@codychapman7342
Teddy being left alone forever haunted me more than anything in the movie.
@SendyTheEndless
When the nanny robot's face is melting she smiles. At first I took this as the robot not having any kind of real survival instincts, but it could also be the nannybot following its programming of providing maximum comfort to the "child" witness. There's a lot of reflections back and fourth between machines having human-like qualities and the reverse - humans being dogged in their pursuit of their own dogma.
@lostintechnicolor
I saw A.I. when it originally was released at 19 years old. I remember everyone who saw it thinking it was just Spielberg fluff. I was deeply disquieted by it and was very unsettled. The themes, the tone, all felt so strange. It will always be one of my most memorable first watch experiences in that it ended up being something much deeper than I thought it was going to be. I’ve never met anyone in person who appreciates it, or finds it as unsettling, as much I do. It’s always been QUITE the opposite, actually.
@nowaht
I found the ending to be horribly depressing. I remember feeling very disconcerted leaving the theater.
@whyjordie
I’ve watched the movie 50+ times since I was 10 years old (I’m 32 now) and I almost cried when you pointed out David putting his hands behind the moms neck in an attempt to make her imprint I never thought of that before
@georgesdelatour
I remember when I first saw A.I. the thing which really struck me was this. The film imagines the total extinction of humanity, yet it isn’t even a major element of the story.
@sammydetroit
I agree that A.I. Artificial Intelligence was shamefully underrated. The special effects alone made it worth watching, while the dark sub-themes were what made it a great movie.
@lukesimmons7332
Rob Ager + Kubrick = epic and entertaining
@odconstant
AI's final scenes are peak fridge horror. Imagine the blood-chilling existential nightmare of an artificial child so starved of affection that he accepts the illusion of his mother's clone's corpse as his sleep companion. You have to be a certified mouth-breather to think it's all Spielberg schmaltz and not Kubrick's utterly sinister deconstruction of the Pinocchio trope.
@TheBurdenOfHope
Anyone dismissing this movie as soppy or nostalgic has clearly not watched it properly. It’s so dark. From the flesh fair to abandonment to watching a timelapse of the end of our civilisation, millennia into the future, albeit off screen. I was welling up watching the CLIP of the abandonment scene. It’s so heartbreaking and despite knowing David is a robot, it’s virtually impossible to not place ourselves into that situation as if we were the person being abandoned. Excellent analysis Rob of a much under appreciated film. Also, I think the reason why the riot scene is more believable than you suggested is the fact that it’s a child and in the world the movie is set in, child robots were not yet commercially available, David was a prototype if I remember correctly. Coupled with the new development of enhanced emotions and there we have it. In my opinion, at least.
@whyjordie
Another thing about why it’s a dream sequence is when Joe is talking to David and saying “they hate us, you know. The humans. Because when the world ends we’ll be all that’s left” and I bet David never forgot that so he imagined he was the only thing alive and that’s why he dreamt about that.
@QuixEnd
The most interesting thing to me is that the very faults with his behavior due to being a robot are all parallel to human faults. His love obsession, getting stuck in a loop, listening to his false emotions to the point of ignoring all sane advice, disregarding the nature of what he is.. It almost makes you wonder if YOU are a robot. It's almost biblical or religious to an extent as well. Religion itself feels like an error in our processing yet it brings such significant meaning (I didn't write that out well but you get the idea)
@whyjordie
AI is one of my very favorite films of all time, my grandma took me to go see it when I was 10 years old and I was absolutely enthralled by it. I was also known as “the weird Pinocchio kid” growing up and took my Pinocchio doll with me everywhere, also I’m obsessed with robots, so a dark Pinocchio robot movie was right up my alley! I agree this film deserves so much more love!
@kwelchans
I haven't seen this movie in years, but I seem to remember a revelation that David's creator had a dead son who looked just like David. I thought it was disturbing that not only was this man trying to recreate his dead son, but he was also making multiple copies of him to sold en masse to the public.
@meursault7030
I always found A.I. to be a seriously unnerving film. I don't understand at all why people see it as sentimental or schmaltzy. It's horrifying.
@egoborder3203
I have to confess that I LOATHED my first viewing of this movie. A few seconds into my second viewing a few years later everything fell into place. I've come to really respect Spielberg for making this, and for me this is really special for his usual approach. The entire vibe of this movie is so different than the rest of his filmography, like he's directing the movie from a satellite. It's become a comfort movie for me
@RoshDroz
I never felt like the ending was soppy! It was all artificial and for one day only, after which he presumably died? I thought it was completely depressing how he got a strange fake version of everything he wanted so badly
@nicolesi2201
I think the fact that the opening narration about climate change was voiced by Ben Kingsley, and then the alien at the end is Ben Kingsley, kind of implies that the ending isn't a dream, it's real. Also, during the last ice age, the ice literally covered Manhattan. That is what the glacial moraines in Central Park and up by the Cloisters are.
@monacaravetta
I want to give Teddy a hug- he was abandoned. It crushed me.
@collativelearning