Am I the only person (besides robgruver) who absolutely loved this movie? It wasn’t flawless, but I think it was one of the best SF movies made. I rank it with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Few other movies, if any, have compared with these three in creating perfectly realized visions of morally ambiguous futures in which people face moral dillemas caused by their own technology. Spielberg did an incredible job of realizing Kubrick’s vision. Kubrick’s fingerprints are all over this movie, although Spielberg undeniably gave it his own touch, especially at the end, and in certain other scenes and elements (like Teddy). Like 2001 and Blade Runner, I think this movie is ahead of it’s time, and will be seen as a groundbreaking classic by future SF fans.
I still haven’t made up my mind whether I liked the movie or not but I certainly didn’t love it.
My biggest problem was that I didn’t care what was happening to that idiot robot. David kept getting on my nerves. He almost drowned that little prick Martin! I can’t believe that a company would ever really build a robot that wasn’t designed to NOT do things like that if only to avoid lawsuits. It should have some sorta failsafe shouldn’t it? Something that would have shutdown the “boy” portion of the robot to deal with emergencies, and then back to “boy” after the emergency was over.
And another thing, if he was supposed to be so real why was he tapping into the phone with his finger and acting like a speaker phone? I don’t know any boys that can do that but that’s just a minor nitpick.
What was wrong with Martin anyway? I got the impression he was cryogenically frozen because they couldn’t cure him and then he wakes up? Was it just a coma? How long? I thought I heard 5 years but I may be wrong.
Anyway, seeing NY under water was very cool.
How about the ship at the end that just breaks apart when they get to where David was frozen? That looked cool too. I thought it was maybe some sort of nanotechnology but that’s just speculation.
I thought the movie was alright until a couple things happened:
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What was the deal with those motorcycle guys that looked like rejects from Batman and Robin? Seriously, they could’ve looked less corny.
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Apparently, music in the future hasn’t changed a lot, such as what was being played at the Flesh Fair.
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Why did David smash the other David he met in the office? I figured since he was gonna be marketed as a child that only loves, he wouldn’t have smashed his likeness unless this was to show that he was capable of hurting a human sibling.
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The whole “2000 years” later thing was horrible. First off, even though the ice caps melted by 21xx thus causing the oceans to rise, the absorption of heat wouldn’t cause the oceans to completely freeze. It would’ve been more like another ice age similar to the one from circa 50,000 BCE. And why couldn’t the humans have survived this freeze? I figure at least some humans could’ve established a colony on the moon or Mars. Also, they apparently make durable robots since David is still functional after all that time.
Overall, the first 2 hours or so were alright and it should’ve ended with David wishing to be a real boy. I give it a 6 out of 10.
i assumed that the ice age future was all nanotech. the fluidic robots were just nanite amalgamates with a humanoid residual image; that whole robot religion that placed the humans as the end-all and be-all of life made them accumulate into humanoids, to become as their gods.
personally, i didn’t really like the movie- it just had too many things about it that grated on me.
(A.)the ‘eternal power cell’. i really hate that sort of thing.
i mean, even if there was a fusion cell inside of them, they would draw in water. the ship’s lights dimmed before everything froze*, so that is out- if it really was a fusion power cell, it wouldn’t run down until the water stopped being absorbable. so without a water using power cell, nothing else would last for 2000 years with no source of fuel- no way to keep 2000 years worth of fuel in something the size of a little kid. grr. i really hate that sort of thing…
(B.) another thing relating to the long freeze- the fact that basic electric servos would work after being encased in ice for 2000 years. this focuses more on teddy than david. i can suspend my belief enough to believe that david has some superadvanced drivers, but you could hear teddy whirring about before! i don’t like that sort of thing. no motor can survive that sort of stress… well, maybe some military robot, but that thing was a children’s toy.
(C.) has everyone forgotten asimov’s laws of robotics? that pool scene should never have happened, realistically. first the mean kid says “i am not gonna break the skin- just tell me when it starts to hurt.” so he pokes david with the knife. “it hurts.” says david. then either the mean kid would stop, or he would keep pressing until he broke the skin, and david would jump away and keep away from the mean kid. i mean, he was a prototype, but the laws aren’t something you leave out.
