# Artificial Intellignce: A.I. (2001)



## Bayleaf48 (Jun 22, 2002)

*The Film A.I*

I really enjoyed this film & was actually surprised by the ending as it wasn't how I thought that it would end, but overall I did really, really enjoy it


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## *bastet* (Jun 22, 2002)

This is really interesting! I think A.I. is one of the few films that I absolutely did not enjoy!! 

The end - too obscure, I think.

 In fact, I wouldn't value the film that bad, when it had ended with the boy being 'drowned' - although, he couldn't really die... 
But when this thinny aliens arrived, I got the feeling that the film was getting out of controll in a way... too unreal, I mean, I wouldn't wonder, if some day we'll ''use'' androids, but I do not believe, that lifeforms of whatever origin visit us someday... 

sorry - not a film for me


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## Bayleaf48 (Jun 23, 2002)

That's alright because you're BEING honest


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## *bastet* (Jun 23, 2002)

I'll always do so...


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## Bayleaf48 (Jun 24, 2002)

That is good :rolly2:


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## Dave (Jun 28, 2002)

> _Originally posted by *bastet* _
> *I wouldn't wonder, if some day we'll ''use'' androids, but I do not believe, that lifeforms of whatever origin visit us someday...*



I thought that the "Thinnies" were just superior androids.

This was my take anyhow:

 David the android boy moves in with a couple to replace their sick son, stored in a cryogenic chamber. The real son is then cured and friction results in the family home. The parents get scared when the simulcrum son could have drowned the real son. They are forced to send the Mecha son to be dismantled. So, like "Pinocchio", he goes on a long journey hoping to find his "Blue Fairy," who can make his dream of being a real boy come true. 

But wait, I could smell a hint of "The Wizard of Oz" in there too:

Firstly, to find the fairy (Good Witch), he makes a long journey with fellow Mecha Gigolo Joe, who cannot love like he does (the Tin Man without a heart), and Teddy (Cowardly Lion), to the Rouge City (Emerald City), where they finally get to ask their questions to Dr. Know (who lives in a room remarkably similar to the Wizard), in the hope that he might one day go home (Kansas.)

Under a (global-warming) submerged New York of the future, complete with Twin Towers, he finds his "Blue Fairy" in a fairground ride. (This was the Stanley Kubrick ending apparently.)

Steven Speilberg has him wait another 2000 years (batteries must have improved, especially the Teddy's), until advanced robots who had never known humans thaw him out of the ice (global-cooling). They use manipulation of the space-time continuum to allow him to spend one last perfect day with his mother.

They revere him as their only remaining link with humans.

I agree, I think I much preferred the 'first' ending. I still think that it was an excellent film, but much too long.

The film seemed to be in 3 distinct parts:

The first part was the boy trying to be human, the human boy-android boy interactions, and it was interesting. 

The second part was a Bladerunner/ Mad Max view of the future where robots were worthless non-entities, and made a striking chord with the affluent lfestyle of the family at the start. The Flesh Fair was particularly horrific. 

The final part became just fantasy and in my view spoiled the rest.


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## Tabitha (Jun 28, 2002)

Great synopsis Dave - I agree with you on the ending, but I have met quite a few people who thought the ending was the best bit.  In fact I was just thinking about posting a poll about the ending the other day - I still might.

In the original Kubrick ending - do you know what happened when David found the Blue Fairy?  Or did his batteries just die at that point?  


> I thought that the "Thinnies" were just superior androids.


That seems to be a common perception - I think that is what is intended all along.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jun 29, 2002)

The fil has both it's good & bad points


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## Wingless Flyer (Jul 9, 2002)

I saw this one with my school when it was released, it wasn't bad, but not my type of film 

It made my mate cry though!


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## Tabitha (Jul 9, 2002)

*Was A.I.'s ending rubbish?*

Seems to be quite a contentious issue.  Of all the people I have discussed this movie with (quite a lot  ) there is a split right down the middle between the people who thought the final act, with the introduction of the alien robots (or not...) was the best part of the movie.

Personally I think it should have ended with David trapped underwater with the Blue Fairy.

