Mostly I just wondered why the movie was made in the first place. Sure, examining the tragedy of creating an intelligent being that cannot mature and cannot let go of emotional attachments by design is interesting… but the meandering, pointless story had like three places it could have ended and just … didn’t, finally topping it off with a ‘bittersweet’ ending that seemingly had no purpose besides to give some catharsis to the audience despite being so out of left field that it had no relation to the rest of the story. It could have been an art book showing off the scenery instead of bothering to throw an aimlessly wandering robot child into it.
Instead of a tragic - but sensible - ending, magical aliens showed up after Earth was kaput, and gave him what he wanted. There is nothing to tie this ending to the rest of the plot besides the main character, no agency involved in its happening, no nothing. It’s unsatisfying. It’s a deus ex machina, and not the good kind.
THAT I agree with but it makes sense in that the boy ironically became human through his use of emotion and experience. I would’ve preferred the bitter sweet ending. Sometimes being human IS living a life of tragedy. But they couldn’t leave that little boy at the bottom of the ocean, I get that also. Idk 🤷♂️ seems thematic just a little to “disney” fir me.
Although I agree that they couldn’t just end it at the bottom of the ocean, if it were written better it could have had an ending that actually tied into the rest of the story, rather than what it wound up with. The whole thing just felt like a lot of missed opportunities.
Watched it when it was released, completely forgot about it.
Saw it mentioned on a podcast, watched it again about two weeks ago. I can barely remember it now. The “I see dead people” kid, Jude Law, and Teddy Ruxpin look for a statue? Yeah, that sounds right.
When it was mentioned on the podcast, I mistook it for I, Robot. That’s how much I’d forgotten about the movie.
It was a movie that Kubrick and Spielberg both thought the other guy would be able to make it work. So they passed it back and forth. The scenes you think Kubrick came up with, were actually things Spielberg came up with and vice versa. “Here’s a scene you’d be the perfect director to make, you should direct this movie!” So it’s a mix between what Spielberg thought Kubrick should do and what Kubrick thought Spielberg should do.
Neither of them could make it work. But Kubrick died and Spielberg felt he had to finish it. It’s an interesting movie to see what each director wanted the other director to do, but it’s not a great movie to just sit and enjoy as a movie.
I still like the movie although it is definitely a movie I have to be in a mood for. However, after I watch the ending I realize I want the future people and technology to be a movie.
It wpuld be more interesting to reimagine the film as future archeologists discovering this story but maybe not getting it exactly right based only on artifacts. More like short stories being told through the film. It would have had the same message, characters and locations, but would have been more focused as the stories they showed would have had to be ultra relevant to the plot. Not sure if any of this makes sense.
Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Mostly I just wondered why the movie was made in the first place. Sure, examining the tragedy of creating an intelligent being that cannot mature and cannot let go of emotional attachments by design is interesting… but the meandering, pointless story had like three places it could have ended and just … didn’t, finally topping it off with a ‘bittersweet’ ending that seemingly had no purpose besides to give some catharsis to the audience despite being so out of left field that it had no relation to the rest of the story. It could have been an art book showing off the scenery instead of bothering to throw an aimlessly wandering robot child into it.
How was the ending out of left field? Feel like it was culminating to that point. But I agree with you the ending WASN’T necessary. Just a nice bow.
Instead of a tragic - but sensible - ending, magical aliens showed up after Earth was kaput, and gave him what he wanted. There is nothing to tie this ending to the rest of the plot besides the main character, no agency involved in its happening, no nothing. It’s unsatisfying. It’s a deus ex machina, and not the good kind.
THAT I agree with but it makes sense in that the boy ironically became human through his use of emotion and experience. I would’ve preferred the bitter sweet ending. Sometimes being human IS living a life of tragedy. But they couldn’t leave that little boy at the bottom of the ocean, I get that also. Idk 🤷♂️ seems thematic just a little to “disney” fir me.
Although I agree that they couldn’t just end it at the bottom of the ocean, if it were written better it could have had an ending that actually tied into the rest of the story, rather than what it wound up with. The whole thing just felt like a lot of missed opportunities.
Watched it when it was released, completely forgot about it.
Saw it mentioned on a podcast, watched it again about two weeks ago. I can barely remember it now. The “I see dead people” kid, Jude Law, and Teddy Ruxpin look for a statue? Yeah, that sounds right.
When it was mentioned on the podcast, I mistook it for I, Robot. That’s how much I’d forgotten about the movie.
It was a movie that Kubrick and Spielberg both thought the other guy would be able to make it work. So they passed it back and forth. The scenes you think Kubrick came up with, were actually things Spielberg came up with and vice versa. “Here’s a scene you’d be the perfect director to make, you should direct this movie!” So it’s a mix between what Spielberg thought Kubrick should do and what Kubrick thought Spielberg should do.
Neither of them could make it work. But Kubrick died and Spielberg felt he had to finish it. It’s an interesting movie to see what each director wanted the other director to do, but it’s not a great movie to just sit and enjoy as a movie.
I still like the movie although it is definitely a movie I have to be in a mood for. However, after I watch the ending I realize I want the future people and technology to be a movie.
It wpuld be more interesting to reimagine the film as future archeologists discovering this story but maybe not getting it exactly right based only on artifacts. More like short stories being told through the film. It would have had the same message, characters and locations, but would have been more focused as the stories they showed would have had to be ultra relevant to the plot. Not sure if any of this makes sense.
This is a great idea, actually.
It’s one of those “the right story but told the wrong way” movies. We need a fan edit!