A.I. Artificial Intelligence BLOG by Benjamin Provencher, Shahrier-Monzur Hossain, Denis Mospanov, Tyler Gurberg

Movie review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Name: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Length: 2:25:50

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenwriters: Brian Aldiss, Ian Watson, and Steven Spielberg

Lead actors: Haley Joel Osment as David, Frances O’Connor as Monica, Sam Robards as Henry, Jake Thomas as Martin, and Jude Law's Gigolo Joe.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_19pRsZRiz4

Film Review

Plot summary

The movie A.I. is based in the future, where humans have abused nature, and has paid with great suffering in ecological distress. Society has grown to need robots to entertain them and do simple tasks for them, as robots do not require money, food or to be taken care of. When the movie starts, we are introduced to scientists that explain that society needs robots that will actually feel, and most of all, love; which society is lacking a lot. We then meet David, a child robot ("mecha"), which is introduced by a father who wants to incorporate David in his family; as there was a void in his family ever since his son went into a comma. David is immediately obsessed with his family, and the fondness towards David takes time to grow for Monica, his human "mother", and as she grows attached to David, the father starts to see David as a threat to his real son. Monica ends up wanting to keep David, and uses a code to make it permanent; knowing that after this, the only way to get rid of him was to destroy him. The complications arrive when the real son came out of the comma, and comes back to the family and the real son makes David feel like Monica won't love him while he is there; this is a big problem, as it tells David that his prime directive, to make the family love him, is NOT being accomplished! After an incident where David harms his human brother, Monica leads David out into the forest and abandons him, as she did not want to destroy him, as she felt it was like killing him, and she built a bond with David. While in the forest, David remembers the fairy tale of Pinocchio that Monica read to him, and concludes that his mother didn’t love him enough because he wasn’t a real boy. David sets off on a lengthy quest with a love-robot, Gigolo Joe, to find the Blue Fairy, a character from Pinocchio, in hopes that she can turn him into a real boy. After travelling to the end of the world, he finds his creator, and is told that he will never be human. David has a fit and jumps in the ocean and sees a statue of the blue fairy submerged at the bottom of Manhattan. After this, David becomes trapped directly in front of her for 2000 years while mankind goes extinct during an ice age. After this period of time, extremely advanced generation of A.I. discovers David's body and unfreezes him. They explain to him that he is the last remaining relic of what is known about humans, which was the key to life itself, as well as explaining to him that they would be able to bring back his mother, but only for a single day. After being brought back, David falls asleep and dreams for the rest of his existence about him and his family; Which was the key to life.

Sound

The soundtrack plays a crucial role in this film, adding energy and mood to different scenes. Most of the movie has an eerie tone which make the movie much darker. There are moments in the movie where there are some lighter instrumental sounds which creates a happy and funny environment. For example, in the beginning of the movie where David was playing “hide and seek” with Monic, the music had a lighter tone because of the playfulness of the scene. Another example is when David first arrive to the family it created an displeasing tone because of the uncertainty of the robot child. An important diegetic, yet still soundtrack based music that should be noted is the loud and aggressive music in dystopian scenes. Looking back to the Flesh-Fair or Rouge City, the soundtrack tends to be subtle and almost unnoticeable outside these locations. This technique is used to intimidate the audience the same way David is intimidated by those settings. Other diegetic sound can be noted throughout the film, such as sound effects and music that set specific moods for a variety of scenes.

Lighting

Steven Spielberg loves low-key lighting. The constant shadows with sharp contrasts running by the screen maintains a consistent level of eeriness in the film. Soft-focus is mostly used in the family home. Theoretically, it’s a place where one is familiar and feel comfortable to be in. David has only lived in this house for a week or so, meaning that this house is essentially foreign to him. To create that effect, soft-focus is used to make the house seem uninviting and intimidating because of the blurry effect, which is how David is treated in this house. The majority of the film employs low-key lighting till the end of the film, where the transition is made towards high-key lighting. The end of the film is set to be 2000 years later, yet the family’s home seems the same. To remind the audience of the time shift. Overly bright colours and lighting is used, giving the scenes a dream-like look.

Plot analysis

The plot was surprisingly linear for a science-fiction film. There weren’t any major plot holes and the plot line was cohesive. We found it interesting how circular structure was used in this film. For instance, in the beginning of the movie, David started off in the home of Monica and her family and throughout the course of the movie when David goes on a journey, David in the end found himself back to where he first started. Nonetheless, the conclusion was off-putting and unnecessary. Ending the movie after David is trapped at the bottom of the city facing the blue fairy would have been a fantastic ending to an odd film, yet the direction taken afterwards was questionable. The alien robot characters were terribly introduced, and unexplained/unjustified things kept happening for no apparent reason. An example of this is the blue ferry crumbling. That entire area has felt the crushing feeling of ice for 2000 years and has been later on excavated, so why is the touch of one little robot boy what disrupts the structural integrity of this ancient statue? The film ends up saving itself once again when David is reunited with Monica. This scene is extremely slow and passionate. It satisfies David with the love that he yearned and for the first time, made David seem like a lovable boy to Monica, who then loves and accepts him just as much as if he were a real boy. David finally becomes a human because he understand human emotions and he finalize his human attribute by falling asleep. A boy and not a super toy that is always on the brim on the uncanny valley.

Sets and Locations

The film starts of with a business meeting in a lab, followed by the Swinton’s home. The film ends in the same two sets as well: the laboratory and the home. This is done to show the audience how much David has learned and grown since the opening scenes. We didn’t know the lab’s existence and stood out like a sore thumb in the home. When he first discovers the lab, it is life-altering moment for him to see the other robot-boys in development. When he returns to his home at the end of the film with Monica, he actually belongs in this home now. The reason we feel this way is because Monica, in that final scene, loves and accepts him just as much as if he were a real boy, therefore David finally becomes a human part of the family and not a toy one and leading to him fitting into the home naturally.