(D.) the whole “space-time memory” thing. even if it WERE possible to clone someone with all their memories from a piece of hair, ‘genetic memory’ and all that, the memories would be from when the hair was alive. since it was a clipping from the very end of a long clump of hair, and David had only been there with the family for about two months, the hair would only maybe grant memories to her of david’s very first appearance. probably not even that! and besides… what is a hunk of hair doing surviving two thousand years in a wet environment? that ship was filling with ice, you remember…
anyway, i personally would’ve preferred the movie if it came off as a prequel to ‘screamers’. i mean, that one scene where he is holdding his teddy in a dangling position, with an evil look and the light behind him… whoah. “cool! it’s a ‘phase three’ D.A.V.I.D.! ‘screamers’ time!” i thought.
or heck, a good anti-human rampage would’ve been good for me. as in, he sees those other david/darlene bots, and goes mad. he activates them and loads his mind into them, with his hate of all man, and does that ‘love me’ command, so they are his totally loyal followers forever-sort of like the IG-82s’ relation to IG-82-A from star wars. and then later he organizes an anti human rebellion amongst all the persecuted bots, and destroys mankind. i’d like that ending… of course, i’m just plain evil.
really, the only saving graces of the movie, what made it so i didn’t rail to the sky of the loss of two and one half hours of my life, were ‘teddy’ and Jude Law. mmm, Jude Law as Sexbot… heh.
ps. the disease martin had was called “the Sinclair Virus”.
bad plot device too, him waking up. when the dad called, it seemed as if it were a suprise he woke up, like the virus cured itself, not as if he had been healed by those nanite virus killers mentioned in the beginning. which is therefore stupid.
*[sub]the narrator said
[/sub]
As far as the ending goes…SUCKED! Sorry, the audience let out an audible groan at “2000 Years Later.”
As far as the ending summing up the “fairy tale,” have any of you ever read Hans Christian Anderson? The Toy Soldier, The Little Match Girl, and the like? They all ended way sad. Ending in front of the Blue Fairy would have been the way to go. Or even having him “die” and dream about his mother ala The Little Match Girl.
Just to start off with can I have a Teddy?
And a Gigolo Joe while you’re at it?
Oh well, I really liked the movie, sure it was corny at parts but it’s PG13, you have to realize that some younger kids are going to be watching this too.
Kitty
I loved the movie myself. However, being somewhat neutral towards all things sci-fi, I was more drawn to AI for the emotion, what could be called the “chick flick” side of the movie.
Possible spoiler and/or something to look for in the movie:
Did anyone notice that somewhere in the Dr. Know sequence (I don’t remember exactly where), they played the Jetsons’ doorbell (which is also part of the Jetsons theme song) as one of the background sound effects? I had to give that touch a thumbs up.
I loved the movie, and I loved the ending.
I don’t think the robots would have allowed David to die or de-activate at the end, although that’s what I thought he was asking for when he said, “You know what you have to do to make me happy.” They mentioned that he was their link to living humans, so I doubt they’d be willing to let him go. I just think that he actually had reached a point where he could sleep there with his mother.
Was the Blue Fairy voiced by Meryl Streep?
I could have sworn that the narrator/robot at the end was John Hurt. Ben Kingsley. Hm.
Did you guys recognize Chris Rock as the first mecha to die at the Flesh Fair?
Was that Ministry playing at the Flesh Fair?
About fairy tale stuff in the movie - did you notice when Monica was dressed in her evening gown (before David dipped into the Chanel No. 5) that she said, “oops, my shoe” as she headed down the stairs. Very Cinderella.
And what was with the fish who guided David to the particular point in Underwater NY, and dropped him so he could see the Pinocchio area of Coney Island? Is that from a fairy tale?
Rouge City = Emerald City. And that club, “Tails” where Gigolo Joe had come from, looked a lot like the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz. All pale green cylinders.
Also, Gigolo Joe had also foreshadowed that mechas would be the only thing to survive the world. He explained to David right outside the “Dr. Know” room that that was why men hated them.
I’ve seen A.I. twice already.
