A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Apart from the obvious grief caused to his nearest and dearest, possibly the greatest tragedy to surface from the 1999 passing of Stanley Kubrick was that it came at a time when he had spent a decade in meticulous pre-production for his screen version of Brian Aldiss’ sci-fi novel, Supertoys Last All Summer Long, and was about to get down to the serious business.

After the great man popped his clogs, Steven Spielberg assumed control of the project that became AI, infusing the existential epic with his distinctive user-friendly blend of sentiment and new-agey spirituality, and the result is a disorienting and downright schizophrenic piece of work. Indeed, AI practically plays like two different movies: though Kubrick had passed on by the time filming commenced, the early stages are permeated with a chilling edginess that bears the master’s unmistakeable stamp. As the film progresses, however, the Spielberg touch becomes increasingly apparent, and by the end we’re in full-blown Kleenex fable territory. The suspicion remains that this is far from the movie it might have become under Kubrick’s guidance, but it’s far from awful, if a little overblown and overlong.

Currently undisputed child-actor champ Haley Joel Osment plays a ‘mecha’ (robot) child named David, randomly selected to be adopted by a miserable squabbling couple (O’Connor and Robards) whose own son languishes comatose in a hospital. Despite the kid’s peculiar origins – he’s invented by Cybertronics – and downright creepy demeanour, he develops the facility to love (ahhh!), soon forming an especially strong attachment to surrogate mom Monica. The attachment isn’t altogether reciprocated, as becomes apparent when she leads him into the middle of a woodland wilderness and deserts him.

Despite frequently mawkish undertones, there’ s enough dazzling neo-Bladerunner visual flair on offer in AI to keep it consistently entertaining, and Osment’s performance is every bit as arresting as was the case in Sixth Sense. Some of the CGI splendour on view, to be honest, is as impressive as any ever previously realised, with the imposing Vegas-styled ‘Rouge City’ a genuinely stupendous sight to behold.

Far more frustrating is the increasingly implausible trajectory of the storyline, spun out to dangerously convoluted effect as AI succumbs to the temptation to outstay its welcome: 145 minutes of this becomes a bit much for non-sci-fi freaks. [CF] HHHII