A.I. : Artificial intelligence

May 15, 2010A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) ***1/2Directed by Steven SpielbergI'm a high school teacher, and one of the courses I teach is Honors Introduction to Philosophy. When we discuss the concept of what makes a "self," I show the first hour of A.I., and when the students, who are usually completely engrossed in the film by the time we see young David's face in the rear view mirror of Monica's car, ask why we can't watch the whole movie, I tell them that its completely overblown second half leads to one of the stupidest endings of any film I've ever seen. Since first viewing A.I. in the theater in 2001 when I ultimately didn't respond positively to its narrative conceit, I've grown to! respect its best moments despite the fact that the storyline truly can't support its ambitions.Stanley Kubrick had planned this film for twelve years, and he personally chose Steven Spielberg to direct before dying in 1999. The whole first hour feels eerily Kubrickian with shots that look like they belong alongside moments from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rumor has it that Kubrick didn't know how to end the film, and Spielberg took it upon himself to conceptualize and execute the final sequence beginning at the bottom of the ocean and ending with David and Monica in the bedroom. Perhaps this is apocryphal, but it makes sense considering that Spielberg's sensibilities tend towards overeager science fiction. The story of a robot boy made to last forever and programmed only to love one person who is inevitably going to abandon him contains with it a sense of emotional intimacy and desperation. As such, Spielberg's bombastic, futuristic conclusion involving creatures that look like! they're right out of the storyboards of Close Encounters of t! he Third Kind feel completely inappropriate to the tone of everything that proceeds.All that being said, A.I.'s first hour never ceases to absolutely blow me away with its compelling philosophical conundrums and its gorgeous visual interplay between the future and the 1970s. Hayley Joel Osment plays the boy robot named David, and he gives one of the great child performances in film history. The film's second act involving an excellent Jude Law as a sex robot called Gigolo Joe contains a bit too many chase scenes, and the flesh fair sequence may be conceptually interesting as a kind of KKK rally but it's executed poorly.A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is best when it intimately explores ethical questions about man's responsibilities towards his own creation. When Spielberg indulges his obsession with film making technology, the result is hit or miss. At its best, A.I. is a work of pure genius; however, at its worst, which includes a conclusion I just can't bring myself to allow my stud! ents to watch, A.I. sort of sucks. Still, though, if one goes into the film allowing for its unevenness, A.I. does prove itself to be worthy of repeated viewings.
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