To answer your questions
-I believe that was actually Kid Rock at the Flesh Fair
-Ben Kingsley is the narrator and a darn fine one
-Teddy was voiced by a man named Jack Angel, who in the animation field is a HUGELY used voice for cartoons (like from Scooby Doo from 69). Mostly guest voices than actual ppl but some a cartoony person like myself recognizes- Zarkon from Voltron, The Flash from the SuperFriends, and Bruno Matinez from that excellent video game Grim Fandango
-David smashed the other David simply because it went against every program fact instilled in him. Why he kept screamin he was unique and he was a individual. Coming to terms that you are indeed something that can be reproduced over and over caused him to go nuts. And that was why he jumped in the water
-The film AI is entwined with loads of Fairy Tales. Some I have seen was Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and many more.
Ok so anyways my thoughts. Compared to what has been out and classified as Sci Fi lately, this film rocked the house. It was very Kubrick, cerebral and it does make me want to go see it again. It was a HUGE breath of fresh air on a otherwise mundane year of films (notable exceptions right now…Momento - PLEASE GO SEE THIS) I came into the film in a really bad mood due to work and came out feeling a lot better and knowing what was pissing me off was something I should shrug off.
The ending…eh Could have been done better, should have been left at the final. (2000 years is SO CLICHE)
Teddy - Never have I seen so much emotion conveyed in such a simple creature. I did tear up when Teddy gave David the hair. Now that is a friend indeed. A true work of art and everyone involved in making Teddy a reality should be congratulated. You idiots that invented Jar Jar Binks need to take notes.
Joe- Jude did great. I loved the touch of old 20’s music and his notching his neck to activate it (was it me or did it sound like a old Wurlitzer activating?) I truly wished that David and Joe would have stayed together with Joe playing protector.
Personally, I didn’t mind the ending too much, though there were some things about it that I had issues with. First of all, David steals a police helicopter(ish thing), drops it in the ocean, and nobody can find him? I mean, we have GPS now; I doubt finding a stolen police vehicle would have taken very long at all.
Then there’s the aforementioned “how is he still working” thing, though I suppose the advanced robots could have rejuiced his battery when they reactivated him and, presumably, Teddy.
And as far as resurrecting Monica goes, I didn’t mind it too much (though there was a deus ex machina feel to the whole memory restoration thing), though it felt entirely too Freudian too me. Of course I am a pervert, so maybe that was just me.
Back to the point, though, the fact that these scientists that really wanted to speak with David sure didn’t seem to do a very good job of looking for him.
And yes, as far as I could tell ('specially since neither my friends nor my bladder wanted to sit through the credits), it was the white and the black Rocks at the Flesh Fair.
There were mixed reactions at the theater I saw it in.
Several people clapped. But spooje overheard the following quotes from fellow moviegoers:
“Of all the movies I’ve ever seen, that was one of them”
“It lulled me right off to sleep”
and
“Christ, I though it would never end”
It was toooooo long. And all the people sucked mightily. And why the hell didn’t Dr. Hobby take the first David? It was modeled after his own kid. And how come the Blue Fairy wasn’t encrusted with barnacles? And why was the popcorn so damned expensive? Why in my day…
My interpretation of AI.
We hear the Ben Kingsley narration at the very beginning. This means that the entire story is being told by one of the robots we see at the end. But who is he telling the story to? It has to be another robot, there are no humans left. The whole story is actually a robot folk tale/fairy tale/origin story, told by one robot to another, which explains why the story doesn’t make strict logical sense at times; such stories rarely make logical sense. BTW, the David as Pinnochio parallel is glaringly obvious, but no one has mentioned the Teddy is Jiminy Cricket.
The movie wasn’t based on Asimov’s robots, so there is no reason for the story to incorporate the three laws. David is capable of love, but the only person he loves is Monica. He was designed as a child for parents without children, so there is no reason he would have been programmed to protect siblings it was assumed he wouldn’t have. But it’s interesting that you refer to the kid as being mean to David. You can only really be mean to something with feelings, so you’ve implicitly accepted David as being a person, not a thing.
First, she isn’t exactly a clone, she has been resurrected for a day. This fits in with the fairy tale/religious parable theme, and is also a kind of wish fullfillment fantasy. A great many people would give almost anything to have just one more day with a loved one they’ve lost, especially if they parted on bad terms. The robots give David that chance.
