Criminally Underrated movies episode 6 - A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (film analysis by Rob Ager)

Kubrick spent over two decades developing the multilayered story of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and yet most have overlooked it as just being a piece of Spielberg sentimentality. This video will open up to you some of the movie's many layers of interpretation. You won't look at this movie the same way on your next rewatch.

Written, edited and narrated by Rob Ager of Collative Learning.

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[codychapman]

Teddy being left alone forever haunted me more than anything in the movie.

[lukesimmons]

Rob Ager + Kubrick = epic and entertaining

[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.

[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.

[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.

[egoborder]

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

[gusuc]

Empire Of The Sun is great film by Steven Spielberg. Staring a young Christian Bale, as a kid separated from his parents, trying to survive in Hong Kong under Japanese Military control, during WW II.

[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.

[oliviu-dorianconstantinesc]

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.

[johnscott]

So true...I feel its actually quite chilling film. I actually stopped a few times, filled with dread, sadness, the sheer brutal need and want to be loved and mothered, fathered ... Hansel and gretel Meets Pinocchio, with the haunting tone of kubrick, and the childlike wonder Steven brings.

[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

[asherspira]

First saw AI half a lifetime ago. I honestly find it even more disturbing the older I get, absolutely brilliant film and more relevant now than ever. That ending... Holy moly.

[davidlean]

Kubrick had been getting away with hidden meanings for decades, so it says a lot that he felt his style would 'give the game away', so to speak, in that final scene. Speilberg's ability to give his films that warm, fuzzy feeling totally cloaked the horror of the final scene. As you've explained, for David to choose to spend the rest of time with a unliving version of the woman who threw him away like trash (rather than other mecha like Joe and Teddy who do actually care for him and look out for him) is as bleak and tragic an end as there has ever been to a Kubrick film.

[nicolesi]

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.

[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)

[jeffreyadams]

Just rewatched A.I. because of Rob’s analysis. Wow. That kid could act. No one would ever guess that plot. But hearing it was originally Kubrick’s project I understand why. Interesting to notice that when I thought it was only Spielberg I was somewhat annoyed by the denouement. But hearing from Rob it was originally Kubrick I was drawn into it. Thanks for drawing attention to a forgotten gem!

[NickolaiPetrovitch]

Awesome ! My night is made, just as I got supper ready too. I got my partner into filmography through you, now I have someone to nerd with over the most minute details every night during our movie before bed. Thank you Rob! I feel so spoiled with an entire hour of content for tonight. This makes up for the rough day .