A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) starring Haley Joel Osment, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas directed by Steven Spielberg Movie Review

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)   4/54/54/54/54/5


Haley Joel Osment in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

A.I. Ambitious Idea

In the future, when the polar ice caps have melted and technology has allowed for the creating of life like robots a technology company have taken things even further and create an artificial child with the ability to feel emotions especially towards "mother". Mother in this case is Monica (Frances O'Connor) who thanks to her husband Henry (Sam Robards) finds herself in the role of "Mother" to David (Haley Joel Osment) the first of his kind. Initially struggling with having the creepy David around Monica warms to him but then Monica's real child who had been seriously ill is cured and returns home and things become messy to the point Monica has to make a tough decision over David.

So from what I understand Stanley Kubrick had wanted to make "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" for some time but due to the limitations of technology had held back, instead talking to Spielberg about it who following Kubrick's death went ahead and made it. Now I reckon in that time the ideas were continually added as the concept of a robot child were looked at time and again leading to probably a lot of ideas to incorporate into one movie. Unfortunately that is the problem with "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" it has too many ideas and is not able to do all the ideas justice in the realist confines of a movie.

Jude Law in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

The thing is that all these ideas are good from misunderstandings, jealousy, love and so on but as I said not all of them get the attention they deserve. It almost feels like "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" was made to be thought provoking and so not everything was developed to the full extent but left to make you question and debate the whole technology / human argument. If that was the case then it works but not necessarily what you want from a movie which then ends up feeling unfinished because of the way ideas are all of a sudden stopped.

Needless to say with Spielberg in the director's chair "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" is visually beautiful and has that wow factor which Kubrick was right would not have been possible all those years earlier. But it is also brilliantly acted and whilst Frances O'Connor delivers a complete performance as a mother who becomes conflicted the star of the movie is Haley Joel Osment. Osment's young performance combines child like innocence with child like love but with that creepy robot side which makes him that little bit unnerving at the same time.

What this all boils down to is that "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" also stands for ambitious idea and it doesn't quite do all the ideas it has justice. But it is impressive from a concept point of view; through the acting right down to the visual effects and to be honest it is one of those movies which you will want to watch again because there is so much going on.


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