Second, Monica doesn’t have any specific memories of anything other than exactly what is presented to her: the house, David, and Teddy. Remember how David is warned about not bringing up certain things so as not to upset her? She has whatever memories from her life that will fit the surroundings she is given.
Third, the amphibicopter wasn’t filling up with ice. The ice crystals on David’s face are frost formed from the water vapor that was already in the cabin air when it was trapped in the ocean. If the cabin were not completely water tight, it would have been completely filled with ice.
Last, as for the 2000 years. It has to be 2000, not for any logical or scientific reason, but for dramatic reasons. David is a Christ figure (There is plenty of Chirst symbolism here). When we talk about Christ, we are talking about someone who lived 2000 years ago. When the narrator talks about David, he is talking about someone who, to him, is a kind of religious figure who lived 2000 years before.
But ultimately, the movie doesn’t quite work for me, though not for any of the reasons listed above. We’re supposed to feel sympathy for David at many times during the movie: when his “brother” and the other boys are cruel to him, when he is sent back to the factory to be dissassembled (another biblical paralell), when he spends such a long time praying to the blue fairy. But I never could because no matter how well he may have simulated loving Monica, the only real love here is from Monica towards her very complex, very realistic toy. Osment does such a good job of reminding us that David is a very complex doll, not a person, not even a pet, that I could feel no more feel sympathy for him than I would for a toaster. Feeling sorry for him as he waits in the copter would be like feeling sorry for an endlessly looping computer program, which is essentially what he is at that point. When Monica leaves him in the woods, I am reminded that “It is Margaret that you mourn for.”
I would have ended the movie just after David discovers the boxes of other Davids and Debras? (can’t remember the girl models name for sure), because that is the moment that he realizes that he isn’t one of a kind, and can never be a real boy.
Even better, I would have dumped the robot kid, and made the whole movie about Teddy. Am I the only one who found Teddy the most interesting character in the movie?
I don’t regret seeing it, I was mesmerized while watching it, but it doesn’t leave me with a sense of wonder like the best sf, like Contact, does.
The girl robots were named Darlene. I have no idea how I remember that, but I’m sure of it.
My original impression after leaving the theater last night was, “Well, it was better than Pearl Harbor.”
towards the end, when Monica is passing out for good, she says aloud, “I can barely keep my eyes open.” Some guy behind me in the theater announced, “I feel the same way!”
I’m not sure about that whole David-dying-at-the-end theory; it wasn’t clear that he died; my theory is that if they wanted us to think he was dead, they would have shown him eating a great big plate of spinach . . .
(that was kind of the most amusing part actually; he is waterproof, does not erode or decay, does not freeze, but heaven forbid he comes near spinach . . .)
About Teddy: I felt sorry for him because he basically had devoted his “life” to tagging along with David (like his search for David at the Flesh Fair) and David just seemed to ignore him. Just a basic, “Oh, hi Teddy. Now please get out of my way, I have to find my real friend.” I’m sure David didn’t mean it intentionally. Teddy’s just the forgotten sidekick.
At the end I could imagine Teddy sitting on the bed thinking, “Good, Monica is gone. Now David will finally pay attention to me.”
I’m pretty sure it was Ministry playing at the Flesh Fair. I found a couple of articles about it, finally.
Also, I think Teddy prefers David’s company. They’re both mechas, he didn’t wonder about David’s motivations or if David would hurt him. The first time you see Teddy and Martin interact, Martin has picked him up rather haphazardly. Teddy says, “Martin, No”.
Although, when David dropped Teddy from the Moon-Balloon heading to the Flesh Fair - did he do it on purpose?
I went into this film hoping to see Spielberg recapture some of the magic he displayed in his earlier sci-fi works, while paying homage to the late, great Stanley Kubrick. What I saw was an over-bloated, asinine, self-absorbed piece of clap-trap which bored me after about an hour. The film was all over the place, and seemed to be a Frankenstein like amalgamation of vignettes, tied poorly together with a Sci-Fi / Fairy Tale narrative that did not mesh AT ALL. I understand the fairy tale paradigm that Spielberg was shooting for, but there is no reason to beat the audience over the head with the Pinoochio parallels! We are not stupid Steven, we understand what you are trying to do from act one, but lay off with talking about the “Blue Fairy” every time the action grinds to a halt.
