For me the interesting question about AI is not 'to what extent it is a sentimental or bleak retellin gof the Pinocchio' story but rather... ...'what does this film say about mankinds capoacity to love'
The film falls farily neatly into 3 acts...act 1 where HJO (the boy robot) is programmed to love (and develop deepening love) his mother beautifully juxtaposes the simple on/off nature of his emotion with the compexity of human feeling...ultimately breaking Spielberg's sentimental tendency when the boy is abandoned by his mother (more of this later).
Act 2 at the flesh fair seems unworthy of the complexity of the remainder of the film...it starts of with a polarised view of humankind as a hateful mob but again Spielberg reverts to type by providing us with an obvious sentimental device of the crowd rebelling when the boy is about to be harmed. I;ve seen this act described as Spielberg's attempt to inject a holocaust theme into the movie...perhaps this is so but I believe that would be to undermine what to me is a more important perpsective on man's inability to be humane compared to the synthetic humanity of the mechas...for me this is a central motif of the movie and is brought to a neat conclusion by the future jump in act 3 where we see the natural superiority of the mechas brought to fruition by the 'darwinian' evolutionary process.
Act 3 is a schizophrenic piece of work...melding Kubricks's tendency for a bleak and somehow vague termination with no neat ends with Spielberg's tendency for the feelgood ending. Ultimately the thematic elements of the movie discussed above are let down by Spielberg's need to reconcile the son/mother relationship, in particular the use of the evolved robots who now rule the earth as a substitute for humanity by endowing them with human sentimentality.
So...my conclusion...a movie on two levels...lots of themes entered into and not resolved hark to the Kubrick influence but with some tightening of the plot/narrative and a neat ending by Spielberg. Altogether I would say that what Spielberg adds is 'accessability' to a movie that I'm sure will develop with subsequent viewings... ...and for this Mr Spielberg...well done !
The film falls farily neatly into 3 acts...act 1 where HJO (the boy robot) is programmed to love (and develop deepening love) his mother beautifully juxtaposes the simple on/off nature of his emotion with the compexity of human feeling...ultimately breaking Spielberg's sentimental tendency when the boy is abandoned by his mother (more of this later).
Act 2 at the flesh fair seems unworthy of the complexity of the remainder of the film...it starts of with a polarised view of humankind as a hateful mob but again Spielberg reverts to type by providing us with an obvious sentimental device of the crowd rebelling when the boy is about to be harmed. I;ve seen this act described as Spielberg's attempt to inject a holocaust theme into the movie...perhaps this is so but I believe that would be to undermine what to me is a more important perpsective on man's inability to be humane compared to the synthetic humanity of the mechas...for me this is a central motif of the movie and is brought to a neat conclusion by the future jump in act 3 where we see the natural superiority of the mechas brought to fruition by the 'darwinian' evolutionary process.
Act 3 is a schizophrenic piece of work...melding Kubricks's tendency for a bleak and somehow vague termination with no neat ends with Spielberg's tendency for the feelgood ending. Ultimately the thematic elements of the movie discussed above are let down by Spielberg's need to reconcile the son/mother relationship, in particular the use of the evolved robots who now rule the earth as a substitute for humanity by endowing them with human sentimentality.
So...my conclusion...a movie on two levels...lots of themes entered into and not resolved hark to the Kubrick influence but with some tightening of the plot/narrative and a neat ending by Spielberg. Altogether I would say that what Spielberg adds is 'accessability' to a movie that I'm sure will develop with subsequent viewings... ...and for this Mr Spielberg...well done !
Tell Your Friends