Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

In the maybe not-too-distant future, ocean levels have risen and swallowed the entire East Coast as well as miles of land around the world. With the decrease in habitable land and, in turn, natural resources, the government has placed restrictions on the number of children families may have, among other things. Highly advanced robots are now commonplace. This is how a certain family was chosen to host a very unique and top-secret prototype: a robot child that, supposedly, has been programmed to love. Unfortunately, would-be foster "parents" Henry and Monica didn't realize the level of commitment required of them when they agreed to this task. David, the child robot, becomes unnaturally obsessed with his new mommy. This is taken too far when David nearly kills the couple's natural human child. Fearing danger to her family, Monica drives David deep into the woods and abandons him. Here, David begins a long and frustrating quest to find the fabled Blue Fairy so he can ask her to change him into a real boy. If he is real, he reasons, Monica will love him as her son. His wish is eventually granted. Sort of. Like any decent movie of this genre, there's an unexpected twist at the end.

Artificial Intelligence was directed by Stephen Spielberg and stars Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment (the "I see dead people" kid). I remembered seeing this film in the theaters when it first came out, but didn't remember much about it other than the scene near the end where David first encounters the Blue Fairy miles beneath the ocean (curious? rent it). Wanting for a good Sci-fi movie along the lines of Super 8 or Inception, I rented it.There were many things I had forgotten: Like the circus-like robot demo derby. Or the creepy teddy bear. Or how dark the movie is (it's not Disney, that's for sure). In the end, I'm not sure how to feel about Artificial Intelligence. Parts of it genuinely disturbed me. But it was definitely something that kept me glued to the screen the entire 2+ hours. --AJB

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