There a elements of this film early on the really piqued my interest, and the relationship with the mother was touching, but then Spielberg awkwardly lurches the story in a new direction for the first of many times when he brings the Swinton’s son Martin back from his state as a popsicle. It’s poorly done, and is just one of many examples of the screenwriters knowing where David was supposed to go next, but not quite knowing how to achieve this (supposedly Spielberg drafted the screenplay, but it screams out that it was cobbled together by a team). The Martin / David struggle is a pure example of how this film could have been drastically improved if Speilberg had had read an incorporated Asimov’s definitive work on the nature of robots, “I, Robot”. David’s programming makes little to no sense, and does not match up to the sophistication of Gigolo Joe’s and at some point, even Teddy’s. I understand that he’s supposed to be a child mecha, but does that mean you create a widely flawed machine just so that it may be able to experience one human emotion? I didn’t buy it….not for a second.
Another major problem with the film was the fact that it was written by people who do not understand technology or the nature of science itself, making the science end of this science-fiction-fairy-tale fall flat on it’s face. There are sooooo many lapses in the story which use technology as a means to further the plot while leaving gaping holes concerning the use of technology. For example, David and Gigolo Joe Steal a hover-pod thingy, and take off for New York. Well first off, how would Gigolo Joe, a sex-bot, be programmed to fly a police vehicle? And why wouldn’t the police have a device for remotely stopping the vehicle from being stolen? Why wouldn’t they have a device for remotely, or even in close quarters, shutting down or disabling a mecha, such as when they capture Joe? Why build a prototype for what I can only imagine costs millions upon millions of dollars, and not put the current equivalent of a GPS tracking device in it? Why did Hurt expect David to put set out on this quest in the first place and what does it prove about it’s programming when it tries to find the blue fairy? Nothing, because Hurt states that it proves that he sought out something that wasn’t real to fill an emotional need in himself. I cry BULLSHIT! David has no way of knowing that the blue fairy isn’t real, so to him it is not an unrealistic goal He has been simple programmed to desire the love of his mother over anything else and must acquire this at any cost. No big whoop…he did what you programmed to do, so what is the big fucking surprise? You obviously had several other models, so I think you would have figured it out previously.
Oh, and the numerous ending points really drags the film on way past it’s ability to entertain. The final scenes are terrible attempt to tug on the audience’s heart strings for the umpteenth time in the film, and at that point it’s completely redundant. The fact that Teddy saves the lock of hair, and that the future mechas can bring her back for only one day because of some meta-physical nonsense was absolutely the low point of the film for me. I hated the ending, but embraced the fact that it was finally bringing this film to a close was a welcome relief.
Okay, this has gotten really long, so let me sum it up with the following: I wanted to like this film so much, but it never suspended my disbelief for one moment, and that is the one thing that Spielberg needs to hook you into the story. Oh, and Steven, Tron called, they want their suits backs from the motorcycle riders.
I liked most of the movie. I first thought it was ending when he jumped in the water. I thought it was his attempt at committing suicide since he could never be real or have his mommy’s love. Maybe after long enough in the water, he would break.
Then I thought it was over when he was sitting there begging the Blue Fairy. That would have been fine with me.
But no. They have to dig him up and resurrect his dead mother so the little robot bot could have one happy day in his whole miserable life. At least the kid didn’t live happily ever after with his mom.
I thought one of two things was going to happen once the kid got back to his house (well, the replica of it). I thought the newer mechas would build a mecha of the mom for David. Or, maybe, that David would finally give up and ask to be dismantled.
Overall, I’m glad I saw it, but that damned ending drove me nuts.
I didn’t really like end of the movie much either, but there’s something here that I’d like to respond to.
I see no reason, as I wrote before, to make the robots Asimovian robots. Asimov was writing about robots that existed in a framework of laws and a future history he devised for that purpose. Asimov’s vision of robots is not the only one that makes for interesting stories; Blade Runner, Terminator 2, and Robocop come to mind as good movies made with distinctly non-Asimovian robots.
I think it as likely that military robots used as weapons will be with us before we have practical, realistic servant robots that Asimov proposed as not. Asimov’s vision isn’t the only one worth exploring. I have read about Asimov’s robots; I want something new.
I see your point, but I still disagree. Military robots would exist with a totally different “OS” than those used for home use, or industrial use, or…uhmm…hump use. But it would be interesting to see it used as a challenge to David’s programming, as would he over-ride his rules concerning human interaction to acheive what he would believe to be his mother’s love. Or something like that.
I just think that’s one of my major quibbles with the whole film. My biggest problem is the transition from David being left in the forest and getting him together with Gigolo Joe. The entire “Flesh Fest” segment seemed completely disjointed from the entire film and it jarred me out of being interested in movie.
I also detested the Robin Williams cameo, and thought the Doctor Know kiosk was just about the worst way possible to distribute information to customers. I would avoid those things like the plague just on the basis of interacting with a cartoon Einstien.
One last thing, and that’s the fact that Carlo Collodi should get a story credit on this damn thing.
I cried. Mr. Rilch cried. Friend has been saying, a lot, that on the Fourth, he’s going to toke up and see Scary Movie 2. I just called and told him that on the Fourth, we are going to toke up and see A.I.: me for the second time and him for the first.
Can’t help it: I have a soft spot for Pinocchio. I’m Italian, and one of the few really nice things my dad gave me was his copy of Pinocchio from the '20s. And one of the few really nice things he did was read it with me. So I’m reacting the way Spielberg presumably wanted me to: remembering poignant episodes of parental bonding. But usually I can’t come up with much: this movie brought something right to the surface.
In fact, that’s something I just realized about the Martin/David friction. I remembered, during the one-special day sequence, that I did have five fairly good years with my parents, between '75 and ‘80. That was the only time when I got the proper amount of attention, because their problems, and my sisters’ problems, didn’t squeeze me out.
So what I am merely inferring, but which seems logical, is that when Martin comes back, it’s not like he’s back 100%. He has braces on his legs when we first see him, for instance. He probably needed a lot of his parents’ time and attention so he could be rehabbed; plus, they must have been trying to make up to him and themselves, the things they missed doing together while he was catatonic. All this puts David on the outside; he’s downgraded from “son” to “the cute kid who helps out”. And he just has to sit there and take it.
Which makes the pool sequence sad as well as scary. “Martin, keep me safe!” Like Martin gives a damn. He was asking for help, but he ends up putting Martin in danger, so he’s out. Common pattern, you know: neglected kid’s need for reassurance just causes more problems.
Lot of Spielberg and Kubrick touches. Anyone notice a resemblance between Haley Osment and Cary Guffey?
Also, in one scene with Osment and Law, can’t remember which one did y’all notice that his voice must have started changing during production? Juuuust got in under the wire, guys! Also also, I was trolling a photo site, looking for pix of my man, Hugh Jackman, and I saw some photos of the A.I. premiere. Haley Osment has a zit. Actually a largish one and a smaller constellation. I’m not saying [Nelson Muntz]Ha-ha![/Nelson Muntz], but rather, “Thank god he has a flaw.”
Awesome score. John Williams is the man.
I kept waiting for Teddy to say “I’m…afrddd…Dvv…”
Mr. Rilch thought Martin was a jerk. I disagree. Martin was doing what boys do. There was a new kid in his house, so he messed with his mind and tried to get him crossways with the parents.
But again, boys who can peel their eyelids back, do just that, for the effect. And boys who can burp the Star-Spangled Banner, do. And boys who can drop a three-foot extended loogie…You get the idea. He was being a real boy, in a sense: they added a smartass element! “Look what I can do!” How many times have I heard that from my nephew and boys I used to babysit? 
Why did David smash the other David he met in the office? I figured since he was gonna be marketed as a child that only loves, he wouldn’t have smashed his likeness unless this was to show that he was capable of hurting a human sibling.
kasuo, he was jealous and threatened. Also angry. First Martin supplanted him, and now here’s another him! Enough! You heard him say, “I am unique!!!”
When Monica leaves him in the woods, I am reminded that "It is Margaret that you mourn for."
Number Six: 
Also, the girl robots were named Darlene. Wonder who she was. You liked Contact, eh? So did I, but there are so many who don’t. Wonder if you’ll be part of the minority or majority in not liking A.I.