AI Artificial Intelligence

 

AI Artificial Intelligence 2001

• Director: Stephen Spielberg
• Seen by this director: Ready Player One, BFG, War of the Worlds, Catch Me If You Can, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Schindler’s List, Jaws, Hook, The Colour Purple, ET, Close Contact of the Third Kind, Sugarland Express, The Duel
• Based on a short story by Brian Aldiss and screen story by Ian Watson
• Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas, William Hurt
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Haley Joel Osment – Pay It Forward, Sixth Sense, Forest Gump
• Jude Law – Black Sea, Sherlock Holmes 1&2, Hugo, Contagion, Repo Men, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sleuth, Holiday, Breaking and Entering, The Aviator, Closer, Alfie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Cold Mountain, Road to Perdition, eXistenZ, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca, Wilde
• William Hurt – Humans, Winter’s Tale, Into the Wild, Lost in Space, The History of Violence, Smoke, The Accidental Tourist
• Why? A classic, sort of. Jude Law.
• Seen: 28 May 2021      

       A future in which robots have become vital and childbirth is strictly controlled.  Professor Hobby (Hurt) invents a child robot who can love (Osment).

       By now we’re used to films and series about robots and love and AI and humanity vs machine. When this was made it was no doubt ground-breaking. Let’s see if it holds up.

       Answer: no.

       There are too many holes in the story and there is altogether too much, ‘Mommy, mommy!’

       The middle third with Jude Law in a kind of homage to Kubrick is pretty good but the first and last thirds are, as noted, way too mommy-kid sugary sweetness and it’s much too long. I don’t understand all the rave reviews. 

2* of 5