What do you guys think?


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 9, 2002)

Made my sister cry in places aswell


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## tokyogirl (Jul 13, 2002)

i liked the ending.  david got what he wanted.  all he ever wanted in life was to be loved by his mother, and he got that.   one perfect day with his mother.


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## tokyogirl (Jul 13, 2002)

ok, first of all i really liked the ending.  when it ends with david in the bottom of the ocean, there's no closure.  david, the obvious hero, has only one flaw - unconditional love.  he has a mother who abandons him to a world where she knows he will probably be destroyed, only becuase she doesn't have the guts to take him back.  and yet he still loves her.  it's the love of a child.  all he wanted was a time to feel that love with her again.  and he got that.  i like what SS did with the ending.  kubric, in his ususally dark manner, was going to leave the film without the one thing it needed - hope.  the 'thinnies', robot, alien, or whatever now actually have a permanant example of how humans lived.  they can know about the good and the bad.  but they are able to witness the unconditional love that david  shares with his mother, and david has finally found acceptance.  i thought the ending was cool.  it did take me a little bit to get used to it,  but i really like it.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 13, 2002)

Sure was different though fromhow the rest of the film was leading up to


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 15, 2002)

The ending was Okay, but also sad aswell as he could only spend 24hrs with his Mum :crying: :crying: :crying:


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## tokyogirl (Jul 16, 2002)

but he got what he want most in life.  how many people can say that?


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## tokyogirl (Jul 16, 2002)

yeah, it did kind of throw me at first.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 16, 2002)

But is rather sad though as even though David finds out that his mother loved him, he only gets to spend 24 hrs with her


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 16, 2002)

Not many at all


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## Diamond9697 (Jul 18, 2002)

I wouldn't say it was rubbish but I do think it would have been better if he had stayed underwater with the fairy in a way.


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## Diamond9697 (Jul 18, 2002)

This flick was okay but to be perfectly honest with you I think my favorite part of the whole thing was Teddy.


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## Tabitha (Jul 18, 2002)

I loved the Teddy too - especially his voice, it just seemed so inappropriate


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## Dave (Jul 18, 2002)

Like I said this film came in three parts, and the third part didn't fit snugly with the other too, so it makes it seem disjointed and too long. I would have liked a much longer second part, cut down the first part, and cut out most of the end, leaving him at the bottom of the sea.

Teddy was unusual, and he seemed to go out of his way to protect David. Considering that he was originally a toy of David's brother I found that odd, and unexplained. I wondered if it was because they were both 'Mechas' but we never found out.


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## Dave (Jul 18, 2002)

The first & second parts of the film were Hard SF concepts, social issues and predictions of future technology. The Kubrick ending would have left you wondering what if?

The Spielberg ending gives us a happy ending, but my problem is that it became pure Fantasy. It didn't fit at all with the rest of the film, seemed to come out of no where, and was just not good enough to extend the film for the extra time. It seemed disjointed. 

So, I say OK but I'd rather it had stopped with the Blue Fairy.


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## Diamond9697 (Jul 19, 2002)

I always wondered if it was maybe because David treated him like he was a person...if you get what I mean.  For David Teddy was a friend, for his brother he was nothing more than a high tech toy.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 19, 2002)

Would well be because of both of them being mecha & also that David treated him better than his brother did


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 19, 2002)

Or prehaps evenmade it back to his mother


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## tokyogirl (Jul 19, 2002)

there's that, and i also think it was because david was so innocent.  teddy knew what the real world was like and could understand things that happened a lot better than david did.  i think he wanted to protect him from that knowledge somewhat.


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## tokyogirl (Jul 19, 2002)

no, his mother was a....well, a not nice word.

and for the ending, i guess like always i'm just a sucker for happy endings.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 21, 2002)

True David was innocent as to how the world really is & yet Teddy wasn't


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 21, 2002)

Same here as I would hate to be able to be with my Mum for only 24 hrs


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## pamie (Jul 21, 2002)

I only got to see this at the weekend and I must admit that I thought it was going to end wih David under the water with the blue fairy and teddy (how cute was he?)

