Director: Steven Spielberg
Release Date: 2001
Running Time: 2hrs 26 minutes
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 12
Format: Sky Cinema
Synopsis:
A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become real, so that he can regain the love of his human mother.
Haley Joel Osment delivers one of the most outstanding child performances of the early naughties in Steven Spielberg's deep and diverse science fiction story, A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Based on the short story "Supertoys last all summer long" by Brian Aldiss. In the near and distant future the polar ice caps have melted, the oceans have drowned out all the coastal cities of the world. The human race keeps evolving, to the point of creating realistic robots known as Mechas to serve them. One the mecha building companies designs David, an artificial child who has the ability to have real feelings for his human mother Monica. However when Monica's real son comes home from hospital, David's life begins to change rapidly.
The storyline has certainly been inspired by the popular fairytale "Pinocchio", although it sounds complex, the storyline is actually very easy to follow. Director Steven Spielberg and writer Ian Watson haven't missed a second of creating a futuristic version of the beloved fairytale. Haley Joel Osment delivers a sensational performance as David. The first of its kind, an artificial child who has the ability to love like humans do. On his adventures David meets many other Mecha's, one of whom is Gigolo Joe played tremendously by Jude Law. Both Osment and Law are fantastically robotic like in their characteristics and their physical movements. The idea to have them not blink only added more terrific characterisation to their roles.
The storyline works tremendously well because it doesn't go into great detail about Mecha, too many science fiction films make the mistake of adding too much of a backstory in the making of their machines that ends up boring audiences early on in the film. Spielberg really made sure to focus on the characters themselves, not the fact that they are robots living in a human world. Magnificently shot, the world that David and Joe live in is a almost a combination of the post apocalyptic world in "Waterworld" and "Blade Runner", if you want to dive into the storyline really deep, they could all hypothetically be linked, with the story being set in 2142 and 4142, it really doesn't sound all that impossible.
Composer John Williams delivers a beautiful score that sparks emotion and thrills audiences as they watch the story of a young robot called David search for the blue fairy in the hope that she can turn him into a human boy. Heartwarming and sweet, the story will reach out to many on an emotional level as much as it will thrill you. Although not deemed a success at the box office, it is by far one of Spielberg's most impressive and most in depth films, that will leave you walking away asking plenty of questions. Science fiction fans won't be dissapointed.
5/5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment