Lacks any intelligence or cohesion... (A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 DVDs))

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 DVDs)
Date:	31/07/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stunning back-drops and great use of CGI for someone who isn't a fan of the technique!

Disadvantages: Haley Joel Osment- could he be more annoying?

The first time I watched this I was less than impressed but I decided to give it a second chance the other day when I caught it on television during a channel-hopping exercise. The plot is basically a modern-day take on Pinnochio and doesn't really work but visually it is fairly spectacular and it is in this and this only that the film excels....

Set in the 22nd century, the film begins with Henry and Monica Swinton who are distraught when their son is placed into suspended animation until a cure can be found for the rare disease he has that is ravaging his body. Henry works for a company that designs "Mecha" or artifical intelligenced robots capable of love and emotions and suggests that he bring home their latest design, a child-like android named David, to help ease the loss. Monica, though initially reluctant, eventually agrees and soon David becomes part of their household along with his talking teddy bear companion, Teddy, who takes it upon himself to be David's guardian. After some very awkward scenes where Monica tries to adjust to David's presence, which left me as a viewer feeling quite uncomfortable too and not remotely amused as I believe they were intended, things begin to slot together for the family but then the status quo is thrown into disorder when the Swinton's child is cured and returns home! The Swinton's son Martin sees David as a threat and sibling rivalry ensues which sees Martin bully and tease David who doesn't really fully comphrehend what is happening. After an incident at a birthday party produced by a misunderstanding in communication, it is decided that David's presence has become too uncomfortable and troublesome. But rather than return him to the factory where he will be destroyed, Monica takes him to the woods and, in a distressing and emotional moment that left me feeling cold, abandons him to his own devices. David sets off, determined to track down the Blue Fairy from his bedtime stories, convinced she will make him into a real boy so that he can be loved again. Along the way he falls in with Jude Law, playing a male prostitute droid called Gigolo Joe and is hunted by Flesh Fair buccaneers; a group of modern day bandits who gather up abandoned and damaged androids for use in a battle arena where people can wager on the victors. As they escape, the pair forge an alliance and set off on what seems an impossible task....to help David discover the secrets of being human...

Normally I would like the sort of themes that are covered here ~ such as the question of what it means to be human and whether the Artifical Intelligence of the title can truly develop emotions, after all Bladerunner is one of my favourite films of all time, but this film just feels so fractured to me like a series of set-pieces that don't quite match trogether right! Haley Joel Osment is even more annoying here as David than he was in The Sixth Sense and all I wanted to do all through the film was shake him for being so helpless, wimpy and pathetic. I know that is how he is supposed to be- an android who doesn't fully understand, but really the kid is like Mcauley Culkin multiplied ten thousand for his sheer annoyingness on a running scale of irritating child actors and actresses. I could feel no empathy for any of the characters and though I tried desperately to like this film, and I did want to like it, ultimately I felt as though it was a pile of dross!

The closing act goes from the sublime to the ridiculous and, as I mentioned at the beginning, the film's only redeeming feature is in it's back-drops and special effects. The film's productioon had a troubled history, languishing i development hell for a long time before hitting the screen, and it is my opinion that Speilberg probably should've left it there. That said it was a relatively good critical and commercial success for the director so he probably doesn't much care if someone like me actively despises it!

Even Jude Law, whom I normally respect as an actor, couldn't save this for me. It is one of the biggest, longest piles of drivel that I have ever sat through and a second viewing did not leave me feeling any better about it than it the first watch seven years ago!

Thank god Haley Joel Osment seems to have disappeared from our screens since this so at least the film might have done some good...

Summary: An android resembling a child goes on a quest to discover his humanity....