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The film A.I. is a film that must constantly fight against its pedigree. It was originally conceived as a film by Stanley Kubrick, the visionary directory of films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Doctor Strangelove, but, following his death, the film was picked up by Steven Spielberg. As a result, it is very difficult to watch this film without thinking of comparisons between Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. Fans of the former will almost certainly be disappointed by the film, while fans of the latter may be surprised to find a film that doesn't really fit what is typical for a Stephen Spielberg film.
Because of these complications, I'd like to just talk about the film in itself: does it work? On the whole, yes, I would say that it does. The film is unique because it doesn't largely include human characters, but instead deals with androids that have been designed with a particular purpose in mind. The two main characters are David, played by Haley Joel Osment and Gigalo Joe, played by Jude Law. The former is a boy designed as a false child for a childless couple, while the latter is, as you might have guessed, a love-bot.
What is so interesting about these characters is how they simply cannot think outside of the programming that they have. This is especially striking with Gigalo Joe, who simply cannot help himself from flirting with everyone he sees. Unlike standard characters, they cannot consider issues in normal human ways.
This raises some important anthropological issues: what are we, exactly? Just like these androids, we too have a lot of programming put in place by billions of years of evolution. Our responses to our environments would appear just as strange from the outside as these androids' responses to do us. We are programmed to love, be loved, serve and be bold, just like these androids. When we see these characters having only a part of our normal set of desires, we can see how strange they are.
I think these are the issues that Kurbrick wanted to explore. Now, it's impossible to know what he wanted. Spielberg does a good job, however, of maintaining the strangeness of the behavior of the androids, and the overall oddness has some similarities with E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Overall, this is a very thought provoking and interesting film, providing one does not become too caught up in the question of what Stanley Kubrick would have done.
About this Author
Marcus Pontecorvo, M.A. has been writing online since the mid-1990s. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Marie, and their two children. His current site is called Film Projector Rental, where he has a page about projector screen rental.
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