests that maybe it's not the soul, but the recognition of its absence and the resultant sense of purpose and the quest to find it that really makes something "human.

" Steven Spielberg handles the story proper expertly; there's no telling what the film might have looked like in Stanley Kubrick's hands -- maybe it would have bridged the bookend acts a bit better -- but as it stands, A.

I. Artificial Intelligence is more of a success of thought-provoking concept than anything else. The film certainly manages to engage its audiences through the story and characters, but they are ultimately just vessels upon which the story boards and travels to its various destinations along the line that takes viewers through life as it is seen in both the prisms of the absence of and search for humanity.

A perfect film for a philosophy, psychology, film, or even maybe a religion class, A.I. Artificial Intelligence may not be a masterwork of cinema, but its story is certainly a masterwork of the mentally challenging type.