Characters

Most of the characters in the film are static, though two are dynamic. Those two characters are David and Monica. Monica’s character development was relatively simple. She begins by being drawn as a depressed mother who is mourning the loss of her child. She is absolutely revolted by the idea that a robot can replace the image of her son. She quickly grows to enjoy David’s company. After the incident where the protagonist comes close to harming his brother, Monica has assigned so much moral value to this robot that the separation is heartbreaking for her. David’s character development is a little bit more complex. It can be argued that he is in fact static. All he wants to become throughout the film is to become a real boy, yet he never achieves that. On that level, he is in fact static.  What makes him a dynamic character is the way he has evolved emotionally throughout the film. He was introduced as a simple machine, yet he learned how to act more lovable to be accepted by his family. Professor Hobby highlights David’s development at the end of the film: desire. He may not have the anatomy of a real boy, yet he has mentally developed into one. Emotions were programmed into him; yet desire is something that he himself developed.  That on it’s own is enough to make him as close as possible to a real boy and as well classify him as a dynamic character.

Strengths

The film has various aspect that helps create a more unified and coherent story. The protagonist was well thought out and very elaborate. Throughout the film, we visualized the evolution and development of a robot boy who supposedly can feel the exact same way as humans do. The various sound techniques created a more engaging environment which made it more interesting to watch and it help give life and depth to film.

Weaknesses

The main weakness that the movie had was the ending, as it was very unexpected. The film seemed to be coming to an end, yet an entirely new and unexpected chapter comes about. We believe that the movie would have been much better if they had finished it 30 minutes earlier where David meets his creator, and realizes he is not alone and was created, only to impersonate the dead son of his creator. For this, one star has been removed from the overall rating. A major hole in the the film is when during the end the of the movie when the alien robot ask for a DNA sample to recreate Monica, David presented a lock of her hair that he previously cut off. Using the the hair sample the alien robot could have created multiple versions of Monica by using one strand at a time but instead they used the entire piece. If the story would have followed that way, it would have made David’s obsession for Monica even more real than it is.

  

Connections to course material
The first connection is the idea of having a robot replace a real-life son instantly made US think of Tulpas, and how they are filling a void in people’s lives in a certain way. In both situations, a character is being created, not naturally made, and both can help with certain mental illnesses. For example, in the case of Tulpas, it was shown that they show promise in the future of treating illnesses such as schizophrenia, whereas in the case of A.I., it can potentially help people who suffer from grief from having lost a child, even though Monica exclaims near the beginning of the movie: “There is no substitute of our own son.”

The second connection is with the uncanny valley, when a robot is so human-like yet there is still something off-putting about its movement or speech, it causes human revulsion. To cross the uncanny valley, a robot must be perceived as purely human without revulsion. When David is first introduced to Monica, he fits right into the uncanny valley. He acts strangely, doesn’t sleep and doesn’t eat. This leads to Monica fearing David. David begins to become more likable, making Monica and Henry laugh with him. This was his first step to crossing the uncanny valley. The second pivotal moment to cross it was the flesh-fair. If there were something off-putting about him, everyone would have been happy with seeing him slaughtered. When the audience heard him pleading for his life, just like a human would, they perceived him as human and couldn’t bear to watch him be executed. At the end of the film, Monica loves David just as much as she does her own boy, meaning he has successfully crossed the uncanny valley.

The third connection we made has to do with the idea of consciousness, defined as the awareness or perception of an external object or something within oneself, and sentience, defined as the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. As we saw in class, it is currently impossible to create a robot who is sentient and/or conscious, and the same applies to all mechas in the film except for David. A good example of this is in the first scene when Sheila, the female mecha gets stabbed and reacts in a way that seems to be human, but when asked about her emotions towards it she did not comprehend, for she could not actually feel emotion, but only express it. This barrier is breached with the creation of David, a mecha who has the capability of feeling love, hate, anger, etc. This ability to ‘feel’ the same emotions as humans implies he is conscious and sentient, and idea that was previously thought impossible, and still remains impossible in real life.

Conclusion

To conclude, we liked the film as it was interesting and offered a visual to many ideas covered in class such as consciousness/sentience and the uncanny valley. We believe this is a common critique about the film and we have mentioned it before in class, but we believe the final 30 minutes were absolutely unnecessary. We would have much preferred a cliffhanger than a poorly written conclusion. The casting was well thought out and the acting was well performed. The last thing we would like to mention is an extremely memorably shot at the beginning of the film. When David is first brought home, Henry changes him into pyjamas. As Monica creeps by the door’s window, David’s face is broken up and refracted into multiple parallel pieces, making it seem as though he had 12 eyes. This shot set the tone for the entire film early on, supporting the already present idea of an uncanny valley with David and leaving the viewer questioning David’s supposed sentience and consciousness. The theme of the movie was Individual vs Society, as David struggles to be accepted, and loved, and must fight to be accepted and loved by his “mother”. This is shown over and over as David is pushed back and separated from his family.

Questions:

1- Why was it so important to the humans to be loved?

2- Does David really feel, or is he just programed to say that he loves?

3- What do you think the Director wanted us to learn from this movie?

Other information on the themes of the movie:

• http://motherboard.vice.com/read/when-computers-insist-theyre-alive
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computing-responsibility/

Works cited

-A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. By Steven Spielberg. Prod. Steven Spielberg. Dir. Steven

-Spielberg. Perf. Haley Osment and Frances O'Connor. 2001. ITunes. Web. 22

Oct. 2016.

-IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/>.

-A.I. Dir. Steven Spielberg. A.I. Artificial Intelligence. N.p., 21 May 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.