A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(June 2001, U.S.)

There's a lot I have to say about this film. But the first things I should tell you is that Stanley Kubrick is still my favorite director of all time. He died in March 1999. Steven Spielberg is my favorite LIVING director today.

When I first heard about a story by Stanley Kubrick to be directed by Steven Spielberg, I thought my movie dreams were about to come true. After Kubrick passed away, it seemed only fitting that Spielberg would take the reins on a project Kubrick had been kicking around for some time. The result was A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

I don't know about you, but as an adult, I've always enjoyed high concept science fiction films. Films like 2001, THX-1138, DUNE and SOLARIS that have challanged the mind and forced one to ask questions and perhaps watch them again to get a better feel for the film are far more rewarding for me than the traditional action of any STAR WARS film.

A.I. puts a new futuristic twist on the story of Pinocchio and raises questions of love, committment, responsibility and humanity. When does a robot child actually become human? If this child is capable of loving, what obligations does society have to love it back? These concepts, accompanied with some dazzling special effects, in my opinion, make it one of Spielberg's best films to rival even that of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and E.T.

There is sequence toward the end of the film where we see the icy, frozen plains of what was once the island of Manhattan, 2000 years into the future. There is a shot of what remains of the tops of the twin towers of the World Trade Center sticking out of the ice. Excuse the bad pun, but watching this scene now is particularly "chilling" given the fact that less than three months after the film's release, the twin towers were destroyed on September 11th.

A.I. is without a doubt one of Steven Spielberg's most underated films. In my opinion, it not only should have been nominated for the Oscar for best picture of 2001, but I consider it to be one of my top ten favorite films of the last decade.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Female Colleague: "It occurs to me with all this animus existing against Mechas today, it isn't just a question of creating a robot that can love. Isn't the real conundrum , can you get a human to love them back?"
Professor Hobby: "Ours will be a perfect child caught in a freezeframe. Always loving, never ill, never changing. With all the childless couples yearning in vain for a license, our Mecha will not only open up a new market, but fill a great human need."
Female Colleague: "But you haven't answered my question. If a robot could genuinely love a person, what responsibility does that person hold toward the Mecha in return? It's a moral question, isn't it?"
Professor Hobby: "The oldest one of all. But in the beginning, didn't God create Adam to love him?"