Thus 2000 Years Passed (A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 DVDs))

Member Name: Pingu

Product:	A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 DVDs)
Date:	01/10/01 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great acting, Fantastic Score

Disadvantages: Very, very, very long, And boring

This is the film I spent the whole Summer waiting for. I know it's never exactly challenging, but when Steven Spielberg and John Williams team up, at least you can guarantee something that is a bit special on a pure entertainment level. You can guarantee something that pulls at your heartstrings when it's supposed to. You can guarantee something with a watertight plot, with no ridiculous devices. Basically you can guarantee a film that works.

Well apparently not. This one was an utter disaster. I mean, did Spielberg not watch it before letting it out? If you're expecting another Hook or E.T. then don't go.

From here on I will be ruining the plot, so stop if you'd rather not know.

The plot is about the experiences of a robot (or mecha, as they're called in the film) called David. He's the first mecha capable of genuine love, and also of feeling real emotions. A family buy him as a substitute for their son who is not expected to wake from a coma. But, just when the wife has decided that the arrangement is permanent and activates the non-reversible love circuits, the son does wake up after all. This creates a problem when the son turns out to be a jealous little brat, and engineers situations to get David into trouble. Eventually the family decide he's got to go, because they can't be sure he's safe, so the wife drives him to the middle of the woods and leaves him. So far so good, except that it's been very, very, very slow moving - imagine Unbreakable crossed with The Sixth Sense and about a gallon of treacle and you'll have some idea of how quickly the action unfolds.

But from this point the film just gets ridiculous. David, having read Pinocchio, believes the Blue Fairy can make him real, and that his 'mother' would then love him. So he goes looking for the Blue Fairy, and has all kinds of adventures along the way. This would be great if it were done in the innocent tone of
a children's adventure; it would be a pleasant fairy tale. But the film is in a much darker, melancholy, even adult tone, which simply doesn't match the material.

Eventually, after what seems like about three weeks, David ends up back at his maker's, and discovers that he isn't as unique as he thought. He tries to commit suicide by throwing himself into the sea. At the bottom he discovers a statue of a blue fairy, and begins praying to it to make him into a real boy. Cue narrators voice. The end.....

...I wish. Actually the film wouldn't have been quite so bad if it had ended there. In fact it would have been quite a concise plot. Instead, the narrator says, in Charlton-Heston-like-tones, "Thus 2000 years passed," and I'm thinking, I know, I've just seen the uncut version. I think I won't ruin this part. Suffice it to say it rambles on for another half hour, and descends into the ridiculous like no other film I have ever seen.


It's a real shame that the film is so dire, because several really great elements are going to waste. The acting talents of the young boy playing David, whose name I can't remember at the moment. He really is fantastic. Also John William's score was one of the best film scores I've ever heard; on a par with Empire Strikes Back. Actually, the score is so good at least partly *because* the film is so bad, rather than in spite of it. Because the film is so incredibly slow, and there are passages of up to five minutes without dialogue or action, John Williams gets to develop the music according to musical logic, rather than having to chop and change with what is happening visually; a rare occurance for a screen composer. Some of the underwater scenes are accompanied by the most gorgeous ethereal choir music, developed at some length. Don't go out and instantly buy the soundtrack though, as I'm afraid only the more boring bits made it onto the CD.
>
Anyway, great acting, fantastic music, pants film. Go see it if you need a way of being indoors for three hours.

Summary: