A.I. Artificial Intelligence [Blu-ray]

"A.I. Artificial Intelligence", or "A.I.", is a Steven Spielberg American science fiction fantasy drama film, released June 29, 2001, loosely based on the 1969 short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss; hailed as one of Spielberg's best works and one of the greatest films of all time; set in a futuristic society, the film stars Haley Joel Osment as 'David', a childlike ten-year-old sentient android uniquely programmed with the ability to love who, like 'Pinocchio', wishes to become a 'real boy'; also starring William Hurt as 'Professor Allen Hobby', mastermind of A.I. and David's creator; 'Teddy', an animatronic puppet robotic teddy bear, who serves as David’s sidekick; Frances O'Connor as 'Monica Swinton', David's adoptive mother; Jude Law as 'Gigolo Joe', a true ‘love machine’ sex-toy android; and Jake Thomas as 'Martin Swinton', David's stepbrother. At the time this movie came out and was first released on DVD, I purchased the 2-disc special edition on March 5, 2002. This is a wonderful and extremely interesting movie, which I have watched many times. The story still fascinates, and it is timeless. This review discusses "spoilers" intended for viewers who have seen the movie and now contemplate its present relevance, with this recommendation to watch the film again. In today's world, more than 20 years later, I now see everything in a new light, the light of thought-provoking relevance and a message. Now that Artificial Intelligence has become a reality in the forefront of today's news, with Google's and Microsoft's recent implementations; with Turing laureates Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, and physicist Stephen Hawking and business magnate Elon Musk, and dozens of artificial intelligence experts signing open letters on artificial intelligence, calling for research on how to prevent certain potential "pitfalls"; I see in the movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" a tacit revelation of biases of which we are not even aware; elusive flaws in character, committed unwittingly, not by choice; rather, a weakness from an excess of virtue, a guilt of hubris, an overstep in limitations; and I see the concept of potential "pitfalls" in developing artificial intelligence algorithms in the same light as edified by those preeminent experts – Hawking, Hinton and Musk. Moreover, I now view notable science fiction in the light of such luminaries as Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, pub. 1871), George Orwell (1984, pub. 1949), Isaac Asimov (The Evitable Conflict and I, Robot, pub. 1950), H.G. Wells (World Brain, 1936 – 1938), and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World, pub. 1932), who's olden fiction actually imagined what you might recognize today, as giving credence to a subliminal if not an implied notion of flawed algorithm, prophetically conjured in Spielberg's "A.I.". In a recent interview, Spielberg said of artificial intelligence, "It's got me very nervous; the soul is unimaginable and ineffable; the soul cannot be created by any algorithm; it is just something that exists in all of us; and to lose that because it is being written by machines that we created... that terrifies me." The story takes place in the distant future of the 22nd century, when rising sea levels from global warming have wiped out 99% of existing cities, reducing the world's population, and mechanical (aka 'mecha') humanoid robots, capable of complex assignments but lacking emotions, have been created as replacements. The movie "AI: Artificial Intelligence" begins with the brilliant scientist 'Professor Allen Hobby' saying, "I believe that my work on mapping the impulse pathways in a single neuron can enable us to construct a mecha of a qualitatively different order. "I propose that we build a robot who can love," and he tells his Cybertronics Corp engineers, "You see, what I’m suggesting is that love will be the key by which they acquire a kind of subconscious never before achieved. An inner world of metaphor, of intuition, of self-motivated reasoning. Of dreams. "Ours will be a perfect child caught in a freeze-frame - always loving, never ill, never changing. With all the childless couples yearning in vain for a license, our little mecha would not only open an entirely new market, it will fill a great human need." Scholars write that "in the real world, an algorithm is not an objective tool; algorithms are a computer-simulated reflection of encoded human expectations; it is as human as the programmer who codes it, and humans are biased. Algorithms in the real world cannot act on their own. These algorithms are built and designed by humans, and all the input is curated, selected, and created by humans. And they bear the humans' faults. Algorithms are the literal manifestation of “playing by someone else’s rules.” So, algorithms, the underlying process of decision-making in artificial intelligence systems, are imperfect, prone to bias, and make unpredictable decisions that impact the future. The first challenge is implicit bias, which is the unconscious perceptions people have that cloud their thoughts and actions." In the introduction, rationalizing his creation of an android capable of love, Professor Hobby says, "But in the beginning, didn’t God create Adam to love him?" and this gives us a euphemistic glimpse of his hubris in the creation of an idealized love. As his creation, 'David', a ten-year-old child-like sentient android (mecha) uniquely programmed with the ability to love, becomes self-aware and self-improving, we come to see in retrospect that he is no different from his maker, that Doctor Hobby's subconscious biases are manifest in David's algorithm characteristics of love as egocentric, selfish, adaptive, and obsessive, to the detriment of all else, elusive of every virtue, not by design but by assimilation of the character flaws inherent in the implicit bias corrupting the algorithm written by his maker. David's egoism, resting solely on self-interest, is unmistakably obvious near the conclusion of his quest for love. David finds his way back to Cybertronics and, wandering about, he finds another mecha that looks just like him. Disturbed, David wildly destroys it in a confused and jealous psychopathic rage. Continuing to look around, he finds the different mechanical items that were instrumental in his creation, as well as fully-boxed 'David' and 'Darlene' units for consumer purchase. Confronting Professor Hobby upon discovery, David says, "I thought I was one of a kind," to which Hobby replies, "My son was one of a kind," a reference to modeling David in the exact likeness of Hobby's real-life son that died, "You are the first of a kind," to which David replies, "My brain is falling out," giving further evidence of the instability inherent in the algorithm written by Professor Hobby. We recognize this flawed artificial intelligence only in hindsight because we are beguiled by the illusion of unrequited love. The moral is this, "We must recognize our limits and respect them." Apropos: The name of Professor Hobby's artificial intelligence engineering firm, 'Cybertronics', has an obscure literary connotation with cryptic allusion to cognitive bias in developing artificial intelligence, raising the question of whether the movie's story is fiction or prescience. Notably, Jules Verne's 1871 classic 'Nautilus submarine' from his novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas" became a reality 80 years later in the form of the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) commissioned in 1954. There are many previously mentioned examples of so-called fiction that have become reality. More relevant is the portent of implicit or cognitive bias algorithm given by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992) in "The Evitable Conflict" and the "I, Robot" series, both published in 1950, in which the sentient artificial intelligent "Machine" reason that their necessity to humanity is to take control to protect humanity from itself. A prescient warning. One of the more interesting aspects of Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions and discoveries is that they had no real influence on future generations because they were trapped and kept hidden from everyone until hundreds of years later, after they had already been "re-discovered." He never published any of his findings because some would be considered "heresy" and "blasphemous," and others because he did not want them to fall into the wrong hands. Others because he knew they would not be possible until the far future. A precursor to what Galileo would later undergo, for Galileo was not so wise and was condemned for heresy in 1633 because the Church held that heliocentrism was a "foolish and absurd philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture." “All our knowledge hast its origins in our perceptions … In nature there is no effect without a cause … Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments … Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass.” ― Leonardo da Vinci (b. April 15, 1452, Anchiano, Italy; d. May 2, 1519, Château du Clos Lucé, Chapel of Saint-Hubert, Amboise, France) Source: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883): published by Jean Paul Richter (1883), as translated into English by Mrs. R. C. Bell and Edward John Poynter, XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

"Artificial Intelligence" is the best film of 2001. The magic melding of Kubrick and Spielberg works perfectly, bringing a haunting, touching, thought provoking, and experimental film to life. "A.I." will haunt you for days after you see it; it is a powerful film with amazing preformances, especially from the stunningly accomplished Haley Joel Osment. "A.I" will touch your emotions and bring you to the brink and perhaps over. Spielberg returned to the three act structure of "Empire of the Sun" that worked so well in his other masterpiece. The end of each act is emotionally grinding, the moments when David is abandoned by his mother or reacts to the other David robots, or the touchign ending to the final third act, will wrench you apart emotionally. "A.I." isn't content to remain constrained by emotion and disturbing images, it seriously deals with many different themes and concepts foreign to blockbuster cinema. "A.I." is that rare science fiction film that lives up to the potential of science fiction literature..."A.I." lives up to that potential, you will be thining about the film for days, even weeks and monthes afterwards. There are many themes and concepts dealt with in the film, either as asides ... or openly addressed. A scathign retoric against racism, can be found in the flesh fair sequence, human fallibility and callousness are derided by the offhand way david is dismissed. David himself displays many different human characterisics, often taking a single trait to extremes as he tries to understand and learn to be human: Especially telling are the sequences where David learns jealousy (spinach), or fear, humor, and protection (the pool scene), he also displays obsession clearly throughout the entire film. The last act of the film is so startlingly dark that most people think it is schmaltzy. It is extremly disturbing that humans will die and our creations will replace us, the way David is so carefully manipulated by them as they try to see how humans act is terrifying, but because this seems to be a happy thing for David most people mistake it for a happy 'Spielberg' ending, nothing could be further from the truth. A word should perhaps be said about fairy tales. Fairy Tales are the main motif drawing the different segments of the film together. David's Quest is inspired by a fairy tale, Pinochhio. But his journey more closely resembles _The Wizard of Oz_ with numerous references in the film to that more modern of fairy tales. The entire film is infact a fairy tale being told to a 'child' of the future. This is indeed a fairy tale for adults, it has fantastical imagery can characters, with a moral message (however as mentioned above, there is much more to the film as well). The fairy tale motif of "A.I." is one of the amazing touches that make this such a special film. Like every great Kubrick film "A.I." pushes cinema to be more. Traditional filmmaking says that you can't have three endings, you can't break your acts up so completely, you can't be so dark or say so much in a single film. Spielberg and Kubrick took all those tradtional rules and rejected them, the result was an astoundingly powerful film that by no means adheres to any specific rules of filmmaking. Spielberg has often been criticized for the artistic license he takes to make stories more cinematic, his films celebrate the human spirit (for the most part), this film is a dark departure from what he traditionally produces. Spielberg, over the past twentyfive years has delivered soem of the greatest motionpictures ever. His storytelling was always within the bounds of the 'rules' and he excelled at it; his cinematography may have had new tricks or older, obscure tricks made popular, but he was always focused on telling the best possible story. That is why his films resonate with so many people. But with "A.I." Spielberg is pushing himself in new and interesting artistic directions, he is experimenting with how that peculair canvas of film can be used to tell stories in new ways, his achievement in "A.I." only serves to illustrate that before you can break the rules, you have to know them first.

...as Gertrude Stein once said of a Hemingway story--a painting unhangable in some way. But I said nearly. Those who do not understand the Gaze, what Eisenstein or Lacan were writing about, had better clear off. This film shows us something like unto the dilemma of automobile traffic: People far too stupid to be driving can always get themselves a license. Anybody, including a tiny tot, can walk into a theatre, but there is no guarantee they will understand what is going on. People who are themselves something like artificial creations of their own egos will not "get" this at all, if they come to a creation like this expecting the gut-rushing thrills of Lethal Weapon or Die Hard. Notice, those two (now, presumably, "classic" titles) each include a measure of death. Well, no one really dies in those movies. Artificial Intelligence delivers on its title and tagline, and you will have a devil of a time figuring out what is real, what is not, and what makes you real, after all, by the end of this, if you can comprehend it at all. Even the windows go smart in this film. AI may be one of the greatest films ever made, for it takes the entire conception of cinema, from its very beginnings, as its topic. While in film school, I fiddled with a little Benji bear of my wife's, I would get it in at least one shot of every film I made. Don't you see? We have a need to project life on to things like teddy bears, so we can love them. In the cinema , one is enabled to do this. Terminator can cut off Arnold Schwarzenegger's arm, right while Arnie is pretending to be the terminator, or cut out his eye, and he is a cyborg underneath! HJ Osment can pretend to be a robot--or an animation or an animatronic device can pretend to be him. If you slow the film down, or freeze frame it, you can see that this is simply a representation. In an earlier day you could even take the film itself off the reel and look at it, frame by frame. How real is an image in gel and silver nitrate? But perhaps we, ourselves, are merely representations of our parents' DNA. They were the real people. We are virtual. All in the film, the almost perfect illusion, the simulation, of life itself. So if simulation became reflective, due to neuronal sequencing, as here, would it have an "existence"? If you were not really you, say, but a huge battery of stored memory, still thinking, still active even though your body is dead, and this memory bank still remembered all the things you had done in your life, and thought about them, as your things, and reflected on them, just as you reflect as you are reading this, would that be an identity, an existence? If things such as global warming, or nuclear war are concerns, right now, perhaps you should think of these things. And, by the way, this film does a masterful job of creating a future creation--some time far hence--in which human existence on this planet becomes challenged. You need to think about the issues this film brings to the surface. The beautiful silicon resin and fiber android beings with their nanotechnological disassembling car may never happen, you know. We may kill ourselves off before we have managed to create artificial intelligence. Visually, also, tremendous eye-candy, stunning effects, and Jude Law is absolutely brilliant in his role as Gigolo Joe. Just imagine, girls, a life-sized, musical comedy dildo. A world overcome by water, and ice. A species extinguished by its own inventiveness. God help us. Very, very good.

Thought-provoking, well-written, excellent special effects, superb acting and direction. This film is for anyone interested in AI and robots/cyborg. (Maybe we all should be.) Not a cheerful, family film. Disturbing on multiple levels. The presentation of this topic has yet to be superseded. (And it's an "old" film now!)

I've been putting off watching this film again after repurchasing on Blu-ray awhile back. Last time it was viewed I definitely added some appreciation to the overall feeling for this movie, but I couldn't remember why I had no desire to watch it again. I couldn't hardly remember how the story went, but could only remember pieces of the ending. I now remember why I may have omitted the film's overall presence from my memory, and it's because it's super depressing. This is a beautiful film, without a doubt and it can't be stated enough how good of a film it is. One wonders what could have been if Stanley Kubrick had made the film himself, or been around to oversee more of the movie in its release. It's an amazing tale that serves as a futuristic fairy tale, but also examines so many heavy and relevant topics of existence. Considering the film is anchored with a performance from a kid, it's an absolute achievement in so many ways. The CGI still holds up really well all these years later, but I found the audio to sound a bit canned in this release. I'm not sure if it's the age of the movie or the transfer, but it really was only noticeable in the scenes in the house. The acting is phenomenal with of course the fantastic performance from Haley Joel Osment that grows throughout the film, and Jude Law's perfectly executed gigolo robot that dances like he's in an old musical. Robin Williams turns in a cameo-ish performance and plenty of others pepper this Steven Spielberg gem with tons of acting talent. The special features were somewhat underwhelming, but considering that this is a DVD-era release it's not surprising. There were a few cool features but the lack of a Play All options made it a little tedious. No director's commentary or any for that matter, which is another disappointment but considering those involved is not surprising. Overall, this looked great and the scenes in the neon lit cities of the future really stick out, as well as the Flesh Fair. It's a good pickup if you're looking for a great sci-fi film that does more than flash lights and robots at you. This movie is exactly what someone like Spielberg proves you can do with a genre film like this, and that actually makes it important. This will be a classic for years to come, and plays like a PG-13 children's movie fever dream that never lets up until the very peaceful, bittersweet ending. This release does not include a DVD or digital copy. Case came in great condition.

I have been an S.F. fan all of my life, and I happen to really appreciate the work of Jude Law as an actor. The story line of a family in the "near future" who's son is alive, but gravely ill and is being kept in a state of hibernation until there's a cure, "adopt" a robotic boy which is the first to have been made that can have real feelings. The story is along the lines of a Pinocchio situation; the robotic boy loves his mother a great deal, and the family comes to "accept" him in a warm and charming manner. Things change though when their real son comes home "cured," and eventually the family chooses to abandon the robotic boy in the "wilderness." Depending on your nature and who you are, this story can be extremely heart rending, and your emotions can be taken from emotional elation to sadness and even despair. If your character is of a different "bent" this film will seem schmaltzy, overly emotional and perhaps at times too much of a fairy tale. Since I gave it 5 stars you have probably figured out I like the film. Yes, it's a fairy tale. Yes, it's a modern Pinocchio story. I grew up with stories like Pinocchio and when I watched this film for the first time, all of those heart-gripping emotions I felt as a kid watching Disney's version of the tale came back and gripped me even stronger, as all of the years that have past in between the two films have added a nostalgic yearning to the feelings. There are some really good points to how the film was done and who played some of the characters. Chris Rock was very funny in his part of an "old fashioned robot" with not long left to "live." Jude Law plays a robot by the name of Gigolo Joe (who knows all the right moves, and aims to please) that accompanies "David," the robotic boy, after he finds his way back out of the wilderness. Between the two of them many questions are answered as the movie progresses. The roster of actors in the film is broad, varied and great. Again, if you don't care for films that tug at the emotions, then look elsewhere, otherwise this is a great film. Bob Wilson

I'd just like to start off by saying that I LOVE this movie. It's in my opinion, one of the top 100 best movies of all time. Yes, I know this movie got mixed reviews. You know why? For two reasons; 1)Because people don't get it, and 2)Because it has plot holes and problems. It's really not as complicated as people think it is. There are just some folks among us who don't know their head from a hole in the ground, and that's fine. They can go watch American Pie and leave the good stuff to us. It's SCI-FI! It's not real! Of course there will be plot holes and problems!!! But that's fine, it's not real. It's a fantasy and in SCI-FI anything can happen. That said, I'll get onto what I really thought about this movie. I came into it as a $10 DVD from Cub Foods, it'd be OKAY. For ten bucks, why not? I sat down and immediately was drawn in by the stunning acting but Haley Joel Osment, and to a lesser degree, Jude Law. Even the animatronic bear, Teddy The Super Toy, plays a vital role at some points. Plus he's really cute in a movie filled with dark/harsh futureness, and that's cool. (I actually contemplated sending Steven Spielberg and extra $20 because it was worth the full price.)Every scene just makes you question the humanity of David more and more. Is he meerly a robot(mecha)? OR does he want to become a real boy, and doesn't the fact that he wants to become a boy, make him human enough to be a boy? After all, he did many many unantisipated things, even beyond the boundaries of his programming. This is a great topic for discussion. Could we really love a robot? Yes, I believe so. If it looked and acted as wonderful and David. But is it ethical? In the grand scheme, each scene is so different and poignant with a point to make, and David's journey to find The Blue Fairy is sad and happy simultaniously. I was in tears during the last 45 minutes and during the moving 15 minute epilogue as well. Yes, it could have been cut off after the submergence scene, but I feel the epilogue really was an emotional release that was necessary and beautiful. It's excellent when movies have somewhat happy endings. This is a movie that changed me. It became a part of my emotions and the way I see the world. It's such a vision, it's a shame I (and others) stayed away this long. I'd recommend it to everyone. If you see it, and don't understand it...well, go ask your smartest looking friend. No doubt they could expound on the virtues of this destined and astonishing piece of film history, flop or not!

The movie is a masterpiece, It shows what kind of world with AI (Artificial Intelligence) can look like. It was mind shattering to think it was made in 2001. Steven Spielberg was at genius level in putting this together. The Cinematography was MAGICAL. Special Effects at it's highest form of art. The acting will blow you away (Haley Joel Osment should have won "BEST ACTOR" OSCAR) and Jude Law is astounding. I shows reality, unconditional love, a world changed by robots, global warming, scientific advances, danger & coldness of spirit and looking for "WHY" of humanity. A MASTERPIECE!!! Don't no why, but some of the widescreen movies only show 1/3 of the movie screen with 1/3 black on bottom and 1/3 on top of movie on my TV. The heads are cut off and are stretched too much. But some other wide screens I have work perfect. Don't know if the aspect ratio makes a difference??? It was manufactured in Mexico.

Il venditore è stato eccezionale. Spedizione immediata, consegna in largo anticipo rispetto i tempi stimati, ottimo prezzo. Se posso consigliargli un accortezza, gli proporrei di usare più pluriball per garantire l'integrità del prodotto. Io sono stato fortunato perchè è arrivato perfettamente intatto ma la confezione era letteralmente devastata per incuria di corrieri e servizio postale. Conoscevo già il film e ne ero assolutamente innamorato. Il cast eccezionale, la regia coinvolgente e la fotografia stimolante rendono il tutto un ottimo prodotto. Il film è importante, commovente, intenso e profondo quindi ad alcuni potrebbe risultare noioso se non disposti a goderselo ponendosi domande o trovando risposte. L'amore è il filo che collega tutto. Un amore viscerale ma che nasce...da circuiti. L'audio del DVD è molto buono ma il lavoro nella trasposizione grafica è molto mediocre, la qualità video lascia un po' a desiderare (ma questa non può essere colpa del venditore e quindi non abbassa la valutazione della recensione). Nel complesso è un titolo che merita di stare in una collezione che si rispetti.

ロボット映画の金字塔か 感情移入してしまう作品だった

Amazing film! Though, I was surprised to see the box set in French. Was returned to Amazon. Perfect for anyone who can read French I guess!

Même si le film n'est plus tout récent, j'ai vraiment apprécié.

Film magnifique et super émouvant.