| A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |
 2001 – USA
Director: Steven Spielberg - Reviewed by Tom
Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife Monica (Frances O'Conner)'s son is near death in the hospital for some reason that wasn't very clear to me. So Henry comes home with a mechanical son named David (Haley Joel "I see dead people" Osment). At first Monica is reluctant to accept the new mechanical son, but after she "registers his software" he becomes more human and loving. (Almost too loving—how many times does this boy have to say he loves mommy?). Suddenly their real son Martin (Jake Thomas) pulls out of his disease and comes home from the hospital to find Plastic Boy in his place. David realizes that Martin is a "real" kid and he isn't, and the movie becomes a sci-fi version of Pinocchio. After some problems between the boys, mom drops David off in the woods like an unwanted kitten. He then meets up with another Mecha who is some kind of robotic prostitute. They begin a quest for the "Blue Fairy" who should be able to turn him into a human boy. There is a pretty cool scene where they meet up with a bunch of other Mechas and it reminded me of the Jawa junk dealers from Star Wars with all the different kinds of robotic people made from spare parts. Speaking of Jawas, there is a creepy robo-teddy bear that reminded me of an Ewok, but fortunately not quite as irritating. The movie goes on to be kind of a strange mix of Close Encounters, Twilight Zone, Road Warrior, and Robotica on the TLC channel. It was kind of easy to see some of the style of Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg in the movie. There was the strangeness of Kubrick's movies along with the warm fuzzy E.T.-style of Spielberg. I feel it was very much a family kind of movie (other than the hints of prostitution). The special effects were amazing and I just wish they showed some more close up shots of the robots. The New York City sequence reminded me of the similar scenes in Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes (remember those old movies?). Overall, I liked the movie and think it's great to see some new and decent science fiction for a change. |
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The movie starts somewhere in the hopefully not-too-near
future where global warming has melted the ice caps and
flooded the Earth. The coastal cities are all
underwater forcing all the inhabitants to move inland
while the population explodes. Families are restricted
in the number of children they can have so scientists
have come up with "Mechas" (or mechanical people).