I also thought it should have ended there....the ending it had didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the film..although I do understand why they did it and it was kinda sad.

But what I wanna know is..what happened to teddy..he was left all on his own without David or mother...


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## Tabitha (Jul 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Dave _
> *The first & second parts of the film were Hard SF concepts, social issues and predictions of future technology. The Kubrick ending would have left you wondering what if?
> *



Do you think that Kubrick would have ended with the Blue Fairy?  Or something different?  
I wonder what exactly in this film is due to Kubrick's influence - and how might it have differed if Kubrick had made the film as intended.


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## tokyogirl (Jul 23, 2002)

kubrick would have at least ended with the blue fairy, if not something darker.  he liked things dark.

and i think david probably lived out the rest of his days, or eternities, with the 'thinnies'.  he finally had a place to belong.

my question is what happens if you buy one of those kids, and then.....well,  then what?  they're a kid 4ever?


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## tokyogirl (Jul 23, 2002)

wonder if teddy was preowned?


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 23, 2002)

WE'll never know & that part has been left up to the viewers to decide for themselves


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 23, 2002)

The ending is sttrange & has had amny people who have seen it wondering why it ended like that


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## tokyogirl (Jul 23, 2002)

couldn't tell ya...


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 23, 2002)

Same here & it sure has made interesting coversation where I work


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## Dave (Jul 23, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Tabitha _
> *
> 
> Do you think that Kubrick would have ended with the Blue Fairy?  Or something different?
> I wonder what exactly in this film is due to Kubrick's influence - and how might it have differed if Kubrick had made the film as intended. *



This what I have read, I don't know if it is true or not, but if you take his other films he does like dark endings without a complete closure. Spielberg, on the other hand, always has those 'lived happily ever after' endings, even after the darkest of films. Just look at 'Schindler's List'.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 24, 2002)

True, so maybe the ending was Speilberg's idea & the rest is pretty dark in places

So, maybe leaving David trapped there with the Blue Fairy would have been for the best


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## tokyogirl (Jul 25, 2002)

still a 'happily ever after' fan here.  don't really see anything wrong with it either


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 26, 2002)

The film just didn't lead up to that sort of ending that's all tokyo


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## tokyogirl (Jul 26, 2002)

that's true.  i'll admit that it didn't really sim to fit with the rest of the film, but i guess it's just the screenwriter in me that says 'it was their choice and accept it as part of the movie as a whole.'  if the end makes you not like the whole movie, that's one thing, but if you like the movie despite not liking a piece of it than it was still a good movie.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 28, 2002)

Well said there tokyo!

There was reasons for it to end like how it did & it's not really for us - the general public to question why the film makers chose to end it like that


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## tokyogirl (Jul 28, 2002)

sometimes one scene, or the lack of one scene, can ruin an entire movie.  but most of the time i try to just accept the bits i don't like.  just like life, things don't always go the way you want.


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## Bayleaf48 (Jul 29, 2002)

True, there's somethign behind why that particular endign was choosen over the one(s) that could have been used


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## Krystal (Dec 8, 2002)

Well, I like the ending. I personally love both happy endings and not so happy endings. But I think for this movie I totally was looking forward to the happy ending, although it wasn't exactly happy.  But definitely was the boy was looking through all the movie being love by his mother and feel like a real kid.  So I don't feel dissapointed.  

Krystal


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## Krystal (Dec 8, 2002)

I really love this movie, I have to admit that I'm one that cry in a lot of scenes with David.   The story was so cool, and sad at the same time.  I totally enjoy Jude as the Android, he do a great job.  
It was a very touching story for me personally.  

Krystal


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## tokyogirl (Dec 9, 2002)

'i'm gigolo joe. whatda ya know?'


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## tokyogirl (Dec 9, 2002)

i think the movie ended well because by the end david got everything he ever wanted.  he had one perfect day with his mother, and he finally had friends and was accepted.  what more do you need in life?


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## Krystal (Dec 9, 2002)

Yeah a perfect day wasn't so bad.  

Krystal


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## Krystal (Dec 9, 2002)

I specially like when he tells David that find him save him. You know in the show when David don't let go of him.  

Krystal


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## tokyogirl (Dec 9, 2002)

how many people can actually say they had one perfect day in their whole life?


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## tokyogirl (Dec 9, 2002)

that part was cool.  plus, you could totally see things getting to that point if we did have a bunch of robots doing human things


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## Krystal (Dec 10, 2002)

Probably right, we humans tend to let our emotions cloud us some times. And probably seen androids take our places will make us do some drastic things. Although I found it very cruel.  

Krystal


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## imported_Data (Dec 21, 2002)

*A.I.*

Anybody else seen Artificial Intelligence?


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## Tabitha (Dec 21, 2002)

Yes, I have, and lots of other people have too - we have a Spielberg forum down below were there are some chats about this interesting and beautiful film.

>>>I will move the thread there sometime in the next day so you don't wonder where it has disappeared to!


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## imported_Data (Dec 21, 2002)

Alrighty. Thank you!


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## Dave (Jan 31, 2003)

*Re: The 'Thinnies'*

I've read that it's a fairly common misconception by people that the stereotypical alien-looking 'thinnies at the end of 'A.I.' are E.T.s. 

They are definately meant to be highly evolved robots in the movie, firstly, because they are in the original book, and also because these robots (in the film) mention themselves that David is their ancient ancestor. (I guess if they were aliens a robot could still be their ancestor, but that would make the plot even more confusing.)

I think that is pretty conclusive evidence, but I still think that it's not absolutely clear in the film itself. Do you think Speilberg was being intentionally vague? 

Or, does it just add to the fact that his ending was shoddy and ill conceived?


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## Tabitha (Jan 31, 2003)

I missed the ancestor reference - but I suppose their discovery of David could be looked upon as archaeology of their own planet, rather than one they had travelled to - which is what I thought was happening.  I'll rewatch it again soon with this perspective in mind, and see if it works for me or not.


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## Cloud Strife (Mar 13, 2003)

Well since it was based on a book, thats probably the way the book ended, and I think Spielberg handled what he was given almost perfectly. And I also think that makes the movie as a whole a lot more unique then the type of ending most of us were suspecting. You just have to look at it without thinking about how wierd and stupid it seems right off the bat.


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## cyan (May 19, 2003)

I was highly disappointed in the ending of this film. I think it should have ended with David underwater with the blue fairy. It doesn't matter to me if an ending isn't happy as long as it maintains the continuity of the film. Speilberg's closure of the film just seemed to be pasted in to give the audience a sugar-coated ending.


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## little smaug (May 19, 2003)

I didn't think the ending fitted in with the rest of the film at all. And personally, it really bugs me how films _always_ seem to have happy endings. The whole film was sad, and then suddenly everything is perfect and happy?

Also, a lot of people i know who've seen the film were confused by the ending. Were the things aliens, or robots, or something in between? The ending just confused me and left me with too many questions for my liking.


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## Cloud Strife (May 24, 2003)

Well, like I said, its based on a book. Thats probably the way the book ended, so he probably didn't have much of a choice.


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## Tabitha (May 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Cloud Strife _
> *Well, like I said, its based on a book. Thats probably the way the book ended, so he probably didn't have much of a choice. *



I'm not sure about that Cloud - I know that the story was based on "Super Toys Last all Summer", by, oh, I forgotten his name, Brian something.  But I am sure that this finished product bears very little resemblance to the source material, and so much of the story seems to be typical Spielbergian obsession with relations between parents and their children that I find it hard to believe these elements were in the original story already.  On top of that, remember that this was originally a Kubrick project, who probably wouldn't have followed such a smarmy route.

....

Um, okay, inbetween writing that last paragraph I found that the entire text of the story is available online - just put a search in for "Super toys last all summer long" and you'll find it very quickly.  You'll find that is really is a very very very short story, and that most of the movie is completely imagined, not based on the source material at all.  The ending is completely fabricated.


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## Cloud Strife (May 24, 2003)

Ohhh....


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