Director Steven Spielberg is shown rehearsing a scene with actors Haley Joel Osment, left, and Jude Law during the filming of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. The film grossed an estimated $30.1 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, according to data released July 1, 2001. A.I. is a disturbingly eerie and occasionally captivating modern fairy tale that lives up to at least part of its name: It's more artificial than intelligent.
The product of an unusual collaboration between Steven Spielberg and the late Stanley Kubrick, this film retells the children's story of Pinocchio through the eyes of a robot boy yearning to be human and wishing to be loved.
But E.T. or Indiana Jones this isn't. Kubrick's darkling vision of the future weighs heavily on the first hour or so of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, resulting in brutish, horrific scenes reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange or The Shining -- definitely not suitable for children.
At least Spielberg provides a far more enjoyable ending that -- while still eldritch -- is so unexpected and endearing that it ameliorates the earlier, unnerving sterility.
Much of the movie follows the David-bot (Haley Joel Osment); first, after he's adopted by a couple mourning their lost son and then when he's set loose to wander around late-21st century America. He quickly learns that being a "mecha" in a world where androids are used for pleasure or sport isn't easy: The piggish humans want to torture him for the sin of being metal.
Driving David throughout his wanderings is his wish to be human so his mother will love him again. That urge is hard-wired into David, and it could be compelling if it weren't so darn creepy. (Meanwhile, her "orga," or human, son has awakened from his coma-freeze and is back to start some sibling rivalry).
Think Asimov's Laws of Robotics with the first law replaced to read: "Must find mother to love me." You get the feeling that the David-bot's running some descendant of the C programming language that's stuck in an infinite loop reading "repeat (find mom) {until mom == located}."
One consequence of building such a single-minded creature is that you end up with a boy who wants Mom so much that he'll keep repeating the same unsuccessful actions over and over, like a robot dog repeatedly bumping up against a door until his batteries run out. A human boy would give up the search, one suspects, eventually.
David is joined by a charming sex machine, played by Jude Law, a gigolo-bot who doesn't hope to be flesh-and-blood, but nevertheless comes across as far more human than David's adoptive parents.
His other companion is Teddy -- a cross between a dog-bot and a teddy bear -- who's the only robot or human who understands David, and probably the only one who truly cares about him. Mom wanted an emotional prop, his brother sees David as an innocent victim and Dad's just plain freaked out.
As you might expect from a Spielberg-Kubrick collaboration, there are plenty of good things to say about A.I. The visual effects are so well-crafted that they become a true part of the film; Osment's performance is even better than his role in Sixth Sense; the ending may have been fully explored in science fiction literature decades ago, but it's still a daring approach for Hollywood.
The downsides? Besides the clammy feel, some scenes strain credulity. Who would build a 'bot that crashes if it eats food -- then give it the ability to swallow, insufficient internal prohibitions against it and idiotic parents who don't stop it right away?
Movies should be rated by how much they're worth. If you're looking for a science fiction movie that will provoke, madden and irritate you, A.I. is worth $10 -- otherwise keep yourself and any youngsters far away.
